NIGERIA'S BANKRUPT LEADERSHIP, GOVERNOR PAYS FOR PRAYERS?

Report reaching Icheoku from Kastina Islamic Sharia state of Northern Nigeria has it that Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema has voted N20 million Naira (about $20,000) for "special prayers" to enable his kinsman, the vegetative Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua to recover? When you think you have heard the last and enough of the stupidity and idiocy of these northerners, out of Kastina comes the mother of all wonderment - a state governor spending states money to engage some Islamic mullahs (prayer-warriors) to chant their incantations in order to heal a gravely ill kinsman? Assuming such possibility exist, was the amount negotiated, and what percentage of it will go to Allah?

Certainly a misplaced priority for a state with very high unemployment rate, little to no infrastructure and where the nuisance of almajiris is still an exploding reality. A situation brought about principally by the lack of education and joblessness of the youth, and a primitive retrogressive culture rooted in accepting ones destiny as is; and here is their governor engaging in a frivolity and foolery of the highest order. It makes every right thinking Nigerian to ask once again, why they still share one political enclave with these pedestrian and puerile human specimens inhabiting the Saharan desert of northern Nigeria? Icheoku remembers vividly that it was in Kastina's nearby Kano State, also an Islamic Sharia northern state, that the then Governor Barkin Zuwo converted his bedroom into a bank to bank state's money? His explanation was that he is the governor of the state and the money belonged to the state, therefore there is nothing wrong with a state governor keeping state's money in a state house which he happen to occupy; go figure!

Now the Governor Shema, so pandering and petty, has concluded that it is 'divinity to the rescue' of his kinsman, his predecessor in office and now comatose Nigeria President Umaru Yar'Adua. Medical science having given up and his Saudi Arabia hospital-landlord evicted him, the only recourse now is to pray until something happens and Yar'Adua is healed? His road-map, establish a direct telephone hot-line to his Allah through the voices of some 1700 innocent 'madrassa' almajiris-Muslim children to say prayer of intercession on behalf of Yar'Adua to help him recover? Icheoku says, if this does not bother on lunatic fringe, then the Christmas day diaper-bomber did not attempt to bomb an American plane over the skies of Detroit; and needless to say that the three actors here are all from Kastina Islamic Sharia state:- this impeachable governor pray for Yar'Adua, President sicko Umaru Yar'Adua and diaper terrorist Christmas bomber Umar Abdulmutallab. All of them, members of some axis of something? What an absurdity of thought and practice, representing majority of the unfortunate marauders Nigeria has been cursed with as leaders since independence in 1960. How can a person, so base and pedestrian as this man be a governor of a state, with responsibility of the lives and well-being of the citizens and residents entrusted to his ability? It simply explains the rudder-less-ness of the Nigeria ship of state which has since veered off course, having been piloted by men and women of very low intelligence, education and a sense of purpose.

According to his game-plan of 'Operation Petition Allah for Yar'Adua,' Islamic clerics or Mullahs will commandeer 1,700 almajiris from a spread formation throughout the state and representative of Kastina state and force them to recite repetitive monologues special verses from their Quran; which Allah will hear immediately because almajiris so asked? These voices that speak directly into the ears of their Allah will then be paid a paltry sum of N10, 000 each for their spiritual services, while those summoning mullahs, who are divided into two camps to direct the competition for the ear of Allah will each earn N100,000; while their coordinators or the mullahs' mullahs, will be paid N500,000 each. The prayer will last for few weeks?

Ordinarily Icheoku would not bother with this profligacy and wasteful squander of state's funds that is a common practice in Nigeria with virtually every custodian of authority and who have power over the purse of a state. However, our antennas sprang up because of this governor's anticipated result - that almajiris or street urchins who have a direct telephone link to their Allah's private number on a speed dial would make it happen as whatever they supplicated to Allah, Allah he will always grant? Yet these are homeless and abandoned and sometimes driven away from home children, who congregate daily on the street corners from where they march in a musical procession through the neighborhoods, chorusing a melancholic tune, usually for some pittance of food left-overs or some few Naira? This Governor Shema believed in its efficacy and he is seemingly educated, otherwise why would he expense states' fund towards such fanatical, maniacal and fundamentalist engagement. It is good to put on record too that Kastina Islamic Sharia state of Northern Nigeria was the premier sharia state in Nigeria. If you are a Nigerian, especially from Kastina, how proud would you be, having such a fetish-minded governor presiding over the affairs of your state? Icheoku says, this is another example of a belief system founded on the absurdity, and Nigerian politicians' proven reckless wastage of the peoples' commonwealth funds; simply put, Goveror Ibrahim Shehu Shema is another testament to the rot of leadership afflicting the Nigerian society.