Are We Developing?

ARE WE DEVELOPING?

Nigeria is developing

So we hear everyday

In the 9 O’ clock news on our blurred T. V

Yet thousands of citizens

Are in the streets dying of hunger.

Numerous children are picking food

From the refuse dumps just to survive.

Are we developing?

We hear with our ears that

Billions and trillions of naira and dollars

Are devoted and spent

On white elephant projects

Whose effects none have seen

Or whose impact none has felt.

So I dare to ask

Are we developing?

Our roads are sure death sources

Killing us in our hundreds and tens

If not daily, it is weekly even monthly.

But I know unfailing every year

Are casualties on our major

And innumerable minor roads.

Yet in the daily news

We hear of non fulfilled promises

Of repairs and construction of roads.

Where are they? Have you seen any? I ask.

Yet, Are we developing?

NEPA, takes power at will

Many industries have died as a result of this.

Three years in my area have we

Been in NEPA inflicted darkness.

Everyday, we continue to hope and pray

That it will be returned to us,

Our transformer that was taken away

Away by the almighty NEPA to be repaired

But “Long shall your wait be,” saith NEPA.

Outrageous are the bills they bring,

And people are being electrocuted

On a daily basis, why?

Because live NEPA wires are

Either dropping at an arm’s length

Waiting to be touched by anybody

Vehicle or even a toddling child.

Or have already descended on houses’ rooftops

Causing hot untimely death

For the occupants of the ill fated houses.

You call NEPA, they answer not!

Are we developing?

Lecturers go on strike at anytime,

Students study under duress and stress

Teachers are unpaid,

Civil servants work for free

Retirees’ pensions are lost.

Where they are paid,

It is untimely and commensurate

Not with their efforts.

Their children are sent home

From their schools.

Their clothes are threadbare

Some are even ragged.

They collapse, or even die on queues

Cos they want to collect their entitlements.

In fact the whole educational sector

And civil service is in utmost shamble.

Where are the allocations and pensions?

Where are the Petroleum Interventions?

I am tempted to ask.

So, Are we developing?

Inflation rate is on the high side,

Goods and foodstuffs are increasing in price,

The common man suffers for it

He pays the tax he knows nothing about,

After paying that which is due

To the unyielding government from his income.

Are we developing?

Banks declare huge profits

Year after year

And they translate to nothing

On the nation’s economy but

Add to our suffering tales.

Are we developing?

Robbers are having a field day

Policemen and women are on their heels

When they hear the sound of the guns

Of the men and women of the underworld.

Those that dare, end up

Paying with their beloved and sacred lives!

What do their families get in return

For their utmost gallantry in service

To their beloved fatherland,

A paltry sum and so called

State burial with a procession and coffin

Covered with the green and white flag.

Is that all that should be given

To those with whom our lives are entrusted?

Someone answer please...

Are we developing?

Business minded individuals

Who wish to establish themselves are scared.

Some have no capital

And when they dare approach a bank

Collateral which they have not

Is the deciding factor, hence they go

Back home having nothing in their hands.

Those that squeeze and drain to establish

Are often exploited and sent packing

By the government through insensitively

Exorbitant and backbreaking taxes

For a business which is yet

To stand on its feet.

Are we developing?

Graduates are churned out of varsities

 On a yearly basis with little hope for the future.

Some of them dare the unemployment scourge

And face the farmlands.

But lo and behold!

The lands are either sold to high handed capitalists,

Turned to high costing estates or

Have been seized up by the government for its use

Mostly wasteful ventures.

What do these budding minds do?

An idle mind being the devil’s football pitch,

In a bid to survive,

Most take to the easy hard way of life

And become hardened criminals.

Are we developing?

Prisons are meant to be reformation centres

But Nigerian prisons are destruction centres.

When in the house,

Inmates are sparsely fed and clothed,

When they leave the den,

No provision is made for their return.

So, to survive,

These returnees return to their former lives

With reinforced and renewed zeal plus expertise.

Are they to blame?

Therefore I ask for the umpteenth time,

Are we developing?

© Yettocome™ 2010