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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Occupy Reality-You cannot Eat Your National Cake and Have it Too


Nigeria is awash with the Occupy fever. Yet, even as someone who has held a strong belief in the character of the average Nigerian, even as I have prayed for an uprising of this nature, I cannot support this current Occupy Nigeria protest in true conscience. The sole reason being that we are occupying for all the wrong reasons.

Of all things to protest, N65 fuel is the most unsustainable, most suicidal and most hypocritical because it stems from the same premise that has made our government evil and corrupt: this idea that the presence of oil somehow frees us from recognizing reality. That we can do all things through oil which strengthens us.
The reality of course, is that we cannot. For years, we have sat content to let the natural resource of the Niger-Delta be appropriated by the government and declared state property to be dispensed as the government deems fit. We did not protest. The Niger-Deltans cried foul for years, that they were not only stolen from, but their communities were defiled making it impossible for them to make their own living independent of the oil explorers, but we did not protest. Their leaders were killed for speaking, and their youths took up arms in rebellion, but we did not raise a finger. The government has been abusing the stolen wealth, for decades, we did not protest. When NNPC created the subsidy rules, and made themselves the sole decider of who gets what, we did not speak up. When ruler upon ruler flouted rules they had set up, we did not. Bode George stole billions, and was given a hero's welcome, we did not protest. GEJ voted a billion for his feeding, we did not protest. But when our sole racket in a country of racketeering, the artificially set pump price of N65 was lifted, we took to the streets.
Don't even lie about how we care about the economy, and all that hypocritical stuff. The people out there howling, are howling because they suddenly have to pay more for everything. They are screaming for money, with good governance as an after thought. That is the hypocrisy that I can no longer stand.
The Average Nigerian wants something for nothing, and worse, feels entitled to it because somewhere in Nigeria, oil is coming out of the ground. Well, lets see how much we can ignore reality and get away with it. Because the reality is, there is not enough oil, IN THE WHOLE WORLD, to feed 160 million people who do not want to demand anything from themselves. Not from their government. THEMSELVES. We are occupying Nigeria because we cannot afford to Occupy Reality. And the Divine is not okay with that.
Are  you?


3 comments:

Fragilelooks said...

i share your sentiments on this matter. its so sad that it took subsidy fo people to take to the streets. there are more serious issues that shld have taken people to the streets but instead they decided to play watch. mschewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Myne said...

Occupy reality indeed.

Realist said...

"We are occupying Nigeria because we cannot occupy Reality" Nice!!!