I am at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos, Nigeria waiting to catch my flight to Dubai, UAE en route to Osaka Japan. Many Nigerians and non-Nigerians are around as we wait in the lobby at the boarding gate. There is no electricity, so we sweat in the summer heat. What is happening to my country? This question played on my mind as I guess it did on the mind of other co-travelers. We remained in the heat without electricity at the foremost international airport in the “Giant of Africa”. What a relief as a voice on the public address system announced it was boarding time! But we met with pitch darkness as we picked our way through the boarding tunnel. If by chance your boarding pass dropped on the floor, you would need a flash light to pick it up. I could hear the grumbling around. Some Nigerians muttered under their breath, “What a shame!” At last I was seated comfortably in my seat on the Emirate flight bound for Dubai. What a different world! Just few feet away was utter darkness in the tunnel.

The painfully amusing thing was that at the turn before boarding point, I saw via a flicker of light this notice-WELCOME TO THE LAND OF PATIONATE PEOPLE. Someone may ask, “Passion for what?” This experience was on Tuesday June 23, 2009.

A friend of mine, who is a Lecturer at one of the public Universities in Nigeria, chatted with me online shortly before I set out to write this article:

FRIEND: Do you know ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) is on total, comprehensive and indefinite strike?

SHILGBA: I read about that yesterday at the hotel. I doubt that government is interested in education. The deception is too much.

FRIEND: Obviously.
SHILGBA: Their children are in private universities.

FRIEND: It is very unfortunate. And that is why they will not listen to us.

SHILGBA : Yes. But they may be setting the stage for a serious overthrow.

FRIEND: What do you mean?
SHILGBA: I mean that government may be inviting some intervention.

FRIEND: Well, I doubt if anyone is thinking in that direction now. Nigerians have been conquered.

SHILGBA: Do u know that there was power outage at the Murtala International airport until we boarded and left? We boarded in the dark as we made our way through the tunnel.

FRIEND: Incredible!
SHILGBA: We Nigerians were thoroughly embarrassed.
FRIEND: But your leaders are happy; they are like mad men that go to sleep when their houses are on fire. As long as it does not affect their source of illicit wealth, they do not care.

SHILGBA: Do you know that at a turn, I saw through a flicker of light-WELCOME TO THE LAND OF PATIONATE PEOPLE?

FRIEND: Where; at the airport?
SHILGBA: Yes, at the same airport in Lagos.
FRIEND: What a contradiction!
SHILGBA: That must be Dora Akunyili's RE-BRANDING OF NIGERIA.

FRIEND: At least you will enjoy three months of peace and tranquility. They have thoroughly used her and messed her up.

SHILGBA: But you have just given me a title for an article I was contemplating?

FRIEND: Please, remind me.
SHILGBA: Nigerians: A conquered people.
FRIEND: That's right!
SHILGBA: Thanks.
FRIEND: Nobody wants to fight; nobody wants to engage in any struggle because of what we are afraid of losing - our lives, our property, our wealth, and everything.

SHILGBA: Exactly.
FRIEND: We have just refused to see and understand that that kind of reasoning does not help. And that is why we are where we are today. When the social ills are addressed, militancy will naturally disappear.

SHILGBA: Yes.
FRIEND: Ok, I have to take my kids to school now. Give my very sincere regards to your family, especially your wife. Please take care.

SHILGBA: I will; my regards to your family too.
On Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 my wife was delivered of a baby boy by Caesarian section at about 9: 05 pm at a private hospital-GALBOSE in Yola. What a joy I had! We named him Alex. But little did we know that we would lose him less than 12 hours after to negligence of the medical personnel, and lack of proper superintendence of the Nigerian health sector. This is one of the hospitals chosen by my University for our insurance cover. I learned later that the doctor who had operated on my wife worked at four different hospitals. As a doctor at the GALBOSE hospital confessed to me after the death of my son, there should have been a Pediatrician assigned to observe and monitor my son after delivery by CS. My sister, who stayed with my wife that night said she had reported the change in breathing condition of my son to the nurses on duty that night, who took no action (My wife was under the effect of the administered anesthesia). She complained about the way my son was twitching, yet they simply said, the baby was “only dreaming”. Besides, we brought our personal generator set to provide electricity for my wife since the hospital only provided about 6 hours of electricity a day and public power supply was virtually non-existent. Continued    Source: huhuonline.com - Huhuonline.com | News source