WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
Over the last few weeks I have been belabouring over what has to be done to get Nigeria out of the mess it has plunged into overtime. I have suggested several possible pathways, including political and administrative decisions, and citizens’ responses that are capable of addressing the many challenges the nation faces. I have raised alarms a number of times over the consistent fixations on irrelevancies while we apparently pretend to be serious about repositioning Nigeria, the challenged nation. The situation of Nigeria appears to get worse by the day, despite the government’s efforts to correct decades-long structural defects. We are experiencing again and again, the combined failures of every Nigerian to recognise the errors we keep making, and our continued concentration on issues that appeal to emotions rather than provide solutions to real national challenges.
The current Administration has proven to so many of us that it really wants to make a difference, with its many daring policies. It takes a visionary leadership to take futuristic hard decisions as we are witnessing currently. Regardless of the current hardship and the struggles for immediate survival in the country, we cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that the president is not intentionally punishing Nigerians. We must recognise the bottom line of the decisions that throw up all the restructuring policies we are dealing with at the moment, and at best, find a way to address the short-term consequences, especially to minimise the direct impacts on Nigerians and give maximum support to the achievement of the policies’ end goals.
It would be an understatement to say there are challenges facing Nigeria as a nation and that Nigerians are facing perhaps, the most difficult times in the history of the nation – the civil war period being an exception. We have seen theoretically appraised, well-intentioned and approved policies with dismal outcomes because the Nigerian system has been built to oppose changes and frustrates attempts to correct its internal and intrinsic errors. Had it been a normal well-behaved system, we would conclude that the citizens are paying the price for the changes that are desirable and underway, giving the efficacies of the ongoing policies; but here and now, the truth be told, the case appears different. Going by the pulse of the nation, the majority of Nigerians are in agony. And it is only natural that any well-meaning patriotic Nigeria would ask pertinent questions and raise their voices.
I believe the president and the presidency meant well for the country, but the policies, as good as they are, have only succeeded in inflicting gruesome pains on the citizens necessitating critical thoughts, questions and the quest for viable solutions. Policies are not necessarily cast on stones; and there is room for improvements, including remedial actions. While a single opinion article like this cannot claim to proffer an absolute elixir to the plethora of challenges facing the most populous black nation in history, I however have a few observations that may be considered and that could move the needle as well.
To be noted is the criticism of the opposition against the Tinubu Administration, that we are not a nation ripe for such a sudden leap in attempting to correct our many past errors. Accordingly, the fuel subsidy removal has only succeeded in creating an unprecedented inflation across all goods, commodities and other necessary economic exchanges in the country; and turning the economic and wellness of the citizens to a shadow of what it used to be. We have now created an economy where the minimum wage cannot effectively buy a bag of rice, which is now a little above a hundred thousand naira. Now, this requires a robust response from the present Administration and the ruling party. This is where the media team of the present Administration ought to educate Nigerians and offer the assurances that Nigerians are not being taken to where they do not know. I believe the president Tinubu needs better policy condiments to improve his present recipes. I will offer one here.
The underlying premise was that the fuel subsidy removal would free huge resources that we were hitherto reportedly wasting on subsidising fuel for Nigerians, our neighbouring nations and pockets of selfish Nigerians, to be diverted meaningfully; and that this time around, the freed resources would flow into developmental projects that would directly impact lives of Nigerians. But here we are today, eighteen months after, all we see are the state government and local government receiving bogus monthly allocations without traces of where the monies are going. There is no known policy safeguard to ensure that these freed resources, especially to the downstream political units would be put to the best of use. And I stand to be corrected anytime on that.
However, the paucity of meaningful and impactful developmental actions at the state and local government levels are increasingly becoming the major contributor to the problems we face today and that makes the federal government at the centre appear bad and uncaring. And no one, especially in this government, is doing anything serious about this observation, this perspective. Why take away the most important national economic element, fuel subsidy, only to widen the pockets of governors and local government chairmen, who now apparently misappropriate the money for selfish usages. Or where are the inputs from the other two relevant levels of governments to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians in the last eighteen months? Obviously none! All tongues are wagging at the federal government, while the others are eating the largesse of a resource in silence. The national focus should be on what the sub-national governments are doing with the unprecedented surplus at their disposal.
Not a single state has truly effectively responded to the serious food inflation challenge in the country; all we see is rhetoric that never translated to effective actions and results. Though, I am aware a few states have been embarking on some bold agricultural initiatives which however seem to be far too experimental and all have unclear business models. There are quite a number of seasonal crops that take less than six month to harvest and distribute and we are yet to see any serious state or local government intervention breaking any record in this rather simple concern. Again, I stand to be correct on this.
However, the states and local governments in the past eighteen months have collected monthly allocations and sit on it as usual, and no one is doing anything serious about it. Nigerians are quiet, probably due to the dire economic situation. I do hope this perspective that I brought up will be considered. We need to point our searchlight to the state and local governments.
However, we have seen some self-professed national leaders and activists who are more interested in matters that will line their pockets. Summarily, the proceeds of fuel subsidy removal are ending up in private pockets and not circulating as it is expected while Nigerians are suffering under the guise of paying the price of projected greatness that may never materialise – on time – except we do the right thing timely and talk where we are supposed to talk.
Every Nigerian has somehow become a hypocrite of sorts. We talk only to gratify our desires, and keep mum when we either have nothing to gain, or silence would be more beneficial to our personal aggrandizements. We don’t know who to trust again. Just a few days ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo went out all ranting about the sitting president and warning that unless the INEC chairman and the entire institution is changed, there would not be any free and fair election in the country. This came at the backdrop of the just concluded Edo and Ondo state governorship elections that were won by the ruling party. I do not possess evidence of rigging or otherwise, just as I know it would be only a product of my own bias, to take a position on the outcomes of the events. Yet, we see so many senior citizens taking such unsubstantiated positions, and I ask why? This is the same country where every state records perfect victories in elections conducted by the state electoral bodies, and no one is asking questions. But we talk when an incumbent ruling national party wins a reelection in a state the ruling party has been in control of for over a decade.
The hard truth has to be told and it is now. We cannot continue to deceive ourselves, hiding behind all sorts of hypocrisies and biases to undermine the nation’s real reach for growth and development. The absurdity of the hypocrisy that defines the interactions of the members of our elite is perhaps the greatest undoing of the country. Those who are positioned by whatever factor as elders of the land, who are supposed to be the voices that cry for restoration for the broken systems, have all proved to be vicious snakes; only interested in building advantages for themselves within a weakened system of a dying nation. I have asked again and again, where are our elders? Where are the patriotic voices speaking to the errors clamping down on the nation? Where are they? Is it wrong if we are a couple of patriotic citizens, who would let go of self aggrandizement to talk about the real issues bothering Nigeria and keep everyone on their toes, instead of what we have now; supposed leaders talking to have their way and strengthen their positions in reckoning within the country.
Where are the Obasanjos? Where are the Clarks? Where are they across the North, South, West and East? What are they doing when the child is about to be thrown away with the entire bathing water? Why has no one considered it necessary to speak to the corruption in the states and the local governments as the major impediment to the real growth and development of the country? Why isn’t anyone bothered about or raising their voices on the outright failures of the state and local government administrations to tackle head-on the lingering national food insecurity, giving the apparent resources war chest at their command and the responsibility on their heads?
Rather than addressing the real problems facing the country, what we see everyday is increasing infighting for political and economic controls among these elements. Just last week, former president Olusegun Obasanjo dropped another bombshell; he berated the current Administration and concluded that the INEC institution must be overhauled for the country to move forward. Do I share the sentiment that there is a need to critically rejig the institution to boost the effectiveness of the nation’s electoral process and overall democracy? Yes, I wholly do. But do I flow with the statement coming from the former President at a time like this? No! Why? Because it stings a lot of hypocrisy! It obviously does not come from an intention to see changes, but rather to disparage and gain relevance.
The 2003 and 2007 election cycles were the worst we have seen in the country. Those elections saw hundreds of Nigerians killed and several others injured majorly by the foot soldiers of the then ruling party. Elections did not take place in many locations as intimidation was the order of that dark era, yet results were written and the president hailed the election as peaceful, free and fair. It was the same period we heard of a direct order from the president that the entire South West must be “captured” for the ruling party at all cost.
In 2007, late president Umaru Yaradua, lamented after victory about the nature of the victory he claimed. He acknowledged that the election spearheaded by his predecessor was absolutely flawed with irregularities. In fact, those elections set up a demonic precedent for elections in the country; writing election results in bedrooms, turning out numbers in millions without actual votes and announcing results of a presidential election while collation was still ongoing, were but just a few of the electoral aberrations of the time – in the era of former president Olusegun Obasanjo and his party, PDP. They set up terrible antecedents, infamously called elections of “do or die;” and today they are castigating a better but not perfect system.
This was the same period and the same people who destroyed the institution of the Nigeria legislature. It was the same period the National Assembly became possessed with optimum corruption which continues till today. They introduced the Ghana-must-go money bags to bribe lawmakers to allow the presidency to have its way on all issues, including removing heads of the same national legislature at will and arbitrarily, and laid the foundation of the behemoth corruption that characterises many of our national institutions today. We cannot continue to pretend we don’t know all these while the same perpetrators are claiming saints and taking us for a ride.
As of today, the country is economically and technologically backward, and literally, we are pointing accusing fingers at the government in power. But it all began somewhere; how possible is it for a nation to enjoy a meaningful growth and development without access to minimum energy? As of today, in 2024, Nigeria’s electricity generation averages 5,000 MW, in a century when serious nations are easily claiming six to seven digits of megawatts in generated electricity. How can we develop when we pretend as if all is well in the midst of decay. Yet, there was a time not too far in the past when a president decided to budget $16 billion over a period of time to alter the nation’s history in power generation and distribution. If all we have today is a mere 5000MW, shouldn’t we ask sincerely, what really happened to the budgeted money? No, rather, as the country wallows in economic underdevelopment that are direct consequences of our apparent past failures to build necessary infrastructure, we close our mouths, while the perpetrators, the past failed leaders are pointing accusing fingers elsewhere.
Today, we depend almost absolutely on imported products and that wouldn’t change any time soon. A nation cannot develop manufacturing strength overnight; yet, we lost our hard-earned developments in manufacturing, all in a period of eight years between 1999 and 2007. We watched the Nigeria railway, the Nigeria Airways, and hundreds of national manufacturing assets collapse as we claimed we were privatising them for greater efficiency and effectiveness. Today, the same people who saw the Aluminium Smelting Company Ikot Ekpene die an untimely – not natural – death are today saints who are pointing out the errors of others; and Nigerians are quiet.
We have got serious problems as a nation, but the most worrisome of our challenges is the fact that we pretend a lot. We ignore the problems and chase shadows in the name of searching for political relevance, social relevance and a whole host of irrelevancies for our many emotional attachments. Until we get to the point where we are ready to stop and face reality; by speaking truth to the real problems of the country, if not, we are just beginning.
GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!
