WHY WE NEED TO WAKE UP...TUNISIA SHOWS THE WAY...

This write up was inspired by my friend UO who said and I quote, “On every single measure of human development, every single one of them, Tunisia far outclasses Nigeria; yet Tunisians had INSIGHT-they knew they were getting less than they deserved from their government". Nigerians have been short-changed for years…and it seems like the kleptomaniac leaders got bolder and bolder as the years went by. In the 1970s, the issue was 10%...most contracts were inflated by 10% and the leaders got the action in collaboration with corrupt civil servants. Today, it’s more like 100% and annoyingly the work is not done. How many times have “they” awarded Railway contracts, and yet the railways are not working? Or contracts for roads like the Onitsha-Enugu expressway, the Lagos-Benin expressway, etc, and the roads are still not finished. The recent contract of billions for upgrading the Enugu airport, shut down air access to the East for almost a year and when the airport was opened, what a disappointment !!! Indeed, the only state in the country that seems to be getting value from its leadership seems to be Lagos state. The masses of most other states are being taken for a ride by the government.

The recent happenings in Tunisia should tell Nigerians that they should expect more from their government. It is not immoral to expect government to govern, or spend the people’s collective resources on the people and people based services and not on parties in London hotels and school fees for the governor’s children. Like the drafters of the US “Declaration of Independence” wrote, “… whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness”. Tunisians acted because their government had become destructive of the ends of its existence. Government exists for the people and not the reverse and realizing this (thanks in no small deal to Wikileaks) enabled the Tunisians to demand what was theirs. Here are some comparative indices between Tunisia and Nigeria (from the WHO statistics archive).

Development Index	Tunisia	Nigeria
Population (millions)	10.1	151.2
GDP Per Capita (US $)	$7460	$1980
Life Expectancy (years)	75	49
Poverty Levels (% living on less than US$1/day)	2.6%	64.4%
Complete Immunization Coverage	99%	41%
Under-5 Mortality Rate (per 1000 live births)	21	186
Maternal Mortality Rate (per 100,000 child births)	60	840
% of Population with access to Potable water	94%	58%
Net Primary School Enrollment (%)	97.4%	64.5%

Once again, the data is irrefutable. Tunisia is miles ahead of Nigeria in development, per capita income is 4 times that of Nigeria, poverty levels are 32 times higher in Nigeria, yet the people in Nigeria have refused to demand development from their government. My heart is so sad that things are getting worse and no one seems to be concerned. 2011 beckons a season of hope and change and I hope we decide to take our destiny in our hands and at most level of government demand some level of accountability.

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REFERENCE

World Health Organization, 2011. Global Health Observatory. Online Available at http://www.who.int/gho/en/