verything is ugly and sordid in the land. The glass is brown at best. Litters and garbage stacked high everywhere. Roads are full of pot-holes and they lack signs. Drivers are erratic and reckless, and indiscipline and road rage are spearheaded by the various entourages of political leaders and the rich and powerful. Sirens blared and confusion takes over the road. The stand-still trapped everyone and held everybody hostage. It is not possible to go forward and impossible to go backward. But there is no fuel, gas or kerosene in the filling stations but the roads are still jammed and generators still active, spewing out black smoke and polluting the land. The land is heavily polluted on all sides - environmental pollution, corruption explosion, bomb explosion far and near, even at Police Headquarters, and the implosion of order is visible all over. This is a land flowing with milk and honey - only flowing in one direction and to a few. Welcome to man-made anarchy. There is crude oil, there is gas, there is bitumen, the land is fertile and poverty is first class here. The riverine communities overflow with crude oil and spill over with grand poverty and anarchy. The oil has eaten their land and their lives are in jeopardy. I heard they voted to reelect Uduaghan and Akpabio in Delta and Akwa Ibom States. Poverty is good, my brother and the riverine people have chosen to prolong poverty with Uduaghan and Akpabio.

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It is rumoured that the government is now producing and exporting two and a half million barrels of crude oil a day. Further rumour whispered that the crude oil is sold for a little over one hundred American dollars a barrel. It cannot be true that one barrel of our crude oil is sold for about N15, 200. I know it is not true what they say and we wonder if we should believe all the lies about the tens of millions of naira being shared by senators and legislators every month. Some people said it is true; they swore the national Assembly is the place to be if you wish to get rich quick with legislative approval to loot. Men, where do you expect such large sums of money to come from? These figures are over-exaggerated by mischief makers. Where do they think we'll get billions and billions of naira from? I know if Nigeria has such money it would have trickled down to everyone and everyone would be smiling. There may not be electricity in the land but we manage to see with the special touch provided by the oil exploration company which is flaring gas and turning night into day. Then the other day the governor sent his men here to share ten million among the people. It was a good day because I got N10, 000 that day. What a day! Beer parlours were full to capacity and the governor has promised two more breweries in the next eighteen months. Even the emissaries of the governor said the cash will now flow to our community every quarter. He said the governor is determined to make everyone happy in his own little way.

Then there is the road being built straight to Kokonbilo. Work has never stopped on that road in four years. It is a big project the governor said is dear to his heart. He said it is taking this long because he wants to make sure the construction company do a good job. Oh yes, I remember work stopped on Kokonbilo road project twice. The first time was when the state government failed to pay outstanding fees and the second when some mischievous people demonstrated that the road will actually lead to where. Such claim that the road leads to a no-man's land does not trouble me at all, because I think the government wants to set up factories right in the forest in the future.

But my brother who lives in Abuja is always complaining and taking bad of the senators and legislators. He told me yesterday when he called my mobile that there are too many cars at the place where the senators and legislators do their work. He said it is like they sell big, big cars and trucks there. He said there are so many motors like the one that brought the governor to see the road to Kokonbilo two years ago. He even said there are motors far bigger and longer than the one that brought the governor. But I told him it is possible the office of the senators and legislators is selling motor to help them make more money on the side so they can have enough money to do their work. What is wrong with the senators and legislators' office selling cars to make extra money to do their work? Only my brother said something about senators collecting money for rent and food and yet they live in government houses and eat for free at the office. I cannot believe that because I know our government will not allow them to do that, not now that the EFCC is running after every bad guy in town.

I still remember how these EFCC people finished Depriye and removed him from office as governor. People really fear the people at EFCC. They have put away many bank people who stole and even got so much money back for the banks, even the Ibru woman returned almost 20 billion naira! I did not know there is so much money in those banks - just imagine twenty billion naira recovered from one person! But my brother was still not pleased even with such good work by the EFCC people. He said EFCC is not fair to all and they do too much man-know-man to decide who they will punish and prosecute. I think my brother suffer from too much book knowledge and too much education. He reads too many meanings into things and thinks the EFCC is allowing big thieves to go unpunished even as small thieves are prosecuted again and again. I knew Alam was prosecuted, Tafa Balogun was prosecuted, SM Afolabi was prosecuted, and now Lawal is being prosecuted. But my brother kept saying there are many former governors who have not even been touched. He mentioned Dariye and also our former governor, James Ibori. He said Ibori is now in jail in London and his wife, sister, mistress and lawyer are also in jail. He asked why the EFCC never prosecuted Ibori in Nigeria. I told him maybe the EFCC have no evidence against Ibori and could not prosecute him when they have no evidence. But my brother said the London people have enough evidence about how this Ibori wired money to London and stole the property of Delta State. He added that the London police also have evidence against Dariye but Dariye ran away before he could be charged to court. If the London police have enough evidence against Dariye why is the EFCC not prosecuting him? Why is the EFCC not working with the police in London to prevent the illegal transfer of money to the United Kingdom? I still wonder where they are getting the money from. I do not think we have that much money to have anything left to steal and transfer overseas.

When I told my brother that I do not think we have that kind of money they all talk about he said I was stupid and ignorant. He said there is money in Nigeria and it is only in a few hands. He told me the politicians of today are the enemy of the people. He told me about how politicians dine and wine the nation's wealth away and travel the world. I did not even know we have a presidential fleet with at least six planes. I know the president could not be running an airline but I wonder what we need six or more planes for when we do not even have drugs in our hospitals and there are no diagnostic medical equipment and supplies in most of our hospitals. He asked me to think back about the last time our horourable senator and representative visited our village. That one was easy for me - the two men came during the last election to ask for our votes! But I just assume that they are very busy with matters of state in Abuja. My brother said I should stop fooling myself. He said most of them are busy chasing contracts and mostly absent from the parliament. Don't they take attendance at the parliament? My brother did not answer. He was too angry to respond. He is angry that he is not getting a living wage; he called his salary a suicide wage and said he and his family of six live in a two room apartment in the dirtiest part of Abuja with no water but with a colony of rats, open gutters and sewage for company.

The anger of my brother each time we speak on the phone is unimaginable. He is angry with his minister. He said his minister is a thief. I told him to keep quiet and never say that again. That made him mad and he swore at his minister; he cursed him and rained abuses on his minister. He said his minister alone has over twenty cars and trucks in his house but the man still keep five ministry vehicles with his wives and concubines. My brother told me the ministers, governors, senators and legislators gather around cash and never around ideas. He said he had to take public transport to attend an official meeting at another part of Abuja last week because the minister sent the last vehicle available to take a new girlfriend to Kaduna. My brother is pissed with the powers that be in Abuja as a whole. The last time he was sick he had to go to a corner side doctor but his minister and other politicians use the Aso Rock Clinic. The landlord of his house is also a politician and he sent my brother a notice that his rent will go up from N180, 000 to 320, 000 and has demanded two years rent. Now teachers are asking his children to bring four, five toilet rolls to school. What will a child need four or five toilet rolls for in a week? My brother said the teachers are probably selling the toilet rolls to make ends meet. He said something about a vicious cycle of greed in the land. He even spoke about one man he called Asiwaju. He said Asiwaju is bad news and worse than most former and current governors. He hates the noise the Asiwaju makes all over town. He used the word hypocritical to describe this man Asiwaju who he said owns hotels, houses, plazas and businesses all over Lagos and bank accounts in the United States. He said something about men like Asiwaju not having conscience and wonder why the EFCC has not put him away and have allowed his file with them to gather dust even when they have a mountain of evidence against him. My brother said the man is just the Asiwaju among thieves.

But I have also noticed some changes recently. When I look now I see displeased and frustrated young men and women who struggled to go to polytechnic and university and have no job and no hope. I have seen steady changes in the prices of garri, rice, bean, yam, bread, meat and fish. Even there is no fish anymore as oil spills happen regularly. Food stuff is now so expensive and no longer readily available. I cannot even remember the last time I ate bread; it is too expensive and out of the reach of people like us. I do not know where we are going now. I have not even gone to tap wine since the oil spill that happened three months ago near the swamp.