I am at a loss as to how any Nigerian can even consider fighting Dele Farotimi when we have chronic socio-economic problems he has highlighted like this which need solving

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Low productivity, the obsession with getting rich and religious fundamentalism remain our three biggest challenges as a nation

[2] Solve these three and watch our other problems like corruption, nepotism, a lack of patriotism and ethnicity disappear

[3] When I look at the disdain and intolerance Nigeria’s Sunni majority have for the Shiite minority Muslims I just shudder. Nigerian security forces once gunned down about 40 defenceless Shiite protesters in cold blood and no one batted an eyelid

[4] Just imagine the hue and cry we would have if the Nigerian Army and NPF had killed Sunnis or Christians like that. The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria would have been screaming blue murder. However, both bodies have shamelessly lost their voices because they are not affected

[5] Our pentecostal clergymen are too busy collecting tithes and buying private jets to be bothered. I bet the amount they fleece off poor people in the form of 10% of their wages dwarfs the amount politicians steal. However, one form of exploitation is acceptable and the other is not

[6] Nigeria’s national budget is only about $20bn, so there is a ceiling to how much politicians can steal. With clergymen, however, the sky is the limit. If they get 10% of 50m people’s earnings, one individual can amass more than Nigeria’s total budget

[7] It is hypocritical to condemn the corruption of politicians and then turn a blind eye to the crude and crass exploitation of religious houses. We need an agency the size of the EFCC to deal with their matter too

[8] As per Islam, I just give up on my people. Youths just go and slaughter innocent people because their imam tells them to? Corpses litter areas once the almajiris go on the rampage. As a people we simply need to debate reducing the influence of religion in our society. Paul Kagame has shown us how it can be done

[9] Nigeria simply needs factories oooo. Get our youths out of churches and mosques and into manufacturing plants and watch all this violence abate. More importantly, it will end their indoctrination, free their minds and unleash their stifled creativity which is currently imprisoned by these twin Abrahamic faiths

[10] If we could industrialise, create jobs and restore dignity in labour, this desire to get rich so you can prove you have arrived will abate. That is the way to combat corruption, create a patriotic citizenry and end this ethnic madness that promotes the domination of one group over another!

ayoakinfe@gmail.com