Nigeria has become a huge contradiction; an absurdity of sort, in which, despite the abundant God's endowments, the citizens are the most deprived of life's most essentials and are most miserable, even as the ruffians, branding as leaders are the most pampered, the world over- they and their families living an unnecessary-luxury. Those who make the laws are the very ones who break those laws thus, bringing the society into a permanent state of chaos, making the communities impossible human habitats.

The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, then as CBN governor, it was, who, first called attention to the ugly fact that an unduly large chunk of our revenue was being spent to over pamper our legislators. So many Nigerians have expressed frustrations at the situation but no one in government has either said anything nor do a thing. Former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi, recently, revealed what looked like the albatross -the very reason for government's perpetual silence on the matter, even in spite of its importance. He was alleged to have said, eh! If you are complaining about legislators pays, wait till you know how much the president, the governors and the ministers spend, of our revenue, which, literally, suggests that the legislator's pay is a child's play, judging by that of the president, the governor or the minister!

Femi Orebe in his column, in the The Nation of Sunday, 6th of May, 2018, casting his mind back to the French revolution (1789), titled his article: It is time we storm this bastille. A wonderful piece indeed, he minced no words as he expressed some frustrations at the unduly high take home pay of ourl legislators. Coincidentally, on page 2, of the same paper, was a report that American congressmen (their own legislators) sleep in their offices to save costs. Made curious by the title, I dashed to read through, discovering that an American legislator earns $174,000(N62, 640, 000, at N360 to a dollar) a year (a figure that hasn't increased for a decade!). At N13 m a month our senator earns a satanic N169 m a year!  The absurdity becomes obvious when one considers that per capital GDP, (used by economists to measure the living standards of people) for the US, was $52194.90, in 2016, while that for Nigeria, was a miserable $2,177.99.

These figures speak volumes to how the mode of governance drives the abject poverty that stares the average Nigerian in the face, daily, as he/she strives to make ends meet. What goes on in the name of governance, in our country, is banditry and as it stands, the Nigerian citizens, no one else would need see that things get normalized, by any means possible. It is on the strength of this that every Nigerian should put politics of the pettiness of ethno-religious sentiments aside and be ready to rescue this country-we need to claim our country back. This country was on the march forward during the first republic, when godly men were in power. The bandits, foisted on us, at the exit of the military, and their later generations have re-defined, not just governance but virtues, including those of good and bad! The concept of servant-leader, postulated by the holy books, the Bible and the Koran have given way to the boss-leader.

As we move on, there is an urgent need to review, downwards the salaries of political office holders, with those ungodly and extraneous allowances removed. And beyond this, someone needs to own up to signing the current salary package of legislators into law and seek forgiveness from God, if he/she wants to make heaven-that signing was most unpatriotic and ungodly, in a country in which the minimum wage stands at N18,000 per month, paid irregularly and pensioners are not being paid. Even those retiring after the newly-introduced contributory pension scheme are being made to go almost one year before receiving any form of pay! The excuse, usually, by the PFAs, is that the accrued part of the savings (the amount due the pensioner, on account of his/her service, prior to the commencement of the scheme, doesn't get paid, on time, by government. One wonders how it doesn't occur to government to budget, upfront, for this money, so pensioners don't go hungry for months, before being paid.

In our country, it matters not, what happens to the ordinary citizens, as long as politicians are over-protected. Peoples' welfare has no place in the scheme of governance, in our country, as citizens are on their own. This is the reason for the ongoing survival-of-the-dirtiest and the attendant social-chaos- politics, (a free money venture, in Nigeria) becomes, such a dirty game for which, only the unworthy and failures, driven by desperation are fit and decent men, who see the worth of integrity, stay away, leaving only ill-parented gangsters to call the shot.

Nigerians must arise as we need to take our country back, we have no other place to call a home