The Josef Stalins of Nigeria.

In 1934, during the brutal dictatorship of Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, some Western journalists joined his convoy one day as he visited the worst-hit part of Moscow. At that time, the national economy was in shambles, people were like scared-stiff zombies and there were state-sanctioned murders everyday. 

But to the shock of the visiting journalists, people everywhere were praising and genuinely cheering up the brutal dictator. When he returned to his office, Stalin was asked by one American journalist how he managed to be seen as a hero by the people under so much yoke. Smiling broadly, Stalin was said to ask all cameras to be turned off. 

Then, he stepped out to grab a chicken and begun to pluck off its feathers, one by one. The chicken trembled in pain, blood tricking out of its pores until it was naked and bloody. Stalin now threw it on the ground. 

As the chicken staggered, Stalin brought from his pockets, some chicken feeds and threw them at the poor, hapless creature. In spite of its pain, the poor chicken started eating and Stalin started walking towards a chair. As the man walked, he kept dropping some feeds on the grounds and the chicken followed him and even sat at the man's feet to eat. 

Joseph Stalin then turned to the people around him to say: "This chicken represents the masses. To gain full control over them, you must disempower them, brutalise them and starve them. Then, give them 'peanuts' in their helpless, desperate situation. Trust me, they will consider you as their hero and love you."

Right now, some Nigerian politicians are adopting the Josef Stalin style, although in a subtle manner. There is hardly any day that several Nigerians are not busy holding briefs for the destroyers of the nation. Many of the devils' advocates are being paid "peanuts" out of the looted billions of currency. However, there are others who are doing so merely out of sentiments; tribal, regional and religious sentiments.  

Just see how they are expending so much time, energy and passion in defending, celebrating and indeed, hero-worshipping the same people that are responsible for the sorry state of our dear nation. What a shame!