Conference to Build the ASI - Report from Nigeria

Presented by Alice Okoko

Nigeria has a population of almost 200 million people. The people are so many that there is no part of Nigeria where you will not see people moving like bees. Nigeria is a very rich country, there is no doubt about it. Nigeria is so blessed that Nigeria is the greatest nation in the whole world. I say it without an apology to anyone. Nigeria is a potential world power. But until Nigeria is free, until Nigeria is liberated, the people of Africa will continue to slave and travel from country to country, many of our youths dying on the sea as they try to cross into Europe.

Nigeria is a very, very rich country. Nigeria is also a very corrupt country. We can straighten Nigeria out if we can say "sorry, we’ve had enough of your stealing, and your killing and your oppression of our people. We’ve had enough of you taking our money." I tell you the money is so much, the oil money is so much if they spend it and invest it inside Nigeria, even if they stole it and invest it as an individual enterprise, jobs would be created. The women would smile. There would be food on the table. But no, they take it out. Nigeria’s money is keeping the economy of Britain running. Nigeria’s money is keeping the economy of America running. Nigeria’s money is keeping Switzerland running. Switzerland has no natural resources do they? I don’t know. How is that?

If you go into Nigeria today, there are arms everywhere, rocket launchers everywhere. Our children can tell the sound of the gun. Is that an AK-47? Is that the rocket launcher there? The white man did not bring them in. It was a black man. It was a Nigerian who negotiated for it.

Nigeria just had elections. They did not elect anybody. They accumulated arms and they began to shoot people. Children began to die from stray bullets, women began to duck, doors are locked, don’t go out because you don’t want to die. At the end of the day, the numbers of the votes that were counted were much, much greater than the population of the community. The truth is, nobody voted. This is not a democracy I fought for! This is not the democracy that the people of Africa so desperately need in order to set ourselves free. It’s not the white man – it’s us. We need to free ourselves, we need to free our minds, we need to recognize that the destiny our lives and our future generation lies with us.

The white man is protecting their destiny and their future. So they sell arms to both sides. They sell to governments. They sell to the rebels, as we call them, until they come to power. Then they become freedom fighters. This is the challenge that is before the people of Africa. As long as Nigeria continues the way that Nigeria is now, then we know that Mama Africa will continue to languish, that Mama Africa will continue to see her descendents struggling and suffering and swimming and dying across the white man’s sea trying to come looking for food on their table.