Orikinla from Nigeria
Dear America,
"Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
~Thomas Jefferson
"Nigeria at this moment is not "most Corrupt" just "6th Corrupt" and if that is what it is according to this particular measuring stick then so be it (at least it is consistent!)"
Which indices made Nigeria "the most corrupt in 2000 it is now the 6th most corrupt"?
I was once a Unicef Consultant and privy to the same similar indices used in the summation of the levels of unemployment and populations in the State of the World Human Development Reports and using Western mathematics for African developments were erroneous.
An unemployed man in America is totally different from an unemployed man in Nigeria. In Nigeria, all our so called unemployed people are engaged in petty trading and other commercial activities since they have no social security system to take care of their temporary deprivations. We also have own extended family welfare system that these Western statistics cannot be used to measure economic developments in Africa. Commerce and corruption are within the same matrix of human development.
Now in tagging any country as 6th or even 100th most corrupt nation in the world, the indices cannot be the same.
I am not defending corruption in Nigeria.
I don't just agree with the Western yardstick used in judging Africa.
Our Police officers collect bribe. But why?
Did they study the reasons for the low level of human capital development in Nigeria and how that has affected the environment and the human environment determines the evolution of human development.
I was also engaged in national Family Planning projects under the USAID in Nigeria and these differences were noted.
What or who made Nigeria corrupt.
Sokari mentioned less corrupt African countries?
What are the conditions of life in these countries like Ghana and Botswana?
What kind of corruption are we measuring here? Public misappropriation of funds and bribery in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa where the ruling oligarchs and multinational corporations have so exploited and abused and misused the natural resources and economically enslaved the low income wage earners who are deliberately underpaid from the public sector to the private sector? Like here in the Nigeria LNG RAs where the Nigerian teachers teaching in the Nigeria LNG School cannot enroll their own children and are not given any accommodation within the RAs. And one of the teachers lost his wife during childbirth, because he couldn't afford the quality medical care she needed and the Nigeria LNG RA Hospital said his wife was not entitled to any medical care in the hospital and his children cannot even be admitted to the hospital. But, the White teachers have their children in the Nigeria LNG RA School with full first class accommodation and medical care.
Have you been to our police barracks?
I don't pray for even my worst enemy to live in the Nigerian police barracks. Because, they are not different from the worst tenement in the worst ghettoes in America and other developed countries. And do you know the minimum wage of the police officers?
And they say they collect bribe?
What is bribe in America and Europe is not bribe in Nigeria.
What of the corruption in America where the crime rate in New York alone in a month is worse than the crime rate in Nigeria in one year. Where teenage pregnancies are in hundreds of thousands? Where abortions are state rights?
So what or which indices shall we use to determine these notoriety and monstrosity of criminal corruption in America?
The billions of dollars of stolen African public funds are in American and European banks for years and they knew these were stolen funds and they collected them and have pooled them into the same IMF, Paris Club, London Club and other Western and Eastern financial funds from which they have been giving loans and "White Elephant" grants for their sponsored "White Elephant" projects in Nigeria and other African countries. Now we read about "Abacha Loot" returned from Swiss Banks. What of the interests? Now they want us to thank them for debt relief? Which debt? The debt or the interest?
$200 million of Abacha loot in a Swiss bank for over seven years! Do you know how much that money has generated in their economy?
So, what of the implications of the collections of stolen Nigerian public funds in Swiss banks which to me is worse than the much publicized Nigerian Internet Scammers.
A thief is a thief whether you steal one dollar or one billion dollar and whether you stole it or kept the stolen property.
Is stolen public funds not stolen property?
America, since you are the fire brigade of the world, come and help us put out the fire in the Niger Delta before the fire engulfs the whole of Nigeria!
About the Author
Name: Orikinla Osinachi
Age: 44
Country: Nigeria
City: Bonny Island
State: River State
Gender: Male
Income: High
Occupation: Publisher/Writer and Producer
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://forum.nigeriantimesinternational.com
6 Comments
Published on Saturday, March 03, 2007 at 12:37 AM. "Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day."
~Thomas Jefferson
"Nigeria at this moment is not "most Corrupt" just "6th Corrupt" and if that is what it is according to this particular measuring stick then so be it (at least it is consistent!)"
Which indices made Nigeria "the most corrupt in 2000 it is now the 6th most corrupt"?
I was once a Unicef Consultant and privy to the same similar indices used in the summation of the levels of unemployment and populations in the State of the World Human Development Reports and using Western mathematics for African developments were erroneous.
An unemployed man in America is totally different from an unemployed man in Nigeria. In Nigeria, all our so called unemployed people are engaged in petty trading and other commercial activities since they have no social security system to take care of their temporary deprivations. We also have own extended family welfare system that these Western statistics cannot be used to measure economic developments in Africa. Commerce and corruption are within the same matrix of human development.
Now in tagging any country as 6th or even 100th most corrupt nation in the world, the indices cannot be the same.
I am not defending corruption in Nigeria.
I don't just agree with the Western yardstick used in judging Africa.
Our Police officers collect bribe. But why?
Did they study the reasons for the low level of human capital development in Nigeria and how that has affected the environment and the human environment determines the evolution of human development.
I was also engaged in national Family Planning projects under the USAID in Nigeria and these differences were noted.
What or who made Nigeria corrupt.
Sokari mentioned less corrupt African countries?
What are the conditions of life in these countries like Ghana and Botswana?
What kind of corruption are we measuring here? Public misappropriation of funds and bribery in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa where the ruling oligarchs and multinational corporations have so exploited and abused and misused the natural resources and economically enslaved the low income wage earners who are deliberately underpaid from the public sector to the private sector? Like here in the Nigeria LNG RAs where the Nigerian teachers teaching in the Nigeria LNG School cannot enroll their own children and are not given any accommodation within the RAs. And one of the teachers lost his wife during childbirth, because he couldn't afford the quality medical care she needed and the Nigeria LNG RA Hospital said his wife was not entitled to any medical care in the hospital and his children cannot even be admitted to the hospital. But, the White teachers have their children in the Nigeria LNG RA School with full first class accommodation and medical care.
Have you been to our police barracks?
I don't pray for even my worst enemy to live in the Nigerian police barracks. Because, they are not different from the worst tenement in the worst ghettoes in America and other developed countries. And do you know the minimum wage of the police officers?
And they say they collect bribe?
What is bribe in America and Europe is not bribe in Nigeria.
What of the corruption in America where the crime rate in New York alone in a month is worse than the crime rate in Nigeria in one year. Where teenage pregnancies are in hundreds of thousands? Where abortions are state rights?
So what or which indices shall we use to determine these notoriety and monstrosity of criminal corruption in America?
The billions of dollars of stolen African public funds are in American and European banks for years and they knew these were stolen funds and they collected them and have pooled them into the same IMF, Paris Club, London Club and other Western and Eastern financial funds from which they have been giving loans and "White Elephant" grants for their sponsored "White Elephant" projects in Nigeria and other African countries. Now we read about "Abacha Loot" returned from Swiss Banks. What of the interests? Now they want us to thank them for debt relief? Which debt? The debt or the interest?
$200 million of Abacha loot in a Swiss bank for over seven years! Do you know how much that money has generated in their economy?
So, what of the implications of the collections of stolen Nigerian public funds in Swiss banks which to me is worse than the much publicized Nigerian Internet Scammers.
A thief is a thief whether you steal one dollar or one billion dollar and whether you stole it or kept the stolen property.
Is stolen public funds not stolen property?
America, since you are the fire brigade of the world, come and help us put out the fire in the Niger Delta before the fire engulfs the whole of Nigeria!
About the Author
Name: Orikinla Osinachi
Age: 44
Country: Nigeria
City: Bonny Island
State: River State
Gender: Male
Income: High
Occupation: Publisher/Writer and Producer
Experience With US: Never Visited the United States
Website: http://forum.nigeriantimesinternational.com
Labels: 40's, africa, corporations, corruption, crime, high income, male, media, media worker, misperceptions, money, nigeria, poverty
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Who appointed us the "fire brigade of the world"? Most of the world deplores any action we take outside our boarders, don't you?
Why do you care about abortion, crime in America? I don't care about crime in Nigeria. I hope it is very small a rare there, but that's your problem, just as crime here is mine.
Guess I'm just not sure what your point is. Are you saying the USA has stolen money from Nigeria? Or that we should invade or help somehow?
Orikinla: "America, since you are the fire brigade of the world, come and help us put out the fire in the Niger Delta before the fire engulfs the whole of Nigeria!"
Sorry, Orikinla, but America has taken on all the unsolveable problems it needs for this decade. Check back with us when peace is established in the Middle East and the Wahhabis have turned pacifist.
I recently had a great opportunity. Many dollars were sent my way but were taken by the bank. If you send me nigerian money I will be able to go to a bank and give you millions of dollars. Everyone respects Nigeria, so it is a great situation for you to make lots of money.
Did you know because of global warming that africa will be in even more trouble then it is now in 2050? you think times are tough now, they will get worse! In a new magazine article they have graphs of how badly africa will fare in the year 2050. Northern africa including marocco, tunesia, egypt and libya will be the hardest hit (their rainfall will go down 40%)with Kenya and the ivory coast as well as Nigeria. Only a 2 centigrade temperature difference will almost ruin all the tea and coffee crops in africa, specifically Kenya which is a huge tea and coffee bean grower. The global warming has already started but will be horrendous in 2050, there will be a huge decline in yearly rainfall and a huge increase in temperatures making the 10% of local africans who work in the tea and coffee bean crops (in Kenya)loose their jobs. Corruption is the least of your problems, in 2050 you will be able to blame America, China as well as central europe for your lack of water and dead crops and floods because of global warming due to coal factories and pollution.
You just keep telling it like you see it, don't be discouraged by these people who sound angry and mad. You live there and see what you see...this is an open letter to America isn't it. So please keep it coming, people like me want to know what you think...solutions start with debate,
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