Last week, I wrote about what the requirements for acceptance of political parties and their candidates by the nationwide electorate would be in 2023; and I also posited that it is about time politics and democracy really became the pillar upon which the prosperity and safety of the country is established, and Nigerians, from all corners of life, must wake up from their slumber to jettison inordinate ambitions, political misalignments and ethnic jingoism that have made politicking and democracy the albatross of the country.
It is hard to conceive how Nigerians, regardless of political party leanings, would descend so low to the point of suggesting or declaring that what the country needs at this material time is not infrastructural development. I have tried and found no plausible excuse for the reasoning behind such unpatriotic rhetoric. What brought us to the level of mental, social and security decay we now experience if not perennial absence of infrastructure that would have driven the economy and effectively engaged the mammoth population of youths and others who have become tools of terror and nuisance to the country across the states and regions of the country.
Yes, in our misbehaviour, we have used every means possible to turn Nigerians against Nigeria; de-popularise noble achievements, and revel in the chaos created to amass unholy electoral support, but the recent posture and utterances publicly credited to the likes of Rev. Kukah, Peter Obi and several other PDP apologetics and haters of the ruling party went too far overboard. Currently, the socio-political fabric of the country is at the most delicate point of tearing apart; tribal and religious hatred, coupled with economic depreciation caused by decades of infrastructural neglect has exacerbated insecurity and deepened our economic woes. Languages that would in any form broaden the national maladies are unbecoming of supposed statesmen and individuals who are seen as leaders in the country, regardless of whether they are in government or opposition. After all, the wellness of the country ought to supersede our individual, parochial urges.
Peter Obi and all the other PDP elements that rose to propagate freedom of speech over infrastructural development of the country are precisely being economical with the truth and have been excessively politically incorrect. Globally, it is no news that infrastructure drives all areas of development. Nations across the world, global development bodies are championing infrastructural development. Growth and development of nations are measured on the back of their commitments to infrastructural development, so these men couldn’t be serious and outside political selfish considerations meant the ounce of statements they have tendered.
The vice President of the United State of America, Kamala Harris, presented what the Biden administration considered the most salient need of the country as they pursue a new level of engagements that would meet the country’s contemporary challenges. In her words, massive updating and development of the nation’s infrastructure is the only anecdote to revamping the sleeping economy of the country and reverse the losses of the COVID-19-hit economy. The American government under the present dispensation is doing everything to push through a nationwide infrastructure bill, as massive as $2.3 trillion; seeking and accepting compromises that would bring the much needed bill to the light. The Republicans however are jittery even as Donald Trump outrightly blamed the Republican-led Senate for their failure to allow the bill to pass during his tenure and reflect the worry that passing the bill would naturally increase the ratings of the Democrats in the coming midterm elections.
Americans, even across party boundaries, recognise the infrastructure bill is a positive for their country; and the nature of the opposition to the bill is never to kill it but to get compromises that will give them shares in the glory and political followership that would be harvested from the bill implementation. If the almighty America is spending hugely to update its infrastructure and the likes of other heavy spenders such as China, UAE and many others are racing against time to unfold yet new development every other year; how could Kukah and Peter Obi, for instance, arrive at their anti-infrastructure submission?
Long before now, infrastructural deficit was recorded as perhaps the greatest challenge of Nigeria. Several international rating agencies, including the World Bank, the IMF, Moody’s and several others had raised the obvious alarms severally before 2015. The nation’s infrastructure gap was then pegged at approximately $3trillion. Despite the oil windfall of pre-2015, the former PDP government invested only 3% of the nation’s GDP between 2009 and 2013 and made no impact on remedying the gap.
Yet, in Nigeria, a party that held power for sixteen year, and boasted to retain power for sixty years is convinced the country does not need rapid infrastructural development to drive its economy and rebuild the ruins of the decades. In clear terms, they mean they do not believe constructing roads, bridges and railways could create jobs; provide means of livelihood for citizens and income for the states. They either do not believe or willfully choose to dismiss the importance of infrastructural development in power generation, transportation, agriculture and other sectors as panacea to insecurity and overbearing poverty in the streets and the affliction of the Nigerian masses.
No wonder the period between 1999 and 2015 was devoid of infrastructural development. Instead of expending national incomes from the booming crude oil sales of the period on infrastructure, they opted for using the resources to massage and fill their pockets and spoil Nigerians to see free monies
