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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Expensive jokes of our timeoluwatosin adebomehinAnd the best comedian of our time is�.� Uh! Before now, I had thought that it was only the likes of Basket Mouth, Tee A, Julius Agwu and other stand-up comedians that could make one laugh, but sorry, I got the whole thing wrong. To my surprise, it was at the inception of this our dear democracy in 1999 that I came to realise that our dear President Olusegun Obasanjo is the best of them all. Reason? You will know and you will be convinced that I am not a partial judge to have come up with this. When a group carried out a research pronouncing Nigerians as the happiest people on earth amid suffering, they never sought the reasons behind it (my opinion) and to me, I think the happening is due to the jokes we receive from different corners and different people. Our Mr. President likes joking a lot. He jokes with policies, reforms and with the bills he sends to the National Assembly for approval. Before now, if Mr. President was invited by the media to throw more light on some pressing national issues, you would only hear Mr. President making expensive jokes on them. He often treats some vital issues with levity with the way and manner he answers such questions and this has always incurred the wrath of Nigerians. At a particular time that he was asked for reasons for the increase in petroleum products prices, he said if people could buy beer at a particular amount, they should be able to buy fuel at the increased amount. Has he forgotten that it is not every Nigerian that drinks beer? He must have forgotten that an average Nigerian earns below one dollar per day. What a shame. You know our dear President will always give us surprises. He told us it is called deregulation and ever since then, these marketers never ceased to increase prices petroleum products. They give uncertain reasons for doing that and before you knock at Mr. President�s door to ask questions, he would have travelled out of the country. Is that not a joke? He is always out of the country to settle one scuffle or make peace in other countries when his own house is on fire. Who will help him extinguish his own fire at home? Recently, when Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) was put on sale, BFI Group of the United States came up as the preferred bidder and this company offered $205 million for 77.5 per cent of government shares of the company, but Mr. President tried a joke on them and all Nigerians. He tried to give ALSCON to Rusal, a Russian company. But to his consternation, the company wanted to pay $160 million for the same number of shares. Can�t you see the margin between $205 and $160 million? The questions we should ask are: Why would he prefer Rusal to BFI? Why didn�t Rusal come for the bidding if they are interested in ALSCON and is there no hidden agenda? This privatisation of a thing is a joker. Does this not amount to playing politics with ALSCON? Does it mean that all what they have been selling are to preferred people? God will save this country. Mr. President just sent a bill to the National Assembly to checkmate the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). Why would he want that? I just have so many questions to ask Mr. President if I have the opportunity of meeting him. I think he is practicing OFN (Operation Fool Nigerians). We are not fools. We know what is going on and I know God will always fight for us. To be candid, we have been sold into the hands of slave masters that are not relenting at whipping us with the rod. We have been fooled, cheated and deprived our right enough. What should be our right has turned to privilege. We need a saviour in this country and I don�t know if he will come by 2007. Enough of these old politicians. Why are we recycling them? We know that when some things are recycled they bring out a new good product, but our recycled politicians turn out to be bad and would always want to do what will favour them. I will like to use this medium to appeal to Mr. President that he should stop amusing us with his jokes and do what will benefit the common man. The pyramid of the rich to the poor in this country is wonderful in that you find the rich very few while the majority is the poor. Because of what every Nigerian is going through, we have taken succour in God through religion. You now see pastors taking the opportunity to preach prosperity. All the prosperity of a thing has not changed the lives of many Nigerians and still they get you to sow seed of offering so that God will bless you with wealth abundantly. You don�t have to blame the pastors but blame our leaders who don�t just have us in mind. However, I will like to appeal to whoever is close to Mr. President to please intercede on our behalf by pleading with him to stop his many jokes on us and find ways of alleviating our problems. I never believed in criticising the government but sometimes, we need to tell the bitter truth. �Adebomehin wrote in from Lagos
Monday, July 19, 2004 |
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