Pillow 053
always be kind
I have written a lot about the American Congress and much of it has been about bad things. The last one was about a Senator who was indicted with bars of gold, cash and a luxury car found in his house. The other time, it was about Speaker McCarthy being given the “thank you, next” treatment. Well, today, we take it up another notch; there’s a Congressman who has been accused of being fraudulent. Like, proper fraud, credit card fraud, obtaining money by false pretense lying about his academic records and even changing his name. Well, his name is George Santos, or Anthony Devolder, depending on the one he tells you. You would think that a structured society like America would make it difficult for fraud actors to go mainstream but apparently, not. Read all about him here and here.
Nigeria’s political class is mainly influenced by godfathers. Godfathers call the shot and in some cases end up as Presidents. Usually, when a Governor gets closer to the end of his term in office, he tries to pick his successor; they say this is for continuity but some experts say this is to ensure continuous pillage of government resources and easy access to the State’s private jet. Well, one of such Governors handpicked a timid successor who no one knew and made him Governor, literally. It’s not even been six months since the guy became Governor and he’s already at loggerheads with his political godfather. Legend also has it that the way new godfathers are born is by fighting their old godfathers and once they win, they go ahead to become their own godfathers too. This is probably correct given that the man who installed him also became a godfather by fighting his previous godfather. No hyperlinks, just google the keywords and add “Nigeria”, and you will see it all.
Digress A
What money cannot do, more money can do. Saudi Arabia looks determined to make this the most accurate phrase of the 21st century. Upon Qatar launching a successful FIFA World Cup that made them the darling of the world, Saudi Arabia immediately announced a bid to host the 2034 World Cup. It did not seem plausible given that their neighbours had just hosted one (typically, the hosting of the World Cup is supposed to go around the various football regions (think: continents) and we have about six or seven of them). The other country that had previously indicated interest in hosting the 2034 event curiously was Australia. Now, you need to know that this is strange; strange that no other country wanted to host the 2034 edition, the prior editions are usually contested by a multitude of countries. This week, Australia pulled out leaving Saudi Arabia as the sole bidder. Some people say Saudi Arabia used Aladdin’s magic to make it happen, but I was not in the room so can neither confirm nor deny.
There’s been no coup from Africa in recent times and the ones that happened seemed to have relaxed with no one pressuring the military men to hand power back anymore. I wonder how long until a Soldier in another country notices this acceptance and then stages their own coup. Endless cycle you know. The one country where a coup may likely take place however is the ******** due to how poorly governed that country has become. Actually, I just realized that it could be a treasonable offence for me to mention the country, given that if a coup does indeed happen, I could get picked up for mentioning the name of the country so I’d rather not mention Cameroon as the country.
Digress B
Nigeria is a country whose economy is in dire straits. Inflation keeps skyrocketing and revenues keep dwindling. Most of Nigeria’s problems also seem to be manmade and not caused by any external factors. You’d think the reason why our revenues are dwindling is because there’s a global contraction but no, the reason is because the country cannot safeguard its oil pipelines from vandals and thus our oil production output has been severely weakened further reducing how much petrodollars we can earn. The country’s security agencies have all collectively failed to protect our pipelines so we had to recruit militants (or ex-militants) to secure our pipelines from their colleagues and pay them billions of dollars yearly. Militants are paid to protect our pipelines from militants for more money than they probably would have made from selling stolen crude and it still has not stopped vandalization. What a show. Tick tock.
The way the corporate ladder works is that you get to pay for your own stuff as you move through the ranks and get end up as CEO (or close) and then have the company pay for all your stuff upon paying you loads of money. So it doesn’t matter if you earn more than $30 million a year, the company will still pay your $2000 wifi and your $16,000 country club membership fee. This is essentially how it works and I liked the way this short article listed the perks that some of the top CEOs receive.
Kindness is something our security agencies seem not to understand. We see Nigerian security agencies constantly beat up and molest citizens they should protect. The other day, the EFCC carries young students from a hostel and labelled all of them as criminals publishing their full name online based on mere suspicion. Most of these boys are not up to age 25. I wonder what they think of their country today and if they feel patriotic. What the Nigerian elites do not seem to understand is that societies are largely built on common sense and patriotism else anarchy will be unleashed. The reason why there is no breakdown of law and order or th reason why one single policeman with a gun can control a multitude is not because he is powerful, it is because the crowd has common sense and a false sense of patrotism. to order. Once people abhor order, I shudder to think of the kind of society we will have.
What is the American dream? To be able to mow your own lawn. What is the Nigerian dream? To get Kwam 1 to hail you at a party. Another Nigerian dream? To not trend for bad news on online blogs.
Always True!
Miracle Roch.