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How damaged Nigeria has become; A picture that speaks volume.

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The picture you see above was taking two days ago, precisely on the 15th of this month, towards the traffic light at Wuse market area in the city of Abuja. As the conveyance that i was in was approaching the traffic light, i took a long and hard look at the lying man to ascertain his state(live or dead), on noticing that he was still breathing, i reached for my phone, took a snapshot and tried putting a call through to a popular Radio Programme (Brekete Family) who usually assist in things of such nature. However the typical unsupportive Nigerian network operators jamed the mobile network and prevented me from saving a soul. On disembarking from the car, i approached the traffic police officers who were gisting at there post, pointing out to them the man who lay half-dead on the road but was amazed when they told me to go away and mind my business. I was petrified.

It thus killed my spirit to know that life in Nigeria today is less valued. There were passers-by, uniformed men and women, VIO patrol teams, individual car owners on traffic etc. and all of these people just stood by while this man wallow in pain and agony. This singular act made me to question our collective existence, human kindness, good-people-great-nation slogan and the purported transformation preached by many in our society today. It made me to wonder and ask myself if something is actually wrong with our people; whether or not we will some day get to that promised land.

Lot of developed and developing country’s citizens believe in their uniform men and women. Knowing what i know about the Nigerian uniform men and women, combined with this days incidence, i strongly doubt if i will ever have faith in them again?

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Jeff Okoroafor is a leading member of a new generation of civic advocates for government accountability and democratic change in Nigeria. The Citizen Affairs Initiative is a citizen-driven governance initiative that enhances public awareness on critical issues of service quality in Nigeria. It encourages citizens to proactively seek higher standards from governments and service providers and further establishes new discussions in communities about the standards that citizens should expect and deserve from those they have given their mandates. Jeff is the Managing Director of SetFron Limited, a multimedia development company that is focused on creative and results-driven web, mobile app, and ERP software solutions. He is the co-founder of the African Youths Advancement and Support Initiative (AfriYasi), a non-governmental not-for-profit organisation that provides tertiary education scholarship for young people from low-income homes in Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative and the United Nations World Summit Awards. A Strategic Team member of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, and a member of the National Technical Committee on the Establishment and Management of Missing Persons Database in Nigeria. Jeff holds a Bachelor and Postgraduate diploma degrees in Computer Science, and a Certificate in Public Administration from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA.

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