Sir,
Thanks for your article and copious explanatiion of the landgate. We Nigerians have like the proverbial Eneka the bird become apprehensive of otherwise normal issues because of the pervasive nature of corruption in Nigeria which has coaught up with the likes of Dr Ransome Owan of NERC. May it not catch up with you in Jesus Name
Turning to Kigali, I totally agree with you that we missed an opportunity to put this country on the map to rapid development post civil war. It is after wars that nations devlelop new ideas for national development which they usually sustain given the horrible experiences of war. Europe, Japan and US all found their ways to rapid devlopment after their wars. Same with Rwanda and Angola.
In Nigeria what happened, a crass win-the-war euphoria embedded in epicureanism and materialism, took over. The elites hand in glove with the military settled for triumph of having meted out the final solution to the Igbo problem and revelled in euphoria akin to that of a serial rapist who suceeded after a long wait in raping the nubile victim of his fantasies. This state of affairs was boosted by the petro-dollars overflowing from the oil boom of the mid 70s which saw people like Gowon not only paying the salaries of some nations in Africa and the Caribbean but also declaraing that money is no longer the problem in Nigeria but how to spend it. And he did, importing all kinds of things from faeces, yes, faeces to the cement armada. The rest, are they not written in the Book of Jasher.
Today, we are actualy on the road to Kigali, ie pre-genocide
rather than on the road post genocide which involves rapid reconstruction and development.
On other post civil war missed opportunities, I do agree with you, but I know that there will be no remedial measures to be taken seeing that we are not a nation peopled by leaders with strategic ideas for national devlopment.
