EXPENSIVE SHIT!

So much has happened since my last blog. I ordinarily try to avoid political issues but I find myself unable to keep quiet in the midst of this collective madness. Politicians have been scampering all over the space, singing the same song with the same tune. We just had electricity restored to our house after more than two days black out, yes, two days! I live in the heart of Abuja city, just about thirty minutes walk from the Aso rock presidential villa! It is very frustrating indeed. The air is polluted with the fumes of generators while noise pollution is off the scale. This is 2015. We have not had electricity for even one hour in our office this week either, generator is the norm. I am just stating my Nigerian reality. Our daily existence is powered by generators, fueled by scarcity. Surely we cannot continue this way, surely this way is unsustainable. What baffles me and actually prompted this article is the mind boggling amount of money allegedly being shared around by politicians to secure votes, and in some cases, allegedly to mop up PVCs! Our problem obviously is not lack of resources, it must be lack of faculties. Why don't our politicians (on all sides of the spectrum) utilize these resources to actually transform (that's that word) our country, build hospitals so Nigerians can stop going to India for medical treatments and in the process export billions of Naira to that lucky economy. Why don't they invest in education so Nigerians can stop paying for the privilege of our children being brain washed in far flung jurisdictions and now even being murdered in the process. Why don't they make the refineries work so Nigeria stops exporting crude oil and importing refined products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene and create employment for Nigerians in the process. Why must we continue to grow other economies at the expense of our long suffering albeit resilient people. Why must we fry garri in our back yard and then go to the next street to buy eba? Why? Why must we be so generous to other nations while our children die daily of hunger and our young people roam the the streets with scraps of paper purportly certifying their qualifications?  Even the employed barely get by with the meager wage they get paid so irregularly  in this our animal kingdom, where the minority fat cats keep crushing others with their greed induced obesity! We support so many world economies, we are the real world ATM and that's why you always see foreigners flocking into our country despite our uncomplimentary international reputation. Nigeria is a free honey pot, that's why. Otherwise, which sane people will contract out their lives to other people? Permanent voters cards PVCs, (just like crude oil refining,) ordered and made from outside Nigeria at a cost of over ninety billion Naira! Expensive shit! This is an example of the tragedy of our existence. Card readers also ordered and made from outside Nigeria, Money that could otherwise have been invested in infrastructure, electricity, hospitals, education etc. is being frittered away foolishly, all in the misguided belief that we are getting credible elections and any prize is justifiable for that purpose, I say, of all nations on earth, we are to be most pitied! After the credible elections, what next? Considering our dire developmental situation, couldn't we have used other means of bio metric compliant documents such as passports, drivers license or national identity cards instead of this useless waste called PVCs. To rub salt into our injury, we are not even guaranteed the integrity of these PVCs nor are we certain they will even be utilized. The gladiators quarrel daily as they try to out maneuver each other in the rigging game; the PVCs and card readers may yet become another white elephant project to be added to our inglorious collection. If indeed we need PVCs and must spend all that money, why not spend it within our economy? Does it mean that despite all the progress we are supposed to have made (according to all the statistics we are being fed) we are unable to produce bio-metric cards? Are we not matured enough to produce card readers even? Our young people are languishing in cyber cafes exerting youthful energies on negative activities when they could be supported in channeling their energies into useful and productive ventures such as the production of PVCs and card readers. Yes we have the 'know how', we have what it takes in terms of human  capacity but we lack infrastructure, we lack foresight and dare I say, we lack self confidence! Seeing and hearing of so much waste in the midst of so much deprivation and hunger can only be described as evil, pure evil. The amounts of money exchanging hands right now would have been better utilized to make life better for us all. Politicians do not need to go around broadcasting their achievements to us via the pages of newspapers and through comic relief because our experiences should bear witness to such achievements. Sadly despite all the propaganda, I am unable to bear witness to regular electricity supply.