My two cents...

 This blog post would be addressing my Nigerian readers. It's the second day in October and some of us are still not over the embarrassing speech our president delivered yesterday. It reeked of ignorance, defiance of democracy and indirect dictatorship.

As a tradition, every independence day in Nigeria, the president comes out to address Nigerians on national TV; talk about how far we've come as an independent nation, our setbacks and also put out words of encouragement for the citizens.

There's no Nigerian who didn't feel ashamed/disappointed by this speech.

If you're a student of a federal university, then it would've really hit home. One of the most important sectors in a country that's trying to develop was overlooked like a bag of rubbish. For the past six months, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike. Not a single effort has been made by the federal government to at least show that our education is of importance to them. How can it even be, when all their children school in better countries.

It's been five years since this present government has been in power and it still deems it fit to blame its irresponsibility on the previous government which it always faulted at every given opportunity and promised to make the country better once they get into power. It's been five years and they have nothing tangible to show for it.

Our dear president clearly stated that the removal of fuel subsidy wouldn't be reversed. The funniest and maybe most painful part was him comparing this wreck, Nigeria, to countries like Dubai and Egypt, converting their currencies to naira and comparing their pump price to ours.

Given the permission to describe this, it's pure stupidity because those countries have a greatly better standard of living. Their minimum wage is able to sustain them with the amount they pay for fuel. The refusal to own up to their own failures and irresponsibility and letting their greed cloud their empathy and  human feelings is so annoying.

They say they run a democratic government but whenever aggrieved citizens go out to protest peacefully, they're harassed by police officers. Everyday, there's at least one person who has a near death encounter with SARS officers. The Special Anti Robbery Squad no longer goes after robbers, they go after innocent Nigerians.

These men are supposed to be protecting citizens, but as it is now, Nigerians are better off without them.

Last week, I saw a video of a man who was weeping over his son who was killed by these same monsters. He was in his twenties and his life was wasted, just lie that.

Isn't it only right that as president, this matter be looked into? 

      Basic necessities have become nearly unaffordable for the average Nigerian. The prices of foodstuff have been doubled and sadly, would still be increased if nothing is done as soon as possible. Everyone would agree with me that we watched the five naira denomination become useless over time.

       "Pray for Nigeria", oh yes! We do this nearly everyday. Speaking for myself, my mum makes sure she puts Nigeria in her prayers every night, and I'm convinced that many others do. I'm not in any way trying to undermine the power of prayers. What Nigeria needs now is not prayers. It's in need of critical restructuring. Right now, it is fashioned to work against every of your plans of elevation. It sends heavy rainfall when it sees that you're trying to build shelter for yourself.

      Sadly, a really large number of us don't know any other way to go about it than to talk about how we feel on social media, and the brave ones go out on the streets to protest against this wickedness.

Maybe some day, Nigeria would be great, maybe not.