National Cake syndrome - The concept of National disloyalty.

Where Americans have the American dream and the French have l’oeuvre nationale (national work), we have “the national cake” in Nigeria and the National cake of Nigeria is not for posterity sake but for quick sharing on the basis of who get their first.
I see this cliche as the great motivator of corruption and unpatriotism in Nigeria and until the syndrome of ‘national cake’ or ‘state cake’ as the case may be is cured, politics will be played without principle and the law would be used to work injustice.

Individuals entered political office not with the aim to serve but to partake in taking their share of the national cake,since the money is government's,unnecessary projects are created as avenue to siphoned public funds,Contracts are hyper inflated ,unduely awarded and poorly executed .

What do you think ?.

May the cake choke them to death.

What can we say, even the youths are erring in the same direction now,another definition of politics in nigeria is a way of taking the national cake.

The term "National Cake" is synonymous with oil money. It was hardly used when the regions depended mainly on their respective agricultural exports for survival. When oil became available in large commercial quantities, and the revenue allocation formula became skewed against the derivation principle, oil then became a common source of wealth, hence a common cake or a national cake.

Oil wealth, being regarded as everybody's wealth, is the source of corruption and our intractable socio-political and economic problems. If the revenue from oil could be sterilized and every state is made to depend solely on its own internal resources, sanity would be restored to Nigeria. Oil money is cheap money, and that is why it is spent without sense, conscience and patriotism. Anything got cheaply hardly gets used wisely.

Take oil from Nigeria and you will get more accurate census figures, less agitation for state and local government creations, less attraction to power at the centre, less corruption and better development.

I totaly agreed with you,infact gembiz ,I ll give you a soft kiss. I have argued this way so many times,If Nigerian revenue is from Cocoa and Cassava corrupt leaders will be sternly dealt with by the citizens and their will not have been corruption ,because nobody will agree to sleep in the farm only for one man to embezzled all his life savings.But because we are not feeling it ,we are not paying taxes etc ,we are ignorant of the depreciations.

Gembiz is right of course, but there is an added value which is usually missed nowadays. The national cake was coined along with the reasons given for our becoming a Republic- every citizen in every corner of the country should be able to partake of the national cake. Those who coined it meant well. They were aware of the oil reserves but were wise enough to stick to and encourage agriculture - the forever resource. They disagreed between themselves but did not compromise on national unity. What little they had was going round the nation. As individuals, they came last -the people always first. Just look not too far back. In 1966 the salary of WASC holder was 16 pounds, 10 shillings. But it meant the world. Another month end would come and you still had most of last month's pay saved. You had no need to look for any other source. You were also paid on time without fail. AS Gembiz said, oil changed so much, infact changed the whole world equation.

So ,How can the National cake reach all people's mouth. ?

Originally Posted by flakky

So ,How can the National cake reach all people's mouth. ?

At the moment, it is the one- hundred- Cowrie shell question. I have no answers other than what we have been saying all along: honest, people-oriented, God fearing leadership.

Originally Posted by sandra

I totaly agreed with you,infact gembiz ,I ll give you a soft kiss. ...

Wow! Thanks for the virtual soft kiss. Have a great day!

For now the only way is to join politics and embezzled as much as you can.(But I know , you won't do that).