After an unannounced and eventful one-month sabbatical, I have decided to return to my creaking laptop and freshen up my backlog of commentary on the state of the 'Enigma' that is Nigeria. My time away has been spent publicising my novel; 'A Candle in the Sun', travelling to Lagos and starting the draft of my second novel. Prior to the time off, I had been engaged in several verbal clashes regarding my blog entries. A few of my peers took exception to what they saw as excessive vitriol directed at our government and wondered why I hadn't cut them any slack.....so I decided to chill out with my keyboard. Alas though, things ain't really changed, so it's the return of the Hack ;-)
To be frank, it has been a refreshing, enlightening and damn right enjoyable break for most of the time. There have been lows (Liverpool throwing away the Prem), highs (Barcelona outclassing Man U!)and the odd average day (MPs getting exposed at last). As for my time in Nigeria, well, it continued to confirm some of the fears I have harboured regarding her direction, although, the greenshoots of progress - though hard to see - can be observed slowly coming through. Of course, it was difficult to ignore the decibels generated from the 'US destabilising Nigeria' palaver, saying that, it must be said that the average man on the streets, would probably welcome any kind of foreign takeover, as it could never be worse than what most are going through on a day to day basis.
I am not really sure about the efficacy of the source of the 'destabilising' rumour, but it is worth asking whether it will be such a bad idea if Nigeria was destablised (for the better)? Aside from the loss of national pride and being the victims of some international ribbing, what else could we lose? I guess the situation is quite clear-cut; if those given the manadate(?) to rule Nigeria continuously fail and those of us who are their subjects, refuse to do anything about it, then, is it not viable to let a proven state like the US take over? For one, it will be a million miles more transparent and symbiotic, when compared to the ridiculous situation we have found ourselves with the Chinese! We speak the same language to a large extent, we share a federal system of governance and our legal and democratic structures are not dissimilar. Definitely less takeaways for sure!
Okay, on the downside, we will become a rather big 52nd state (actually, isn't that position already taken by the UK?), but hey, who cares as long as we have a strong armed forces that can protect the nation and kick the hell out of the Niger Delta millitants. Now, couple that with uninterrupted electricity, constant water suppy and a booming economy?
In the end, isn't that what we all really want?
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