Nigeria: Revolution and Tooth Picking President -By Femi Oyesanya

Months ago, a picture of the Nigerian President circulated on Social Media. He was sitting in the Presidential palace after a meal, seemingly in the heaven of a teeth picking exercise. Eyes closed, barefoot and cross-legged,cleansing the grime and excess trapped in cavities. Nigerians were outraged!

The country is in chaos, Nigerians are hungry, jobless, and the insecurity situation is pandemic. It’s one mayhem after the other, relentless acts of brutal killing by Islamic terrorists, kidnapping jamboree, Fulani Herdsmen massacre, Armed Robbers or the ultra-brutal Nigerian police gunning citizens down in frequent extrajudicial killing.

Whilst Mr. President sits on an extra-luxurious leather chair, cleansing the remnant of taxpayers’ forage, Nigeriansare not safe. One can be eliminated at any time of day either by lawful or unlawful authority.

Mr. President sits cross-legged, picking teeth. The Commander in Chief of a laughing stock Army. An Army that runs out of bullets and food. An army that runs away from the battalion once confronted by a ragtag armed insurgency, but have mastered the military of killing civilians. A military that has had more triumph by turning its guns on unarmed citizens, one where Generals loot military uniform, boots and salary.

At any point in time, Nigerians can die uselessly from disease due to it’s near to nothing Health Care system.Disease that were near eradication in the 1980’s has come back to kill. The general open drainage system allows feces to mix with the water supply, to the extent that you drink running or well water at your own risk.

Nigerian water supply is a mix of urine and industrial waste. If you drink Nigerian water, you will die!

The economic situation is in shambles. Critical Infrastructure is almost nonexistent. Generators have long replaced regular electricity and a generation of Nigerians have never seen liquid milk due to lack of adequate power for household refrigeration.

Further, road accidents are a public health issue. Driving on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is like a venture tosuicide. If you drive, you die!

If you get sick in Nigeria, and go to a public or private hospital, you will not be treated until you pay. Accidents and gunshot victims are regularly denied treatment. To make matters worse, if you are treated in any of these hospitals you will die due to either the lack of adequate facilities or medicine. You pay and die! You don’t pay, you die!

The economic situation in Nigeria is a gamble of fluctuations in international prices of crude oil. Nigeria still earns 90% of it’s external revenues on crude oil dependency. Nigeria is also in huge debt, according to Forbes Magazine,“Since assuming office in 2015 President Buhari’s governments have added considerably to the nation’s debt, which now exceeds $85 billion” The anti-corruption election promises made by this tooth picking administration is also next to zero. There are next to nothing policy change to booster an effective anti-corruption regime. Corruption is more or less a Nigerian pastime. From the time you wake up till you go to bed, the activity of daily living of every Nigerian is a complement of one corruption act or the other. You either give or receive bribes or you are not a functional member of society.

The country is in turmoil, but it appears none of the character of mayhem fazes the Nigerian President. He sits comfortably on a sofa ridding his teeth of taxpayers’ feed. Ridding himself of excess trapped between cavities, while the nation is on fire. Lounging away, belching with indifference to national catastrophe. This is why the psyche of the common Nigerian is ready to revolt. The existing social order can no longer hold.

Femi Oyesanya. (oyesanyf@gmail.com)