And Mozie Died

Pre-independence Nigerian society had dignified depth, a tight and secure family system, a winning values set-up, a disdain for unearned reward and inexplicable wealth. There was a strong and abiding love for hardwork, selfless service and our common humanity. And up until the beginning of the civil strife in 1966, the pre-independence socio-economic character of the Nigerian system held away in the public service. The oil and gas industry in the then four-regional political economy was a remote proposition. Each of the four regions of the country has paraded distinct economic commodities which marked their individual strengths and the bargaining chips they would bring to the federal table.

And against the backdrop of a value system which promoted propriety and proportion in the the conduct and management of public resources and trust, each of the regional governments was able to deliver on democratic dividends in full measure. And then, a fraticidal war was thrust upon the Nigerian system. In the process of executing the war, oil and gas was ‘discovered’. And this natural resource was inadvertently clothed with the unlikely toga of a bargaining chip in the hallowed chambers of military Generals and self-serving politicians. That was the collective national undoing.

The early 1970’s emerged as the flagship of the process of social and economic decay of the Nigerian system. The next decade and half was marked significantly by such strange social vices like organized prostitution, armed robbery, drugs and narcotics trafficking, money laundering, advanced fee fraud(alias 419) and so forth….The Nigerian system was not only dead, the toxic gases which had gathered within its decadent fabric were ready to precipitate an odious implosion of sorts… unemployment of highly skilled labour, especially university and polytechnic graduates skyrocketed…..

And Mozie Ifeanyichukwu Uduma, a young, impressionable and erudite Nigerian scholar, who was abandoned and forgotten by a society which was lacking in scrupples, inspite of the young man’s demonstrated capacity for national good, became an unfortunate victim of this delinquent, narcotics-infested, unbridled-wealth-parading, compromised and largely uncaring Nigerian system…. Mozie had unsuspectingly run into the murky waters of life which were littered with man-eating crocodiles and grisly greed. And then the promise; the lofty dreams of a young, brilliant and starry-eyed youth became still-born…

In the high wire underground traffic market place where the high and mighty called the shots and the minions slaved away to extinction, Mozie’s naïve heart was not enough to save him from the machinations of vicious, sophisticated and heartless carpetbaggers….