TINA

It's clear as mud that Nigerians need to wake up, and fast, to the realisation that this well-trodden path of mediocrity in the management of our affairs, politically, socially and economically needs to be paved over and confined to history. If we ever will attain the glory heights that we are most definitely capable of, then this brigade of politicians need to be booted out and made to pay for the errors of their ways. In very clear terms, There Is No Alternative.

We can no longer afford to tolerate these knaves and continue to turn a blind eye to their lack of common decency, vision and compassion. Nigerians are world-renowned as highly intelligent, resourceful and resilient people, but don't these attributes amount to nothing when we are incapable of putting our house in order and arrest our slide into the backyard of viable economies? Why, with all that we have at our disposal, do our people have to go hungry? Why, with all we possess, do preventable diseases send our people to their early graves? Why, with all our endowments, can't we afford to give every single one of our children good quality education? Why do we have to continue to suffer in silence? The answer to all of these is apathy; and that is our Achilles' heel.

Reader, please ask yourself this: How many of these so-called politicians even understand the term, 'politics'? To the overwhelming majority of them, politics is all about lining their pockets with billions with scant regard for the welfare of those they pretend to serve. To them, politics is all about playing roulette with people's lives and toying with the future of our children. To them, good quality education only applies to their families; good health is their preserve; billions of Naira, dollars, etc in their bank accounts is their God-given right. In their warped logic, you have to be bad to be in politics, there's no Mr. Nice Guy in politics. What flagitiousness!
While I do not, and will never, advocate the death penalty for those found guilty of gross embezzlement of public funds, most of these politicians and public officials actually give legitimacy to the call for it. Yes, I most definitely will equate armed robbers with those who shamelessly enrich themselves to the detriment (sometimes with fatal consequences) of the general population. Their effects are not too dissimilar; corrupt politicians and armed robbers destroy lives, kill hope and encourage the weak-minded among us to follow suit.
A politician and public official that could not rob two pennies together before they got into office, can boast a plethora of houses, a fleet of cars and a dreamlike range of influence within a period of six months. Many of them employ the services of miscreants, and those they have rendered hopeless by their very actions, to kill, harass and maim opponents. All because of money, power and influence. Unless we start making examples of them by putting them away for life, with no chance of parole, they will continue to rob us dry and grind our noses in dirt.
Instead of being fecund, they fetter. Instead of making life better for us, they pile more misery on us. Isn't it time we all accepted the reality of TINA?