1. My dear son, today I want to address a fundamental issue. It’s so fundamental it’s affecting our approach to governance. You see, we have a choice. It’s either we run a country, or we run a nation. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
2. Running a country is about administrative chores – files, bureaucracies, meetings, parastatals, memos, departments, mindless directives... Running a nation on the other hand focuses attention on the people. There’s empathy. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
3. You can run a country and not a nation, and we seem to have a predilection for ablutions of governance to the detriment of concern for the people, whereas it ought to be about the people. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
4. If it’s about the people you won’t go through hoops trying to collect your passport at the passport office. If it’s about people, our universities won’t be in their current state. Our public universities are practically run down. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
5. Nigeria is no more a landmass than a corporation is a building. Subtract the people from the equation and there’s nothing left. Just stones and dust, even darkness. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
6. If we were focused on people, we won’t be at the impasse we’re in. The average young person doesn’t feel his country cares for him or her. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
7. Where’s this people problem coming from? Perhaps two sources. The first is the psychological posture of the average political office holder. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
8. He strangely sees himself as lord and master, not a servant of the people. It’s what informs the language of communication, the tone of communication. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
9. There’s so much talking at, talking down to, talking from a distance, talking from on high, even talking in the third person, like royalty, though legions of demons also talk in the third person, or even not talking at all. There’s so much condescension. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
10. When last did you have a discussion with your representative? Do you even know him, or her? And yet he’s supposed to be representing you. He doesn’t feel beholden to you because you don’t control his fate. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
11. The electoral system is gamed. He’s rather beholden to his party leadership. We don’t really run a representative democracy, we run a misrepresentative democracy. It’s why there’s a huge psychological gap between the government and the governed. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
12. The second source of this problem is the value we place on the Nigerian life. At the state level it doesn’t seem much. Perhaps because we’re so many. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
13. We have a fair idea of the value placed on lives in foreign countries. We have a fair idea of the value placed on a British life for example, or a Canadian life. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
14. It’s determined by the level of investment in social services – education, healthcare systems, etc. Look at how they negotiate with other countries when their citizens are involved. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
15. If we place value on lives there’ll be no “area boys.” Area boys are the children we left to fate. Their increasing number indicate our increasing negligence. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
16. The reason medical tourism is growing is because we have a paucity of investment in healthcare. India makes about $200m from Nigerian patients annually, may be higher. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
17. According to un.org 40,000 Nigerians visited India in 2015, half of them for medical reasons. We don’t have 2019 figures. But what about those who can’t afford to travel abroad for treatment – what’s the value of their lives? #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
18. We executed criminals by firing squad in the 1970s and 1980s, and gleefully published the gory imageries on the front pages of our newspapers. The Bar Beach was notable for such executions. Bar Beach is now Eko Atlantic. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
19. These were public spectacles. I theorize they bastardized the psyche of a generation. We lost appreciation for the value of life. The violent snuffing out of life became entertainment. We became Romans. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
21. Our underinvestment in social services is becoming too expensive for us. Look at the cost of security alone, both at the retail and wholesale level. It’s how we ended up with the SARS problem. Our defenders became our abductors. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
22. You want more evidence of the poor value we place on lives? Look at our bad roads, the poor supply of electricity, absence of potable water, poor street lighting and poor road markings. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
23. Look at our poor emergency services, open drainages, the persistent menace of malaria, life endangering road blocks, lack of due process, overcrowded awaiting trial list, ignominy of zebra crossings, open abattoirs… The list goes on and on. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
24. Our philosophy of governance is literally killing us. It’s time to rethink our policy design. It ought to be about the people, not a country. #NigeriaNotes #ENDSARS
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