Recently I watched a movie entitled Blame it On Rio released in 1984 by Orion Pictures Corporation. It
made a boring evening lively for me. I slept that day reflecting on the motive for the movie. I learnt so
many lessons from it as a man. But now I can derive more lessons from it at the wake of the Boko Haram
experience playing out in the Nigerian state.

The storyline is about a couple whose marriage was mired with problems. They thought of a vacation in
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to ease tension and resolve whatever marital problems were affecting their
marriage. They both agreed to undertake the vacation. To make it more interesting, they invited another
couple with a similar problem to go with them. On the day of departure, the woman changed her mind as
she preferred vacation elsewhere other than Rio. The reason for her not travelling with her husband is the
main thrust of the movie. After intense argument, her husband had no choice but to allow her travel alone
to her preferred destination while he finds his way to Rio. Finding no option at the late hour, he sought
solace from his male friend. In fact his wife instead of travelling him decided, changed her mind and
served him divorce papers. He was sulking about the divorce proceedings. Since both of them had similar
problems, they decided to console each other while thinking of what to do with their marital lives while in
Rio. It was apparent that nothing could be best for them other than the vacation in Rio to allow them
\u201cthink\u201d their falling marriages, meditation on next step and console each other.

The two friends in dire strait made the journey in company of their two beautiful teenage daughters. Tell
me what you expect from this kind of vacation for two depressed men? While in Rio, a lovely city tagged
the New York of Brazil, the two men had a lovely time-out and their virgin teenage daughters went
bizarre experimenting love in all possible places. One thing led to another and temptation began to have a
grip on them with the help of wine. The men began to discover soaring secrets about their love lives. A
few days into the vacation, secrets began to unravel themselves between the friends and their two teenage
daughters. Keep in mind this is fiction, a Hollywood invention. While the first man was in love with the
daughter of his friend, the friend on the other hand was in love with the wife of his friend. And this was
the reason why the wife refused to follow him to Rio. The punch line is given at the end of the movie,
\u201cYou can blame the night, blame the wine, blame the moon, but when all else fails, you\u2019d better blame it
on Rio.\u201d And the producers rightly entitled the movie \u2018Blame it on Rio.\u2019 It was the vacation in Rio that

opened their eyes to understand the problems they carried to Rio from home. The ineptitude of the men
seeking solutions to their love lives in the wrong quarters made them reconcile quickly with their spouses
and this salvaged their marriages. Thanks to the vacation in Rio.

This motion picture has striking semblances with our present situation in Nigeria. The only difference is
that while Blame it On Rio is a motion picture, the one in Nigeria is real. In the middle of a simmering
national disaster our President Musa Yar\u2019Adua embarked on a journey to Brazil. In his entourage was the
Minister of Defense Dr. Shettima Mustapha, selected dignitaries leaving behind the police chief and army
commanders to deal with the Boko Haram dissidents. Nigeria is building for itself a negative clich\u00e9 as the
regional hotbed for religious crises, a multi-religious country with multifaceted talents for 21st century
challenges. Brazil on the other hand, is the land ofs amba, a destination for tourists and fun seekers
wishing to get away from the problems of their lives. Or rather let me say a destination for those who
wish to forget their problems temporarily. It\u2019s no wonder that our president had some time-out as guest
of the Brazilian government in the process negotiating business deals for Nigeria. Brazil played out its
niche as destination for fun-loving tourists, offering our president shoulders to cry on by his chief host on
the nagging problems of leading Nigeria\u2019s over 140 million people.

There are recurring motifs in the lives of both countries. While Nigeria is the most populous black nation
on earth seeking to lead its people to prosperity, Brazil on the other hand is house to most of the black
slaves no thanks to the slavery of the 15th century. Apart from battling with poverty in both countries, the
issue of official corruption is top in the lives of these two nations. Nigeria and Brazil are rated highly in
corruption index and this alone has incapacitated the growth of these nations. The President of Brazil Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva has been embroiled in corrupt charges involving members of his family. President
Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s problem is of a different genre bordering on the question of his legitimacy as elected
president which inadvertently is a sign of corruption. The Brazilian president\u2019s public rating is heading to
the south but he thinks it\u2019s going up north. It is reported that his auditor general Jorge Hage said, "People
are not stupid, they know corruption has always occurred in Brazil, and it's just that more of it is being
uncovered now, for the first time in Brazilian history, we have a systematic effort to fight it." Nigeria\u2019s
EFCC is putting up face by fighting corruption like the proverbial two steps forward and three steps
backward. It\u2019s a pity that Farida Waziri and her EFCC men are battling corruption with corrupt officials
in government to contend with. Let\u2019s offer her our support in this gargantuan task.

over and it\u2019s time to face the real and original problems he left before the journey. What made President
Musa Yar\u2019Adua visit Brazil even when his home was boiling? Recently at the G8 summit in Italy,
President Hu Jintao of China left the meeting to help quell a riot in Xinjiang region. He left back to face a
nation in great turmoil. But our president left Nigeria to Brazil despite the rioting, burning, maiming and
killing in the north. Government sources confirmed to the public thereafter that the president could not
postpone the journey at the wake of the Boko Haram uprising because he had postponed it last year.
Pretty good excuse for a presidential visit. At that point in time the fire had engulfed Bauchi, and was
spreading to Borno, Yobe and Kano. Yet he gave presidential orders and decided to frolic to Brazil less
the Brazilians should think him otherwise. This is a good reason. Now that he is back, he will be faced
with the gory report card of how the Boko Haram insurgents were quelled and brought down for peace to
reign in those areas.

The president will be briefed by the security heads that they have done their duty. The Police Inspector
General Ogbonnaya Onovo will boast that he mobilized his officers and men and contained the
insurgents. Of course the military offered some collaboration. His evidence will be the dead bodies of the
over 700 members of the group including their leader Mohammed Yusuf killed while \u2018trying to escape.\u2019
An African adage says, \u201cA lamb that decides to act like a wolf should be ready for the hunter\u2019s arrows.\u201d
The picture of the mosque, residence and bomb making materials of the group will be shown to Mr.
President to illustrate their success. Since it will be unsafe and un-presidential for him to visit the area, the
President will be lured into granting an international media conference or media broadcast to assure
Nigerians of government\u2019s resolve to deal with \u2018enemies of state\u2019. As palpable calm has been restored in
the affected areas, the President will be assured that \u201cthere\u2019s no cause for alarm\u201d the security agents are
\u201con the alert\u201d to deal with further cases of insurrection against the Nigerian state. I believe those security
chiefs will advice the president to go ahead and deliver a speech which will warn politicians using
religion as a weapon to desist from such acts or bear the consequences. As usual, government will make
promises to bring the culprits to book to assure us that something will be done. I guess my sample of the
speech will cover issues that we know about already but nobody should be surprised to hear these words,
\u201cPrior to my travel to Brazil, I ordered the security services of our country to deal decisively with the
uprising of the Boko Haram sect. I am glad that after my arrival, I have been briefed by the security heads
on the situation. Everything is under control. I assure Nigerians to go about their normal businesses as
their peace and security is guaranteed. May Allah bless Nigeria.\u201d Other issues will be added to make the
speech verbose, mellifluous and PDP-oriented: as in \u201cthis is the handiwork of enemies working against
this government\u201d and of course the usual Nigerian speech writers byline: \u201cmy government is prepared to