by Chris Bamidele

I had to settle for this title for lack of a better one, so pardon me if you think it is not fitting in any way. Now that the apology is out of the way, let’s talk patriotism and religion first before other things.

The time is 10:21 am on Sunday morning. I know I should have been in church, at least the modem I am using belong to a friend of mine who equally needs to be on the Internet but has gone to church. So, I had to use that opportunity to ask for it, so I can check my mails and do other stuff before she gets back from church.

“This guy sef, how can he not go to church and worship God who has given him brain to write and do whatever he does? Instead he is at home writing on a Sunday morning and even telling us he borrowed Internet to upload his writing. Maybe he doesn’t pay tithe sef, and that is why things are tight for him…”

This is what is going on in the mind of religious people in Nigeria, or would be going on if they read my post. I hope you get the drift. But before you crucify me for being a sinner just because I am not in church when you are, ask yourself the question. “Wetin concern me for this matter?”

Now, don’t get me wrong. Going to church is a good thing; I am a card carrying member of a very big Pentecostal church in Lagos and even a worker. But my point is, going to church to pray, sleep or check out fine girls in mini-skirts doesn’t automatically solve our problems in Nigeria, no matter what your Pastor(s) has/have told you. We are a sick Nation and we surely need more than prayers to begin the process of National healing. Prayer is good and like someone pointed out to me last week on twitter; Dr. Ben Carson before his retirement was the best neurosurgeon in America, and he prayed every time before going into the surgery room. I agreed to that fact, but I told her, prayer did not make Ben Carson the best; it was one of the things that made him who he is (You might need to read Gifted Hands). In Nigeria, the very bad ones deliberately do things to take us 50 years backward, while the good ones among us leave every other thing to chance and just pray; we contract all our problems to the Almighty, fully substituting prayers for hard-work and smart-work.

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I was on the staff bus going to the office last Friday, when we drove past one of the INEC centres where PVC were being collected, and oh boy! The crowd was massive, (And this is Calabar, I don’t want to think about what will be going on in Lagos) The lady sitting beside me noticed it too, and we got talking about it. Somewhere in the conversation I said “we always know the right things to do in Nigeria, but we simply won’t do it, we deliberately make things hard for everyone so we can profit when things don’t work”. To my surprise, she said I was an unpatriotic Nigerian who will never see anything good in Nigeria.

My jaw dropped. Where are those unpatriotic lot talking about Enugu sea… sorry airport again?

To her, whenever anyone says anything “negative” about Nigeria even when the negative is just stating the obvious, the person is not a patriotic citizen. PDP and Jonathanian think that way as well.

This is another scam to draw all the youth to PDP offering them 30% of political offices; these dudes want to make Nigeria a one party state by all means necessary – crook or hook! BEWARE! Age is not synonymous with competence, the likes of Ohimai are in the system, what have they done differently, apart from being in the ruling party and being loyal to the party?

So, during the week, the Presidency launched #BringBackJonathanIn2015. The first one I saw was from Oga Doyin Okupe himself, the self-acclaimed Presidential attack lion (cute name). I have a simple question, have we ever had a PDP president who did not attempt a second term, and even a third term? Maybe President Yar’Adua would have proved us wrong, but sadly he completed his mission before his term. So why are we acting like President Jonathan was kidnapped by the BH and we Nigerian have to rescue him before 2015? Hashtag or not, we know he is contesting in 2015, so why the pretence?

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Akaebube cracked me up with this tweet during the week.

 

Now, my question to him will be, when did Olusegun Mimiko become the most performing governor in the South-West? Before his transfer to PDP was completed, or when he was still in LP? But seriously I like Akaebube and I wish he took over Okupe’s job; that man is not on the same level with the rest of us.

Before I forget, this new hashtag in PDP is what Ohimai is promoting on his TL, #30PercentOrNothing.

This is another scam to draw all the youth to PDP offering them 30% of political offices; these dudes want to make Nigeria a one party state by all means necessary – crook or hook! BEWARE! Age is not synonymous with competence, the likes of Ohimai are in the system, what have they done differently, apart from being in the ruling party and being loyal to the party? We don’t need 30% of the youth to be in government before the country will work, we only need the right government that will create an enabling environment for the Nigerian Youth to prosper in his country. Shikena!

I have to stop here for now, it is almost 12 and the owner of this modem will soon be back from church. Hehehehe, I already laughed at myself, you can forget about yabbing me for borrowing Internet to post. Ciao! Stay patriotic.

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Chris Bamidele blogs from http://degreatest2.wordpress.com

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.