By Pakribo Telema-Daregoe
The three learned professions are medicine, law and divinity. Their existence is service to the humanity through the people.Their pivotal roles in society (with regards to promoting good health and wellness; peaceful coexistence in congruent with extant laws, rules and regulations; and spiritual guidance and upliftment) can not be overemphasized.
However, two of these professions have been spotlighted as being responsible for the majority of the socio-political and economic woes in the country. They have worked as Siamese twins in misleading, misrepresenting, misappropriating and misguiding a strategic demographic into darkness. While medicine is striving to reposition society in the face of health issues brought on by advancement in science and technology, law and divinity have decided to take the opposite direction of plunging same society into a state of socio-political and economic quagmire.
The socio-political and economic woes being faced by the teeming masses, as we speak, is the end result of the insatiable appetite for material gains by lawyers and pastors. Never before or since in Nigerian history have lies, deceits and fallacies been woven into the national fabric of thought than now. This was made possible by the lawyers and pastors who were the ready tools of the unitary government of Nigeria. These men have become so morose in the sight of money that they have lost their sense of judgement, sensibility. Without thought of duty, family, place, history, tradition, obligation, face or shame betrayed the trust bestowed upon them. To them, money was not only a social and industrial lubricant; in large amounts it was a passport to a life of affluence, opulence and maneuverability.
The events that led to the botch elections of February 25, 2023 are still fresh in our memories. Millions of the electorate were deceived into getting a worthless PVC that was used against them in the polls. Who guided this gullible and vulnerable people, predominantly made up of youth, down this ignoble lane to perpetual slavery? The pastors. The men of God who have universities, colleges of theology, schools, private jets, flour mills, fishing trawlers, ships, blue chip companies, oil and gas servicing companies etc. Men with stupendous wealth gotten in God’s name. Prior to this time, NINAS had engaged over 90% of these pastors on the right path to freedom following the detailed NINAS propositions, but these pastors went to cut a deal with the unitary government of Nigeria, in order to safeguard their investments aforementioned above by misleading millions to damnation. I am deigned to ask, was it God that directed them to mislead ignorant people who thought they were following instructions coming from God? These pastors knew the truth but decided to circumvent it for their personal gains.
Majority of the lawyers are in private practice just like their twin brothers, the pastors who run mega churches strewn across the 36 state capitals, including the federal capital territory, Abuja.
The lawyers knowing the truth that they have vowed to uphold against all odds, were quick to smolder the truth with dark cloaks impermeable to light. Stalling the justice processes in order to fatten their deep pockets.The lawyers have seen a new and reliable meal ticket that will sustain them for every four years without demur. It is easy money coming from the coffers of the national treasury through the sleazy politicians. Some lawyers are used by government to misrepresent the law…Kenyamo and Sagey etc. They depend on government for their sustenance like parasites on its host. They just watch the system go rotten as they suck what they can suck while it lasted. Suffice it to say that, the title SAN (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) has become a cancer in the wheel of progress in the country. The federal government of Nigeria created it as a deft move to control the judiciary with its remote control nestled in the hand of the executive. It is high time this trend is curbed to forestall bleeding in the system. This explains the rush to becoming an SAN and an over bloated house of SANs on the federal government payroll. The reason we have more rot in the political and judiciary system and our SANs turning deaf ears and blind eyes to the bloodshed in the land. The reason the Femi Falanas, Olisa Agbakobas et al will come out to speak on national television in the morning and by lunchtime, their domiciliary accounts have been credited bountifully for being loyal boys. It is an open secret that majority of the lawyers pay as much as 10 million naira and its equivalent just to get the coveted title, SAN after their names. It has become a gold rush to be SANified in Nigeria. Guess who benefits? The federal government who has caged and stuffed money into the mouths of the supposedly champions of social justice, equity and fairness in the land.
The practitioners of medicine should be applauded for their professional services to humanity. Majority of those in the medical field (doctors, nurses, both registered and auxiliary; physio, chiro, opthalmologist, etc) work in government hospitals, which are kept in the worst deplorable conditions. In spite of their deplorable conditions, medical practitioners still work in these death knells called hospitals. They should be applauded for their steadfastness, diligence and professionalism in the discharge of their duties in the face of unsurmountable challenges. Doctors that are giving quality attention, place them side by side lawyers and pastors. We gain more from the doctors. Those who can’t run private hospitals run out of the country for greener pastures, while the lawyers and pastors stay put to watch the society rot away while their bank accounts fatten with blood money.
If only lawyers and pastors could put in just half of what doctors put in to make humanity continue on her gentle ride the society will be a better for all. If lawyers and pastors were in high demand overseas like the doctors, you will not find lawyers and pastors in Nigeria today. You can take that to the bank.
Therefore, it will not be out of context to state unequivocally that lawyers and pastors have abused the privileges given to them by the people, by selfishly feasting on the harrowing pains of the people wallowing in abject poverty.
To substantiate our position, we refer to the recent NADECO fools who came out with a publication about preferring the 1963 constitution. NADECO died in the 90s. From it ashes Tinubu rose to political power, distilling ideas from the vast pool of knowledge of NADECO to feather his nest. From its ashes NINAS came out as a more people-centred movement poised for greater involvement of the indigenous peoples of the geographical space called Nigeria. Theoretically, NADECO doesn’t exist. Who are these clowns looking for their next meal ticket? Another renegade of lawyers known for their penchant for stomach infrastructure looking for political relevance. Where were they when Buhari was in power for 8 years? Like hyenas, they jumped out to feast on their vomit (Tinubu).
Finally, if we don’t discuss RECONFIGURATION, RENEGOTIATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF OUR UNION DISPUTE OR CONSTITUTIONAL GRIEVANCES AS OUTLINED IN DECEMBER 16, 2020 CONSTITUTIONAL FORCE MAJEURE (CFM) PROCLAMATION BY NINAS BY BRINGING DOWN THE ROGUE 1999 CONSTITUTION, THEN WE MUST GET THERE PEACEFULLY OR BY DEFAULT. WE REJECT THE 1999 CONSTITUTION IN ITS ENTIRETY.
Dr. Pakribo Telema-Daregoe is a NINAS Volunteer and he erote from Yenagoa on June 7, 2023.
