A peoples dilemma......

It is with much anguish and disdain that we perceive the current political turmoil that is currently wrecking the reputation of  Rivers state as a political entity. 

What seems to be the most perturbing aspect of it is that most of it is being generated by just a few people. All to buttress their selfish interest. 

It is become a worrying situation indeed, because it does not just threaten the peace of Rivers state it is also threatening to destabilize the entire region. 

With the two most important stake holders keen on fomenting the embers of what is already a precariously poised situation the only foreseeable result is a downward spiral that could ultimately end in a state of anarchy. 

The present administration tends to be nonchalant about what people think. It is frightful to see a government being run the way the present administration is being run. It is indeed scary. It does leave much to be desired on all fronts.      

With the Presidential spokesman who seems to be constantly in a bellicose state of mind bent on treating credible questions and complaints directed at the Presidency as minor irritations, the populace is becoming disengaged from the ruling class. It has gradually becoming a parallel system. With the government attending to issues it perceives to be expedient while the worries and real everyday problems of the common man are being dismissed as superficial and somewhat exaggerated.

One could hope and pray. Its all we have done in the last four decades. We hope and we pray while the world marches on. 

A sponsored research  on the Nigerian problem is very much overdue. As an entity the Nigerian state seems to be constantly in a state of flux, there seems to be an ingrained consciousness that reaches out and corrupts any good thing that threatens to rear its head out of this convulsing pile of corruption, miss-governance, crime and  filth. 

Politicians have lost faith in the system, the middle class have no stakes in its wealth, the lower class have decided that they are beyond hope and reprieve so all we have is a perfectly poised collection and brush wood waiting for the inevitable burn fire that we are approaching.   

The current administration has no scruples about trading its soul now just to get ahead in the pols for the 2015 seat, it all means that between now and 2015 all we can hope for is a government run by a group of people whose sole aim and ambition for its people, the continent of Africa and the world at large is just to win a reelection it is scarcely credible to stand for.  

Politics played around the world is rarely free of misdeeds and corruption but then what we are experiencing in the Nigerian political demography is totally on another plain. The nonchalant manner with which business is carried out is abhorrent. It is like a skyscraper built with foundation of rotten wood. With the elite political class moving ever closer to the roof where they have their getaway helicopters at the ready. 

Everyone knows the system needs to be purged, everyone expects a revamp, everyone is aching and crying but no one seems brave enough to stand and make a difference. We all just carry on and hope a savior in the form of a powerful politicians marches on to the political scene and revamps the whole system. 

With this state of mind we are going to be waiting for a while yet. 

Rivers State is one of the largest Oil producing states in the country. Off Nigeria's 2.28 million barrels produced daily in the country Rivers state is accountable for almost 40% of this. Yet all its oil produced has amounted to almost null development to indigenous communities in the state. In comparison to the Dubai emirate with just 4 billion barrels of oil reserves it has seen almost all of its oil money ploughed back into its community transforming it into a playground for architects and financiers.

With the 10th largest confirmed deposits of crude oil in the world and the 8th largest confirmed natural gas reserve in the world Nigerians still languish in abject poverty and confusion reigns supreme. It is sad to note that the Nigerian state loses $18.2 million a day in burning off its gas reserves rather than harness it. Lacking the expertise and being constantly wary of western nations who always seem keen in locking unsuspecting developing nations into one dubious deal or another with the sole view of furthering their own gains. 

The big oil companies seems content with waiting rather than engaging in serious endeavors to curb gas flaring. While corrupt Nigerian politicians flutter around knowing fully well they are sitting on a pile of raw cash but being oblivious without the slightest of how to convert this to real money. 

We still hope and pray and believe that things would take a turn for the better.