I am not sure this article is going to go down well with some people, but what a few Nigerians like or dislike cannot be over and above the interest of the larger society. And what positively interests and affects majority of fellow citizens is what always concerns us.

The succeeding generation has a lot of work to do if it plans on changing the present ugly narrative about our country, Nigeria, to a one that every patriotic compatriot  would be proud of. The simple reason being that the offsprings of the present rent seeking generation would fight tooth and nail to maintain their unearned status, financed by the proceeds ‘made’ from the Commonwealth.

I am not referring to the so called leaders of tomorrow, better known as the youth. These group is part of today, with many of them the beneficiaries, directly or indirectly, of all the ills that define today. They cannot be expected to change what they inherit from their benefactors overnight. Not a few of them would fiercely fight to keep the status quo and continue with life as usual or even above it.

The children of the wealthy, who are not limited to a particular zone, can be found in every part of the country living life in the fast lane. They could easily be identified by their style of living, as they drive flashy vehicles, keep the company of beautiful partners and dress in designer clothes with matching accessories.

The money sponsoring this ostentatious lifestyle is, as stated earlier, from the public till, which was somehow abused by those entrusted to manage it with probity for the benefit of all citizens (Commonwealth).

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a fortune made from private enterprises, or the way and manner the owners or their offspring decide to make use of it. On these shores there is more interest in frustrating private efforts that is perceived to be a threat to the personal interests of the privileged opportunists among us. 

The unfortunate efforts by some highly placed rent seeking federal government officials to frustrate the Dangote Refinery is clearly a pointer to all that which is wrong with our country, whose majority lives in poverty despite being in the midst of plenty.

The American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is said to be prosecuting a Nigerian top official of the giant oil company, the Nigerian National Oil Corporation (NNPC), for taking a bribe of over $2 million from a foreign oil company to undermine Nigeria’s economy. The offender is alleged to have a dual citizenship of Nigeria and the US, and who had also practiced law for about 30 years in the US before taking up the NNPC appointment in Nigeria.

Similarly, a recent posting on the social media of a Prom from a secondary school in the South-South geo political zone of this country says it again. Most of the students, some very young, came to the school in very expensive vehicles, big and small in the company of a well appointed member of the opposite sex.

Three persons close to a former President were alleged to have hired a British lawyer, who has been secretly negotiating with the federal government to agree to accept N25 billion out of the N75 billion they were alleged to have ‘made’ from the Commonwealth. Whether the allegations are true or not, what is hardly debatable is the fact that Nigeria is a land where a single top government official can amass stupendous amount of money that the next three generations of his immediate family cannot spend it sensibly.

Nigeria is perhaps the only rich country in the world where an ‘elected’ member of the National Assembly (NASS) ‘earns’ in one year the amount of money which 40 professors in our tertiary institutions will earn during the same period.

The Senate is seen by many Nigerians as a kind of ‘resting’ or ‘escaping’ place for top government retirees who are fearful of the anti graft agencies that might come against them for their misdemeanour in their previous assignments either as state governors or federal ministers. To be in the Nigerian Senate, one has to be in the good book of his/her state governor, and also have the money to be there.

Would the offspring of such people surrender their unearned privileges meekly? Considering the ‘inexhaustible’ resources that the country is abundantly blessed with, the transition would be anything but smooth.

Nigeria has abundant crude oil, large quantity of gas, many other in-demand minerals, such as uranium, barium, diamond, gold, iron and coal, to name some of them. In addition to the country being one of the most religious in the world, majority of its citizens wallow in poverty, with many of them leading a hand to mouth existence.

Many of us who try to ‘assist’ the less privileged, do so reluctantly, as if we are doing it under duress. That may not be the case, but the matter of using what was never legally earned to render ‘assistance’.

Another good question to ask these insatiable ‘collectors’ of what belongs to the Commonwealth, is their plan to explain its source to our creator in the next and everlasting world. Unless of course, they do not believe in that, which may explain the display of naked greed that unfortunately occupies most of their time on earth.

May Allah continue to protect us from this bug, which in no small way contributes to the backwardness of our dear country.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.