by Cheta Nwanze

While it behoves me to point out that all the sources of this information appear to be Nigerian, I’d rather focus on the huge lesson we ought to take from this development as a country. Do not put square pegs in round holes.

For those of you who may not have known, former INEC head honcho, Maurice Iwu is a pharmacologist of some renown. Obviously a lot better at his chosen profession of pharmacology, than what we imposed on him when he was appointed to the INEC leadership in 2003. We all know just how the elections he conducted went. What is beyond doubt it would seem, is that he has teamed up with a group of fellow scientists at Salix Pharmaceuticals in Raleigh, NC, USA to develop a drug called Crofelemer, which would help to treat the diarrhoea associated with HIV/AIDS. While it behoves me to point out that all the sources of this information appear to be Nigerian, I’d rather focus on the huge lesson we ought to take from this development as a country. Do not put square pegs in round holes.

However, we seem to have a problem buying square pegs in Nigeria, and all of our hoes are distinctly round, so we keep digging round holes. So square pegs in round holes it would remain for a while, which would probably explain why despite all the hoopla about our import dependent economy being irretrievably bound to that road, the Apapa-Oshodi expressway remains in a state of criminal disrepair. It would appear that the Lagos state governor wrote to the Veep in September begging for the road to be repaired, but somehow, the letter is still at the Post Office. Meanwhile, N2 trillion of yearly revenue to the FG is on the line here, but we are not interested are we?

Not being interested in anything that cannot be turned into a pocket liner is one of our huge problems around these parts. This is why our border crossings get scant attention. Harsh reality is that you can take a stroll across any of Nigeria’s land borders without any documentation as this picture of an actual border crossing suggests. On Friday, Abba Moro, Minister of the Interior informed us that there are 1,497 of these strewn across our land. Small wonder why we haven’t been swamped by illegal aliens. Oops! They have done that already, and maybe the illegal aliens are the people responsible for killing Kano lawmakers for the “paltry” sum of NGN40k. Not. We once blamed foreigners for our problems and chased them away. Now that country is doing a lot better than ours. That country is Ghana…

One of the many ways that the Ghananese have it better than us is that their schools are actually havens of academic exchange, not institutions where the students are taught how to shoot, or dodge bullets depending on which side of the fence they may reside. Back to where the fun is, and in a bit of entertainment this weekend in Lagos, two people have been killed. Eiye and KK are the combatants this time.

Bits and bobs

On of the better performing agencies of the government, NEMA, has unveiled plans to manage disasters better. Here’s wishing them well.

It appears that number portability is well and truly on its way. I won’t hold my breath until I can get rid of my rubbish cell service providers.

Former boy-wonder, Rabiu Ibrahim has been told that he will not play in the Nations Cup. He had failed to kick a ball for his former club, Glasgow Celtic this season, and has now been shoved to Kilmarnock. One wonders why he was even invited to camp in the first place. What a waste of space.

Meanwhile, the furore continues into the planned $500million loan that FAAN is alleged to have taken on behalf of local airlines. Let’s try and be a bit of a trouble maker here, would it be necessary for FAAN to even think of such a loan if Nigerian banks actually gave loans in the first place?

Have a great day.

————————-

 

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