In reflecting on the nation's calamitous political past, some apparent questions readily pop into the inquisitive mind: what really is the cause and what really is responsible for the building up of and never ending crises in our motherland and how long are we going to live with these never-ending problems? Indeed, I must confess that I am finding it hard not to conclude that my country is facing a spiritual problem or that of leadership or could it be that this is the collective and cumulative effect of our nonchalance, contraventions and disrespect to governing principles exhibited over the years? Or could it be that everyone has been afflicted with a capitalistic cankerworm?

A good number of Nigerians, including those at the helm of affairs at various stages, upheld that perfidious creed. They did so either because they do not understand or do understand, but deliberately opt to ignore what cultivating love for one's country is all about. I find it hard to identify where to start from: is it the issue in the Niger delta or the entire fuel crisis engulfing the country? Is it that this generation has given birth to more poor citizens in such a geometric dimension? To every wealthy person living in Nigeria there are over three thousand poor persons with no shelter, drinking water, protection or a good meal for the day. Sadly, most Nigerians are like motor spare parts, only for use when cheap labour is required and dumped thereafter. It's so bad that even foreigners who have come back to invest with the same money our leaders looted to their countries have come to really have a field day with the classes of very low-priced labour they find at their disposal. The only discounted commodity you find in our land today is human resources; it's almost free and easily disposable.

Question number one – what is our so called government doing about the welfare of her citizens. And how long are Nigerians going to be enslaved in their own country? Question number two – for how long will our security outfits and immigration agencies allow foreigners like the Lebanese and Indians to torture and keep enslaving our people?

Isn't it time someone did something to put a rein on these people? Let me tell you most sincerely that they are a rip off, setting up firms which are instruments targeted at diminishing the value of the employed and unemployed condition of the Nigerian. They have a knack for using and dumping those they employ like a twenty first century mother would when changing diapers. I don't feel too exuberant about this and my thinking is that the boys from the Niger-Delta should go right ahead to blow up all of the oil points which have constituted a nuisance to their community as a warning to those who have any intention to devalue and discount the worth of the Nigerian in any way. If the resources that abound in this country were to be prevalent in their country, I know you know they would never allow others come become major players the way we have opened up our doors and borders for them.

That egregious slip we have made might just be one of the root causes of our country's myriad socio-political and economic problems. Nonetheless, it would seem that we are cloudlessly too obsessed with struggling

to take care of ourselves and dependants to the extent that we forget that the system also needs to be taken care of if we must continue to benefit from it. If only we deeply understood and abided by the wisdom inherent in the saying that no one man or family is an island, perhaps the nation's situation would not have assumed such precariousness experienced toady. This is where I strongly agree with Sabella Ogbobode Abidde in his article The Coming Anarchy and Low-Intensity Conflict in the Diaspora website, nigeriansinamerica. The rich resources of this country are produced from the Niger Delta zone, a zone that is a paradox: the nearer you are to it, the poorer you become. You really don't have to trouble yourself imagining the amount of mystery, deprivation, and abject poverty in that region of the country. It's so obvious. The incriminating thing is that the government of the day has chosen to turn the other way, throwing their eyes and ears to irrelevant issues. My land, the Niger Delta is soon to become a waste and complete failure.

It's sickening and very sad that the Federal Government seemingly takes sides with these companies rather than do something proactive to arrest the ache and pain of the oil-producing states, everything is now attended to via political strategies that benefit only a few pockets rather that taking everyone into consideration. Instead of addressing problems, the FG turns around arresting progressives, radicals, and those asking for a proper assessment of the national patrimony and committing them to jail. Something urgently has to be done in order to salvage the problems and save Nigerians from slaves in their own country.Let me quote Sabella of nigeriansinamerica: "The fundamental problems still need to be solved or mitigated: infrastructural development, unacceptable revenue allocation formula; environmental degradation; poverty and unemployment and lack of basic human needs; poor and inadequate laws governing the commercial activities of oil companies; the injurious land use decree, etc, etc."

Without mincing words, there is a tremendous amount of latent nationalistic consciousness presently welling up in the minds of a good number of the new and very aware generation of Nigerians who will no longer allow the wool to be pulled across their faces – not by any unworthy government, not by anybody. These groups of Nigerians are those that have been able to transcend the level of myopic reasoning of some of our senior citizens who religiously believe that the essence of man on earth is to amass wealth by all means and thereafter live to a ripe old age, not caring how their country and the citizens therein fare.

I really wonder what is going on in the mind of our President Obasanjo, seeing the present state of the country and her citizenry. For almost eight years, most Nigerians have lived below the poverty line and live below a cent per day. Well, the one thing I know we can do for our country now is for us to all go on our knees, Moslems and Christians and animists; for all to pray for our dear country Nigeria. We should pray that God in his infinite mercies give our leaders the grace to have at the back and front of their minds the need to invest more in the people they were voted there to serve. May God help us.