Gapejarbeda
Consider the following ruinous trends in our national ethos.Instead of finding lasting solutions to our power generation challenges, what did our ruling elite do? They turned the country into the world’s dumping ground for power generators. Result? Not only is Nigeria more polluted by noise and carbon emissions from the ubiquitous generators than any other country, we now have the unenviable distinction of harvesting the highest number of deaths from carbon monoxide fumes. The Obasanjo regime threw $8 billion-$17 billion at the problem between 1998 and 2007 only to sink the country further into more darkness.
After spending over N500 billion in nearly 10 years, our urban and public highways have remained far worse than they were at the end of the civil war in 1970. Elite response? Indiscriminate importation of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs).
Similarly, following the collapse of our public water infrastructure, does not every big man now drill own bore hole for water, never mind the potential dangers of exhausting the aquifers and of releasing gaseous poisons from these wells whose waters are rarely tested for arsenic.
We let our public universities turn into meat markets. Do we fix the problem? No sir! Our elite, who can, establish private universities, others ship their children to Ghana, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UK or USA. Both our former president and former vice president, who in eight whole years of unprecedented oil revenue were unable to bring our public universities back to their former glory, did the obvious, built their own. Why not?
The latest fad in these selfish solutions to national problems is the phenomenon of armoured vehicles, with the ever-popular Toyota Camry, Mercedes-Benz S550 sedans, and large SUVs like Toyota Landcruiser and Cadillac Escalade as must-have brands. Armoured vehicles became a necessary security outfit (from the perspective of the elite) following the attempted murder of Chief Michael Ibru by Abacha’s goons in the mid-1990s. Since then, especially following the inauguration of the Fourth Republic, bullet-proof vehicles have become the choice asset among the real stakeholders’ in our republic, a reaction to our escalating crime wave and youth revolt.
Most of the on-going abductions and kidnapping for ransom are targeted at politicians and local warlords who have either cheated the increasingly mobilized, angry, unemployed and emboldened youth of their share of allocations from Abuja. It seems the only way our high chiefs of illiberalism and their returning families (from the safety of overseas hide-outs) can venture into the streets of Nigeria these days is in their armoured vehicles.
As the drumbeats of 2011 politics begin to sound, there has been a frenzied acquisition of these latest symbols of do or die politics. Even the affable Mr. Peter Obi has now joined the bandwagon and acquired two ordinary bullet proof vehicles in readiness for the impending re-election campaign war in that state of wacky politics called Anambra.
This is all crying shame for all of us, especially for our economy. But for foreign manufacturers, it is a veritable boon. The best-known beneficiary of this latest craze is Texas Armoring Corporation, an American company which is not shy to boast that its bottom line is buoyed by high-profile Nigerian government officials and key business leaders, including large multinationals and large locally-owned companies.
The executive vice-president of the company recently told a Nigerian newspaper that our clients are generally wealthy businessmen and women (MDs/CEOs), diplomats, politicians, government officials, celebrities, or other at-risk individuals. He also disclosed that the price of an order for about 100 vehicles currently being processed for Nigerian government officials ranged from $10 million – $20 million, with some vehicles costing about $400,000 – $600,000.
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To the shock of some of these Nigerian customers, the American company turned down their offer of whatever it takes to replicate the type of armour in the official vehicles of the US President, Barrack Obama, or even a carbon copy of the new presidential limousine. Why should Obama have all the fun when whole Nigerian high chief runs around in an ordinary armoured vehicle? But unlike many Nigerians, there is a line that many Americans (even the fiercely independent Texans) refuse to cross for the sake of their beloved motherland.
You do not do things to hurt your mother or your motherland. You love her (patriotism), she is your responsibility (patriotism). If she is sick or broken you do all you can to make her well (patriotism). You do not drop her and buy a new substitute mom for you and yourself, leaving out any considerations for your brothers and sisters (your fellow citizens).
And whatever you do, you do not take mom to LUTH or to any other broken public hospital long abandoned by Nigerian elite for the safety of foreign healthcare systems where people fix their own hospitals when they break down because in part, they love their motherland and, it is good economics
