No one will stay atop the wheel of fortune all the time. (Chinese Proverb)

Bad fathers make bad sons. (American Proverb)

Follow the river and you will find the sea. (French Proverb)

If you share your friend’s crime you make it your own. (Roman Proverb)

First deserve and then desire! (English Proverb)

If you saw what the river carried, you would never drink the water. (Jamaican Proverb)

f you haven’t read the story by Daily Independent Newspapers of Thursday October 11, 2007 titled. “Behold Nigeria’s silver spoons in the North” concerning the rich boys and girls in Abuja and some other northern cities, I strongly recommend that you do so.

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When I read it, I found the article repugnant and couldn’t actually figure out what the paper wants to achieve by publishing that trash. Nobody is envious or jealous about those kids, but, in Nigeria where poverty, ignorance and diseases are prevalent, it was un-necessary to publish the names of the sons and daughters of those that kept Nigeria in the pitiable condition it is now in. In a country where the infrastructures are in a state of decay with nobody caring to put things right, it was useless to portray as “achievers” the children of the corrupt people that have embezzled our commonwealth and used it in empowering their families only while the majority of the people that are supposed to be the really owners of the wealth are walloping in abject poverty and penuries. Look at that list; it is made up mostly of the children of corrupt retired military officers.

I wonder what the Newspaper wants to achieve by publishing the list. Does it want to tell Nigerians about the scions of the criminals who have pinned Nigeria down all these while? Does it want to make Nigerians angry so that they will react against those rogues in their midst? Does it want to make Nigerians jealous so that every other person will start looking for a way to cheat out in order to make their own children be like those of the corrupt politicians and retired military officers?

I think it was a mistake on the part of the Newspaper to put up that article, because, it wasn’t a balanced piece. Why didn’t the paper write about those from the south also? Nigeria belongs to both the north and the south, why concentrating only on the north? There must be rich kids from the south in Abuja also. Abuja belongs to all Nigerians and that the city is in the northern part of Nigeria does not make it a city for the northerners only. Did the newspaper made inquiries about how those kids acquired that wealth they are controlling?

It is a well known fact that those kids never worked even a day in their lives before acquiring those things they now have and their fathers never made the wealth bequeathed to them through lawful means. Those kids should be under no illusion that every other kid in Nigeria would want to be like any of them, but, that their fathers looted the people’s commonwealth making the kids of other parents that are not in the corridors of power to be short-changed. Those kids brandishing those wealth in Abuja and other northern cities should know that their parents never acquired those wealth passed on to them through legitimate means. Those kids should know that when the Nigerian people decide to ask their fathers to account for their collective wealth they embezzled, they (their children) will not go scout free. Those rich kids might pay for their fathers´ sins, because, they were accomplices to the crimes.

To remind them once again, those super rich kids should know that their fathers made those wealth passed on to them by defrauding Nigerians, they should understand that when Nigerians will arise to demand for what is theirs, they and their fathers will give account to the people. In as much as those kids didn’t tell their fathers to steal what that belonged to all, but, they never questioned their fathers about how they acquired such wealth, they might be the “collateral damages” when the people go for what is theirs. Nothing will stand on the way of the people in their bid to recover fully everything that belong to them.

This bequeathing of ill-gotten wealth might also be the reason why Yar´Adua has no courage to fight corruption, because, he benefited hugely from corruption. Yar´Adua declared assets worth more than N800 Million. Where and how did he acquire such wealth, if, not through his politician father and brother who was in the top echelon of the Army? Yar´Adua was a lecturer before going into politics and couldn’t have acquired such wealth from his salary alone. Those assets are part of our commonwealth embezzled by his late father and brother. The Vice-President was also a lecturer to my knowledge and for him to declare assets worth N295 million shows that he is not clean. He can’t make all that from his salary alone. Although he was a Deputy-Governor and later a Governor to one of the richest/poorest states in Nigeria, that can’t warrant him to have such assets in such a short time.

Wait a minute, Yar´Adua met with Ibori twice in New York (Guardian, Sunday October 14, 2007). Ibori do not belong to this government. What was he doing in New York while the President was in town? Why should the President meet with him in New York? Why can’t Ibori meet the President in Nigeria, but, had to travel all the way to New York for the meeting? The motive of that meeting is suspect. They are up to something. It shouldn’t have been that way. I want to also ask the relationship between the Sarakis (Olu and Bukola) of Kwara State and Yar´Adua? Why is it that the Sarakis are hanging around Yar´Adua like that? They are not giving this president breathing spaces. Bukola Saraki had to be in New York also to see the President and was in the company of Ibori. Why were Saraki and Ibori hanging around Yar´Adua in foreign land? Nigerians should prepare for hard landing as far as this government is concerned. We are in for surprises.

Whatever defence being put up by the Special Adviser (Communications) to the President as to why Ibori and Saraki met the President in New York lacks locus classicus, the defence is peripheral, non tangential and is tantamount to rhetoric and lie. They have not been telling us the truth, so nobody can believe them anymore. Why should Ibori and Saraki pay the President a courtesy call (as inferred by the Special Adviser) in New York while they are all living in Nigeria and have unrestricted access to Aso Rock round the clock? I hope the recent moves by the government to vacate the injunction granted to Ibori last week by the Federal High Court, Benin, is not an effort in futility or just to pretend to be “doing something” when in actual fact they have other plans. I hope the government is dead serious in getting Ibori to account for his deeds while in office.

This brings me to another issue entirely: David Mark seems more presidential than Yar´Adua. David Mark is always in the news than the president who is hiding behind the walls of Aso Rock as his government is slipping away from his hands as each day passes by. Mark is very loquacious, the other time, he warned India to call its citizens to order due to their bad attitudes like tax evasion, dumping of fake drugs in Nigeria and other criminal activities. Mark is making the headlines almost everyday, but, you hardly hear from the so called “servant-leader”. Mark and his deputy, Ekweremadu, will be going to the Niger Delta to see things for themselves. The President hasn’t been to Niger Delta since he was elected. It is commendable that Mark and his deputy are going there to see things first hand.

It is unfortunate that the people of the Niger Delta and other oil producing areas sleep on top of wealth (liquid gold), walking on top of wealth and are bearing the brunt of environmental degradation caused by that wealth, but, are not seeing or enjoying that wealth from their soil, while Abuja and the people there are enjoying the wealth that comes hundreds of miles away. It is regrettable that Daily Independent Newspapers published the names of some northern rich kids that got their wealth from their corrupt fathers that embezzled the wealth created mostly from the Niger Delta area and other oil producing areas, while the kids from these areas are facing a life of hopelessness and uncertainties with no jobs and bleak future.

The oil companies operating in Nigeria are milking Nigeria dry and carting away the gains and profits from our oil to their home countries while the people of Niger Delta and other oil producing areas are left with the environment catastrophes from the oil drillings. Those foreign oil companies take almost forty percent of the money made from the sales of oil; those companies are even cheating Nigeria by illegal bunkering and tax payment evasion. The other day, Oby Ezekwesili narrated how some of the oil companies avoided paying taxes, citing an instance where the government had to demand a back payment running into billion of dollars from some of the companies. The most interesting aspect of the story was when the companies were asked why they refused to pay up, they answered that “nobody asked for it”. Could you imagine that?

Those oil companies take the wealth created from Nigeria to develop their own countries the more and will not allow Nigerians to migrate to those countries that our oil is helping to sustain. Netherlands will not allow Nigerians to be in their country as many are being deported every day, but, Shell is carting away profits from Nigeria to help develop that country. United States the other day cracked down on “illegal immigrants” and most of them, Nigerians, until a court stopped that exercise, but, the American oil companies are carting away oil wealth from Nigeria that is helping in developing America the more. It is the same story with Britain, Italy, France etc.

I hope that Nigerians will now beam their searchlights on the activities of those foreign oil companies operating in Nigeria as they are defrauding Nigeria of millions of dollars everyday. Those foreign companies are leaving behind environmental hazards of enormous proportions for the oil producing areas while taking huge profits away without putting anything back to the oil producing communities. In rare cases, some of the companies sometimes show “magnanimity” by investing only an infinitesimal amount of money in some projects in those communities where they are operating. It is time to hold them accountable so that they will clean up the messes they are leaving behind their trails. Those in Abuja are saying or doing nothing, because, they are far away from the environmental hazards the oil companies are leaving behind in the oil producing communities. The ruling elites in Abuja are only interested in the money coming out from the oil explorations and don’t give a damn if the people of the oil producing areas are all wiped out by the hazards as long as the oil keeps flowing.

The American and European banks will take in stolen monies from the corrupt Nigerians that embezzled the people’s wealth, but, will not want poor Nigerians to come to their countries. If they can take in the people’s money from the corrupt officials, they should also be ready to take in the poor people following the money stolen from them. People will move to where their wealth are, so if the stealing officials dump the peoples wealth in banks in foreign countries, the people have the moral right to follow their money to those foreign countries and should be allowed in.

Those countries taking in stolen wealth in any form can only close their doors on Nigerians, if, they desist from now on from accepting the ill-gotten wealth again. When those wealth remain in Nigeria, it will help in its development and in uplifting the people from the stupefied state they have been in and when that becomes the case, the people of Nigeria might not need to leave the shores of the country again in search of “Golden Fleece” as everything will be obtainable in Nigeria. It is a dream; I hope it will come to fruition one day, when the criminals calling themselves the ruling elites must have hands off from embezzling our commonwealth.

The necessary conditions for revolution to occur in Nigeria are there and I hope the ruling elites know that. Nobody should condemn the unrests going on in the Niger Delta and other oil producing areas. “Nobody can take away what belongs to a child and tells him or her not to cry”. The problems of the Niger Delta area will soon engulf the whole of Nigeria, if, nothing is being done to ameliorate the ugly situations the people of that area and majority of Nigerians are in. The injustice must end or else something unprecedented will happen. If the aim of Daily Independent Newspapers in publishing that list is to hasten the revolution in Nigeria, then its intention is good. Every parent will like his or her children to have silver spoon in their mouths too. The wealth of Nigeria belongs to all and not the elite few and their children alone. The ruling elites should not forget that “he who makes peaceful correction of injustice impossible is creating the necessary conditions for unrest and revolution”.

To remind them once again, those rich kids that are overtly ostentatious in style should know that their fraudulent fathers will be called upon by Nigerians to explain why Nigeria makes so much money from oil, but, still there are little on the ground to show for it. Those rich kids should also know that when Nigerians ask for their wealth from those fraudulent elites, what they are now brandishing will not be spared, because, they belong to the people. If those rich kids or their fathers made that wealth through handwork and legitimate means, nobody would have complained, rather, we would have hailed them, but, in a situation where others were short-changed for them to be what they are now is unacceptable. The day of reckoning is coming for all ex-rulers, the politicians and ex-military officers, when the people will ask them to account for their stewardships, no matter where and at what level they served. When that day comes, their children will also explain how they came about the wealth they are now brandishing. No cheater will be able to buy an injunction against the wrath of the people from any court, no matter how young or old or good looking or well-connected he or she might be. Those rich kids might stand in for their fathers (if they are no more) on the day of judgement.