Group Charges Nigerians On Nation Building

The Nigeria Democratic
Liberty Forum (NDLF) in New York, United States, has called on Nigerians to rise up to take back their country from the shackles of heartless political opportunists who have turned Nigeria into a huge joke.
In a statement, the group expressed regret that in 53 years of the country’s so-called independence, Nigerians have watched the gradual descent of their beloved country into a failed state and despairing citizenry while the leaders indulge in wide scale stealing.
It said the purpose of the rally was to highlight the dysfunctional state of Nigeria, the plight of the people, and the presence of profligate public officials who attend Independence Day parades in foreign countries.
“Clearly, Nigeria is drifting into a precipice with no one in charge,” the statement said.
“There is wide spread corruption and fraudulent practices among those in power and their cronies as accentuated by the blatant, massive stealing termed “Oil subsidies” with the charade of investigations and presidential review panels that were subterfuge by a government enmeshed in a grand betrayal of public trust.
Noting that the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan calls the malaise of Nigerian corruption a problem of “perception,” NDLF counselled him to go outside the Aso Rock bubble and see the effects of corruption in concrete terms: decayed infrastructure, roads, bridges, stadia and airports, a parody of a health sector of any serious country, public schools on extinction, huge amount spent on power and refineries without results, a health sector that caters to the dead rather than the living, the Federal Government’s inability to fulfill its financial obligations to other levels of government, contracting the protection of the country’s coastal waters to his proxy to the tune of over $10 billion annually while the Nigerian Navy is in a decrepit state, etc.
It further stated that Nigerians are heartbroken to watch the inability of government to discharge one of its core functions: protection of life and property of citizens, with Boko Haram unleashing its brutality at will while the government is several steps behind.