Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BUHARI WINS‹BUT THE NIGERIA PEOPLES?

Dear Professor Vickers,

Nigerians, I mean the ordinary people like me, should have known that the office of executive president was not available for electoral contest. I asked a couple of voters earlier this week why they did not vote for new faces such as Omoyele Sowore, and they told me that "people like him are not known" in the country. "We have no option, only Buhari and Atiku were presented to us." This is the way the ordinary Nigerian sees the election. It must be the Old Brigades and their Crowd of Loyalists. No New Faces. Many Generations of Nigerians Wasted. The old music continues. Case closed.

I have cried for my country in the past and now. But I am moving on also, knowing that in my life time, no meaningful change will ever come to Naija.

Raphael

On Wed, Feb 27, 2019 at 3:57 AM Michael Vickers <mvickers@mvickers.plus.com> wrote:

Well, APC/ Buhari made it. And with over 3 million votes to spare

—pending a bit of the customary horse-trading with aggrieved losers. 

 

No reports yet on outgoing Federal incumbent losers hurrying to depart/ or already 

vanished. No word of instructions given EFCC. Better hunting perhaps after 9th March, 

State Elections, and voting verdicts on State Governors seeking re-election?  

So? 

Another four years of bonanza for Buhari associates and supporters. Another four years

of economic stagnation/ stalled development. Another four years of profound distress for the 

many skilled folk still—after nearly 60 years—trying to take Nigeria and its 195+million 

peoples forward. Basic matters—Housing/ Health/ Education/ Employment/ Infrastructure/ 

Industrial Power/ Economy/ Environment/ Law & Order. 

 

So? 

Continue to Export Crude. 

Do not Industrialise. 

Do not provide reliable Electrical Power.

Do not Diversify. 

Maintain an Import Economy. 

Including high dependence on staple foods. 

All oligarchs happy—African/ UK/ US/ Euro, et al. 

For the rest? Continued Kleptocracy and ever deeper stagnation. 

No help from UK/ or US, to sort it out. 

" …Nigeria is a Democracy. With free and fair elections. 

They are our good friends." 

And no sign of OIL drying up. 

But the Nigeria people? 

…Who? 

And the sustained crippling corruption? 

…What? 

"We repeat. Nigeria is our great and respected friend." 

So? 

When government fails? And friends prove false? 

Then Nigeria folk resort to what they have worked hard at long years before, 

In centuries past; and with increasing application since Independence; and that is

Self-reliance. 

Igbo folk are not the only people who have applied this 

Principle in a great many areas of practical activity. Nigeria folk now have 

A massive resource bank of skills; many taken forward to high competence. 

These skill banks are cross-cultural/ cross-ethnic/ cross-regional/ multi-state. 

Cyber-contact/ communication enables issues/ planning/ activity in 

All areas of business and many professions to be started up/ built/ sustained. 

As younger Nigeria folk particularly will know, a great many have already 

Forged difficult but often successful paths. External as well as internal support and 

Resources have been attracted. Many with roots deep in Tradition. Most have 

been pleased with results. 

When I first came to Nigeria in the 1960s, I was a cold, tight-buttoned, whiteman. 

Nigeria folk immediately brought amazing Light into my life. In fact what Nigeria 

Folk did was to ignite the Light I had within. And that Light has remained at the 

core of my being to the present day. It has enabled me to achieve much, and 

To contribute more than I ever thought possible. 

I say nothing more. I seek merely to remind Nigeria folk of 

That resource within, that if treated respectfully, will provide the ignition key to 

Great new achievements and contributions. 

As Prof Falola has recently noted, "Nigeria's Elections Won't Change Anything." 

What WILL change things, and in the direction of a positive and resourceful Nigeria, 

is deployment of what Nigeria folk—though few will be aware of it—possess and in 

great abundance. And that is what I have sought to emphasise in words and thoughts 

above—and what in more powerful and appropriate language my late and Great Friend, 

Prof Okon Uya referred to as, the "rocket fuel" of that root resource within—Great Light. 

Best,  Baba m

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