By Wale Ewedemi — Broadcaster, RP Expert, Voiceover Artist, Writer, Humanist, Anti-Bad Government Advocate

The Enemies Within

Nigeria’s greatest saboteurs are not foreign invaders. They are among us — in our streets, our offices, our schools, our hospitals, and our government institutions. They are the termites gnawing at the nation’s foundation.

They dismantle streetlights, rip out manhole covers, and steal bridge rails. They block drainages with refuse and illegal buildings, then blame nature when floods destroy lives. They drive recklessly, stop on highways to pick passengers, and trade on roadsides, turning order into chaos. Even officials meant to enforce traffic laws contribute to gridlock, stopping cars in the middle of roads just to collect bribes.

“They profit from Nigeria’s rot — and work day and night to make sure the rot never ends.”

When Duty Becomes Betrayal

Public service has become a marketplace for double-dealing.

Lecturers collect government salaries while running private businesses. Some teach abroad on sabbatical, leaving their home universities to decay. Doctors abandon public hospitals for private gain, striking at the expense of the poor.

Governments leave small potholes until they can inflate them into billion-naira contracts. Fourteen years after black-market privatization, power companies still deny Nigerians meters and stable electricity. Mechanics strip cars, builders steal cement, traders flood markets with fake food and medicine — all for profit.

Everyday Sabotage

The rot seeps into ordinary life.

Principals divert school supplies meant for sanitation to their private schools. Pharmacists steal drugs from government hospitals to stock their shops. Vulcanizers puncture tyres on purpose. Housewives inflate bills. Husbands shower gifts on side chicks while neglecting their wives.

This betrayal is not always grand corruption — sometimes it is petty, but it accumulates into a culture of decay.

Uniforms, Guns, and Greed

Those entrusted with authority are not spared.

Senior officers sell secrets to the state’s enemies. Police turn neighborhood quarrels into cash cows. Court clerks collect bribes to move files or leak judgments. Local government chairmen swallow allocations without building roads, clinics, or schools.

Customs aid smugglers. Immigration officers forge papers for criminals. Drug pushers destroy youth, while 419 kingpins destroy Nigeria’s name abroad. Oil bunkers vandalize pipelines, draining the future.

Factories of Fakes

Markets are flooded with counterfeits.

Fake phones, fake chargers, fake cables that burn houses, fake medicines that kill patients, fake drinks and foods that poison families. Pirates rob musicians, authors, filmmakers, designers, and inventors of their sweat and creativity.

“Every fake product sold is not just theft — it is a weapon against the people.”

Stolen Futures

The betrayal does not end with the living; it stretches into old age.

Ghost workers draw salaries while the real laborers go unpaid. Pensioners, who gave decades of service, have their entitlements stolen by callous officials and their private partners.

Banks drain customers with endless “service charges.” Telcos shave off airtime. Companies exploit thousands of young people as “contract staff,” funneled through shell firms owned by their executives.

Hospitals misdiagnose deliberately, keeping patients longer to charge more. In the darkest corners, human organs are stolen and sold.

Cain, Prayers, or Both?

The question remains: Which weapon do we raise against these enemies — Cain or prayers?

Cain is vengeance. Prayers without action are surrender. Perhaps the answer is both: prayers for a change of heart, and Cain’s rod — justice — for those who refuse.

As the Scriptures remind us: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”

But prayers alone will not rebuild Nigeria. Systems must be enforced, accountability must be real, and consequences must be swift. A country cannot survive when its foundation is eaten from within.

Unless Nigeria confronts these saboteurs with courage, law, and collective will, one day the foundation will collapse beneath us all.