Thread by @andyRoidO

This is my annual Andypendence Day Thread.

Fellow Nigerians,

We were condemned before we were even born, by a nation built to fail by plundering British Lords, and kept a failure by plundering Nigerian generals and politicians.

But there is hope.

#NigeriaAt58

The Federal Republic of Nigeria does not exist for the benefit of the average Nigerian. The average Nigerian isn't free. She is a slave to a bad economy, worse education, and failure. These are the natural results of a system DESIGNED to keep a small elite in power.
#NigeriaAt58

Independence is not the end goal.
It is a state that is supposed to make the end goal more likely.
The end goal is a better life for ourselves and our children. The end goal is a national life of which we can be proud. #NigeriaAt58

Yet every year, we move as a nation farther and farther away from that end goal, because the politicians meant to drive us there have purposely put the nation in reverse gear.
#NigeriaAt58

The whole point of independence is that if "our own people" control the nation, they will serve our interests better than foreigners.
But since Independence, our military & political rulers have as a class exploited us for their own profit exactly like Lugard.
#NigeriaAt58

Nothing has changed, except for the skin colour of the plunderer, and the destination of the loot. Banks in Switzerland, the Caymans, and Panama have replaced the British Museum and Barclay's Bank.
Even the accents of their children, trained abroad, are the same.
#NigeriaAt58

Yet, the ruling class of politicians and contractors convince you & I that shared tribe, tongue, religion, and party affiliation give us more in common with them than we have with each other. They trick us into saying all is well because "our own people" run things.
#NigeriaAt58

But are they really "our own people"?
Do they really belong to any official tribe or religion or party?
Do their kids not marry across religious & ethnic lines while they teach you bigotry?
Do they not defect from PDP to APC while making you KILL for politics?
#NigeriaAt58

You are not independent. You are ruled & exploited by a foreign power. The political class is not Nigerian. What I mean is, as a tribe its means of livelihood isn't tied to the real Nigerian economy. It feeds off govt oil money. It does not need Nigeria to work.
#NigeriaAt58

The political class keeps itself alive by getting itself "elected". It spends four years in office looting enough govt money to buy or steal your votes, and making you poor enough to need to sell them.
#HappyIndependenceNG
#NigeriaAt58

Under this system, sometimes you end up with relatively good political officeholders, but do not be deceived. I'm sure some colonial officers were also good.
We do not want to be at the mercy of politicians' goodwill.
We want politicians to be at the mercy of ours.
#NigeriaAt58

Elections are next year. In some places APC will win. In others, PDP. In some units, we will vote. In others, they will rig, or buy our votes.
Everywhere, the winners will owe more allegiance to a small cabal than to us.
Pick the least worst, and plan for 2023.
#NigeriaAt58

If we are to become truly independent, fellow Nigerians, let us promise ourselves that by 2023, we will have built political vehicles capable of getting outsiders from the current political set-up elected.
No more half-hearted attempts.

#NigeriaAt58

We can't have major parties funded by stolen government money, and expect those elected on their platform not to steal to pay back the party.
You can't expect parties not funded and run by businesses and individual donations to care about the economy.
#NigeriaAt58

We need to build our own parties, if we are not able to take over the ones already here.
Beyond parties, we need to organize ourselves at community level, to resist the attempts of the political class to keep stealing elections. This will determine our destiny.

#NigeriaAt58

Fellow Nigerians, we need to stop wasting the 4 years between elections reading Sahara Reporters. Let's use the next 4 to build organizations that can challenge our oppressors, & get Sahara Reporters to write about us.
God won't save Nigeria.
Nigerians, Save Nigeria
#NigeriaAt58