It is fruitless trying to compare Nigeria with the U.S. or trying to rationalise why this country is yet to get to the U.S. level. The topical debate in Nigeria now has to do with fuel subsidy removal and the Federal Government is telling us that so far this year, more than N1 trillion had been spent on subsidy but it has refused to tell us the beneficiaries. Who is fooling who' Are they telling us that members of this cabal are more powerful than the government' Can this type of nonsense happen in the U.S. where those in government are accountable to the people'Ruth Chukwudi, AbaNigerians are dying at home and President Goodluck Jonathan, in far-away Australia, is feeding his wife with a birthday cake. I dey laugh o.Ibironke Omotayo, LagosA cousin of mine who just returned from the U.S. told me that education is almost free over there but look at what the progressive Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, just did. The school fees of students at the Lagos State University (LASU) have been increased from N25,000 to N250,000. Where does he want the students and their parents to get this type of money from' Are our leaders sane at all' Sani Ojo, IbadanThe Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), DIG Parry Osayande (rtd) said that 100,000 Nigerian policemen carry handbags for wives of some moneybags. That is true. But, in his capacity as the PSC Chairman, what has he done about it' I remember a photograph your newspaper used in 2008 of a policeman, holding a gun and using an umbrella to cover the head of a Chinese at a construction site. What those in authority fail to realise is that anybody who wears that uniform and is doing the work of a servant is embarrassing this country. Can you ever find a policeman in any of the Western countries carrying the bag of the wife of a moneybag' These policemen, who carry the bags of wives of moneybags, in that circumstance will only be loyal to the moneybags because they know that at the end of the day, money will drop. No serious country allows that to happen. Temitope Hussein, Lokoja.When you analyse the outcome of the recent council elections in Lagos and see how the exercise was blatantly rigged and even the LASIEC Chairman flouted the law of his own commission, you will know that we cannot compare this country with the West, not even with Ghana and some West African countries where they value life, democracy and good governance.Godwin Obi, Lagos.This week, a driver was shot in Ibadan because he refused to give a policeman N20. Not that he refused to part with this money but he said he had earlier given the police team money and he could not give them another one. One of them just shot him and the bullet pierced through the windscreen and hit the driver. Now, tell me, what sort of a country condones this type of impunity and progresses in life'Dimeji Adams, Lagos.Editor, you are welcome back from the United States. I think what you should have written on is the quantity of chocolates you brought for we your fans, not to compare this country with what obtains over there. It is just unfortunate that people like us don't have visas to go to the U.S. Why should I return to a country like this, a country that is filled with many Gaddafis' Why did you come back sef' Anyway, you are welcome back.Andrew Ossai, AbujaIs the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, not ashamed of herself to have come out to tell us that the cabal is too powerful for the government to handle' Which minister worth himself or herself in the West will come out publicly to talk like that' It goes a long way to tell us that people in government are actually members of this cabal. God is watching.Femi Obadina, IkejaThis government has a total disregard for human lives and encourages killers to continue to be on the rampage. Isa Ismaila, IbadanApapa in Lagos is one of the places that give this country huge cash everyday because of the ports situated there but trucks and tankers have become public nuisance on the roads, so to say. You will be lucky to spend five hours, meandering through the maze of articulated lorries that have turned the roads into parking lots. Craters and potholes have also made the roads horrible. With all these frustrating experiences, our leaders are not bothered. Where in the Western world can you find terrible roads like the ones in Lagos and other Nigerian cities' Terrible.Tayo Aladesire, AkureAll politicians are the same. I read it a few months ago when Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State fingered some PDP chieftains of hobnobbing with an accused in court. Pray, what was Fashola doing in court in Abuja on Wednesday with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who is standing trial. A case of a pot calling the kettle black'Kayode Atitobi, IlaroThis country is almost gone but we need the type of grammar from Patrick Obahiagbon - I have read with acatalectic disgust, governments asinine and puerile ratiocinations attempting to justiceate the proposed removal of subsidies from petroleum products. It has asseverated that it's intentions is guided by the need to checkmate the odoriferous excesses of a machiavellian and mephistophelean cabal and I have said to myself, what a shame' What a self-indicting admittal of the failure of governance' What an hocus-pocus' What an anathematous disdain for it's citizenry' - to, at least, help us maintain our sanity.Samson Okoroafor, EnuguThe situation in this country is outrageous. It is convenient for us to condemn Colonel Muammar Gaddafi when we have many Gaddafis at the federal, state and council levels. If the U.S. wants to focus attention on terrorists, then, its binocular should be on Nigeria. This government is killing its citizen at the least provocation. And this democracy is not taking us anywhere. I would rather we have a Gaddafi rule us for 100 years and we have good roads, security, electricity, infrastructure, health and other good things of life.Lilian Okonkwo, AwkaHow can you compare a jungle with a paradise'Pade Ajayi, Lagos.I am sure many Nigerians have not read how a policeman in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, in cold blood, killed Emmanuel Victor before his mother. The young man's offence was that he criticised the policemen at the check point for collecting N20 from drivers. His mother, Mrs. Grace Victor, said: 'Witnessing how my son was ruthlessly murdered and my inability to protect him was a traumatic experience that would live with me for the rest of my life. I saw them shoot my son; no mercy at all, they shot him brutally. As he fell while they were shooting him, the tallest of them still continued shooting him on the ground. He died with the Bible in his hand. My son went to church with me. After the close of church, I came out and boarded a commercial motorcycle and, not far from where I took off, I heard gunshots. I was scared and told the motorcycle operator to stop for us to take cover. All of a sudden, I saw my son running and being chased by the police. Police vans were parked on both sides of the road. And, when I discovered that it was my son they were chasing and about shooting, I ran towards one of the policemen close to one of the vans. I told him the person they were chasing was my son. I told him he was a Christian and that he just came out of the church. By this time, they were cocking their guns. By the time the policeman I approached signalled his colleagues to stop, they were already shooting at my son. My son was holding a Bible when he was shot. I rushed, as a mother, to go and attend to him but they threatened that if I didn't move back, they would shoot me too. They made me move back. I did not see any of the policemen with any stain of blood then. But they just picked his Bible and drove off. It was another police vehicle that came and picked him." From the account of Mrs. Victor, which is now a daily occurrence in Nigeria, how can we, in all honesty, compare this country with the U.S. or think that this country can develop' Everest Anthony, UyoBefore we can talk of any sanity in the land, extra-judicial killings must stop and perpetrators made to face the law of the land.Timothy Ilabere, Lagos.After Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was killed, I went to a Libyan website and I saw the below which baffled me.There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free for all its citizens; there is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at zero per cent interest by law; having a home considered a human right in Libya, all newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 dinar ($50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family; education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25 per cent of Libyans were literate. Today, the figure is 83 per cent; should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming land, a farming house, equipment, seeds and livestock to kickstart their farms are all for free; if Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need, the government funds them to go abroad, for it is not only paid for, but they get a $2,300/month for accommodation and car allowance; if a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidises 50 per cent of the price; the price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per liter; Libya has no external debt and its reserves amounting to $150 billion are now frozen globally.If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation, the state would pay the average salary of the profession, as if he or she is employed, until employment is found; a portion of every Libyan oil sale is credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens; a mother who gives birth to a child receives $5,000; 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $0.15; 25 per cent of Libyans have university degrees; Gaddafi carried out the world's largest irrigation project, known as the Great Manmade River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.If we have all these in Nigeria, why won't we compare ourselves with the Western world and why won't we allow Gaddafi to rule forever'Femi Arowolo, Lagos.
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