WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
As bad as it may appear, there are signs Nigeria is eventually heading for the long awaited solution. Unlike the practice from the past, everyone, even the opposition fold, is nearly jettisoning party politics and rallying round the common need to see the country out of the mud and predicaments that they have all together plunged the country into cumulatively, since independence. It has gotten so hot that no one is spared; the roof has fallen on everyone.
A great wind is swirling around at the moment; and I see Nigerians uniting to fight poverty, to fight corruption. It is the dawn of a change long overdue. Gone were the days when our people lined up to sing praises of the politicians who stole our national commonwealth. The days when we stood strong behind them to defend them, in the name of support for our ethnic and religious affiliations. Now, it is clear to us that hunger does not recognise the lines we drew to aid these enemies of our commonwealth. And this is just the beginning.
But the cries for solution would amount to nothing if we don’t know where the real problems of the country come from, and the people that need to be challenged to get the country back on the right path to recovery and a restart.
We mustn’t shy away from the fact that we are here today, because many Nigerians, both in the corridors of power and those opportune to be in positions of authority have turned out to be cruel, heartless, selfish and literally evil; from some of our state governors, to local government administrators, to executives of banks and companies, to a great deal of those at the centre, to religious leaders, and a large number of average citizens. And this is the time to call them out as part of the journey to solution.
The more we keep quiet, the worse it would get for us. We must call out every individual who is part of the any cartel eating up our economy. The Dangote group, for instance, of what benefit has it been to Nigeria? A common perception is that it enjoys all possible concessions from the government to remain strong in business, yet doing nothing to pay back to the system. Take cement for instance; some months ago, BUA group was ready to crash the price of cement to #3500. Was it feasible? Yes, otherwise, the company wouldn’t have made the decision. Today, what is the price of cement and why? Cement now sells for as much as #9000 all the way from lesser than #5000 a few months ago. The Dangote group exercises a near monopoly strength to force prices to its dictates. If it was possible to sell it at #3500, how on earth does it rises to #9000? Part of solving our many problems would be asking many questions and getting answers to many questions in equal measures. Why is every Dangote group product, which is virtually everywhere equally unaffordable for the Nigerian masses.
The banking sector also abandons its due responsibility to Nigerians. We no longer talk of banks giving loans for small business take-off; or of financing investments that do not bring direct profits to the banks. Overtime, we grew bank executives who become excessively rich, all because they set up a corruption system, collect dollars from the central bank routinely, for the purpose of legitimate usages, only to corner the bulk of the dollars, and through backdoor, patronise the black market where they rake in billion of dollars to private accounts on a weekly basis, while the naira continued to get bastardised. Or else, how do we explain off the immense wealth of the ranks of bank executives in the country? If we are really ready for change, then, we must ask questions and demand appropriate answers.
How do we explain this? Nigerians selling off Nigeria for personal gains. Till today, we all still pretend not to care how Nigerian carriers died for MTN to get stronger and become what it is today; repatriating tons of billions in currencies from the country annually. Where is NITEL and the floated MTEL of old? Today, with MTEL, we would have securely domiciled billions in Nigeria, but no, a few Nigerians, till today, continue to benefit from MTN’s continued exploitation of our collective stupidity.
Then, we have to deal with DSTV’s abnormal billing system. In South Africa and other country, where the company operates, the module is payment per view; like an electric prepaid meter, you pay as you watch. But what happened in Nigeria? The legislative bill to effect it was thrown under the carpet. Some Nigerians indeed, betrayed the country as usual. The truth is we cannot continue to have foreign companies dominating sectors where we possess local capacity. We must fish out Nigerian collaborators who are backing and also benefiting from the undue advantages being enjoyed by these companies and put an end to these anomalies before they finally destroy our system.
The PDP governors rained fire some days ago. They literally put the blame for the national calamities at the door step of the President and the APC governors. And funny enough, a sizable number of our people joined the foray in support of the opposition narratives without critically dissecting the misleading assertions. Only in 2023, the 36 governors altogether, across political parties had received from the federation account as monthly allocations, a whopping #6.57 trillion, excluding IGR, yet, they have the boldness to cast blame somewhere else. I am not interested in attacking only the PDP governors hut any non-performing governor,. In a federated state, the state government is saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the development of its population; but, some governors collect allocations, convert it to dollars and sit on it while waiting for the next payment.
If Nigeria must exit this current challenge and begin to see meaningful development, the state administrations must become functional. Every state must be able to legislate its own development pathway and fund its development with available income from the centre, its internally generated revenue and possibly borrowing. In the last probably one year, however, most of our states were so idle to the point that they couldn’t record a single capital importation into their states. Employment generation was mostly, absolutely zero, investments in health hardly exceed what comes from the federal government. So bad, that the states have only become a route for salary payment and luxurious lifestyles of power position occupiers. We must begin to see states that holistically take up their development with little or no expectations from the centre. But above all, as long as we allow state governors to go home with state allocations without consequences, we will remain the lazy, naive simpletons who want to see changes without the readiness and willingness to lift a finger.
Each and every year, we export as much as $4 billion to bring in clothes into a country effectively blessed with Cotton and a previously thriving sector but now with no adequate capacity to produce all its fabrics. What will it cost the federal and state governments to change this narrative? The textile industry died and has been allowed to stay dead by administration after administration since 1999. If we are getting out of this mess, the national textile industry with factories across the country must be given life again.
Each year, we spend $2 billion on medical tourism in foreign countries; and another equally high forex volume to import drugs into the country. Yet, the country is capable of meeting its medications needs locally of the right efforts are put in place. What will it cost us to make a policy statement that will improve the nation’s local drug manufacturing capacity to meet national need and free the country from excessive dependence on foreign drugs at the expense of our national economy?
We are the cause of each and every of our problems; and we would also be the solutions when we are ready. No divine power is coming to fix Nigeria for us and no nation in the world is coming to help us to do what we refuse to do for ourselves. Nigerians, it is time to rise and demand answers to penitent questions.
The moment of hard truths is upon us!
God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!
