INDIMIGATION!
“Self-made Nigerian billionaire donates 14 million dollars to an American University,” screams the headline. Self-made indeed! Most billionaires in Nigeria are politicians, politically sponsored monopolists, oil bloc thieves, and fraudsters. When an inept, corrupt, shameless, and misanthropic government distributes the wealth of a nation to a favored few, without any consideration of equity and fairness, there must be something inherently wrong with the entire nation. Even anachronistic monarchies as prevalent in the Middle East, do not engage in such wanton daylight looting of their nations.
If you are well connected, the scenario might play out this way. Your phone rings in the middle of the night, griing , griing, griing…… and you pick up the receiver,
“Hello, Your Excellency, what makes you remember me today?”
The President responds,
“Alhaji, Chief, Dr. Sir Indimi, I have finally decided to grant your wish and allocate to your company, Oriental Energy Resources Ltd, three oil blocks namely, OML 115, the Oldwok field, and the Ebok field. As my good in-law, you surely deserve 3 oil blocks. I know you do not have any experience in the oil business. All you need to do, is find some real oil company to drill a hole for you straight into the oil. You do not have to invest a single kobo or pay fees to the government. Any oil that you find is all yours. Sign an agreement with the real oil company that stipulates royalty payment in dollars for Oriental Energy Resources Ltd for every barrel of oil taken from your allocated blocks. I guarantee you that in 5 years, you will be a billionaire in dollar terms.
Do you still have that Panama phone number that I gave you?”
Alhaji Indimi who almost fainted with excitement replies,
“Yes, yes, Your Excellency, and I know what to do with the number.
Good night, my great in-law.”
The President bids him good night in return and hangs up.
The above is not from a science fiction novel but has been played out several times under different Presidents in Nigeria. Not only is it wrong to share the nation’s wealth amongst a few friends and cronies but it is even “wronger” for the beneficiaries of such undeserved largesse, to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth brazenly and openly, in the face of the downtrodden and suffering masses. Some of these oil billionaires have openly stated in public that, they do not know what to do with their money!
No surprise because you did not earn the money. The diversion of public wealth into individual wealth is abhorrent. These “lucky” individuals in turn stash their ill-gotten wealth in offshore accounts. The result is that there is no money for roads, electricity, water, agriculture, transportation, schools and communications. Having denied the country good roads, these “money miss road” billionaires acquire fleets of private jets to fly them, their wives, children, and concubines all over the globe to their vacation homes, spread all around the globe.
It is no surprise that Alhaji Indimi from the Boko Haram ravaged North Eastern Nigeria, feels justified to donate $14 million of Nigeria’s money to Lynn University, a second class American University in Florida. While Boko Haram is beheading, maiming, and kidnapping people for acquiring Western Education, Alhaji Indimi’s 8 daughters are acquiring Western Education in America. Boko Haram must be thrilled about this! He comes from the least educated, poverty-ridden part of Nigeria where schools of any type, water, phones, roads, and electricity are luxuries.
Confounding the situation are millions of citizens who have been displaced from their homes and living in horrible camps euphemistically called IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps. Does he think about the humanity of these individuals when he overflies their camps in his private jet?
The recent Indimi-Buhari wedding is another display of hypocrisy by our leaders. To throw such a lavish wedding In the midst of an economic depression in Nigeria is inhumane. By tying into the Buhari clan, Alhaji Indimi is protecting his ill-gotten and undeserved oil riches. The Nigerian masses are watching and waiting for a “change” in the oil business. Are those illegally acquired licenses going to revert to the state?
Billionaire Indimi has not contributed a kobo in ameliorating the suffering of the Nigerian people nor has he built schools and Universities in his country. Africastallestman understands his reasoning – uneducated folks do not know their rights. They wait for alms from the rich and pray for a better life in Heaven.
While the uneducated and impoverished masses are incessantly praying for unattainable riches, they are happy to pick the crumbs off the Indimi dinner table. Meanwhile, they keep waiting for the ever elusive miraculous blessings from God.
The West, which is the largest beneficiary of these resource robberies, glorifies these individuals by calling them self-made billionaires. If Africastallestman is allocated an oil field in the Gulf of Guinea, Africastallestman would definitely become an oil trillionaire in 10 years. The difference is that Africastallestman’s wealth will be ploughed back into Nigeria’s and Africa’s development and not in offshore accounts to develop already developed countries. The only word that can describe this crass stupidity is Indimigation (Hausa) which translates to Indignation in English. Any right-thinking person who is not bothered by this wanton act, ought to have his/her head examined by Western psychiatrists or African Witch Doctors!
Alhaji Indimi must disclose how much money he is paying as taxes into the Nigerian treasury. Finally, Lynn University should return the ill-gotten wealth to its rightful owners – Nigerians. Alhaji Indimi should also return his fake doctorate degree to Lynn University.
For a donation of $1 million spread over 10 Nigerian universities, Alhaji Indimi will be awarded 10 doctorate degrees in any 10 fields of his choosing and the universities will use the money to upgrade their facilities.