Femi Oluwasanmi
The essence of history is to understand the past, evaluate and analyse the present in order to predict the future. This suggests that the celebration of independence is not only for merriment but a time of reflection on the labours of the heroes past and the current state of the nation especially, putting into consideration the increasing hardship, hunger, anger, and others that seem to portray that Nigeria’s resilience has been exhausted to its rubicon.
In 1960, Nigeria gained independence from the colonial masters with a chorus that resonate a vision to build a peaceful, prosperous and progressive nation where no man is oppressed. However, 64 years down the lines, the actualization of the vision seems to be in contention despite the numerous resources across the country and the promises of the government to harness them for wealth creation and development.
In fact, it appears that the country has been placed on an autopilot with the series of policy somersault and inconsistencies that have aggravated the hunger and anger in the land and further buttresses the claim that the messiah is yet to come.
For instance, before the swearing in ceremony of president Bola Ahemd Tinubu in May 2023, a bag of rice which is the most popular food among Nigerians was sold at a price hovering around #30, 000 while a bag of beans was sold for #40, 000. This has increased to #80, 000 and #120, 000 respectively in less than two years of this administration. The same is applicable to other food items.
Yet, the government continues to implore the masses to see it as sacrifice for the quest to build a new Nigeria while the reports of humongous allocation for the renovation of the office of the president, office of the first lady, purchasing of new fleet of cars, private jets among others are gradually becoming the daily captions in most of the dailies. Thus, raising questions on who is to pay more sacrifices in the struggle to build a new Nigeria between the rich and the masses.
Although, the genesis of the quagmire predates president Bola Ahemd Tinubu’s administration because of the level of corruption and mismanagement acclaimed to have been carried out by the immediate past administration but the in ability of the government to pay serious attention to the sensitivity and plight of the people in policy making has aggravated the excruciating situation and glorified palliative distribution to the level that further dampens hope for a new Nigeria under this administration.
Also, the palliative collection and distribution points that ought to be a place of sober reflection on how the country descended from the throne of a giant of Africa where it was lending to countries, feeding nations, shouldering the burdens of many countries in Africa to a dejected stage where the government’s performance is measured by the quantity of palliatives given to her citizens has become a theater of war where the survival of the fittest tactics are deployed to ensure a share in the national crunch. That is why some have argued that there is no much difference between Nigeria and a country at war.
This is buttressed by the increase in the frequency of protest demonstrations and agitations across the country which most times lead to the destruction of lives, property and create fear in the minds of some of the investors planning to invest in the nation’s economy. For example, not less than 17 people lost their lives on the first day of the end bad governance protest that took place in August, 2024. While more than a trillion naira was recorded to have lost during the endsar protest in October 2020.
This is really disheartening because it negates the visions of the heroes that traded the path of pleasure for pains in the struggle that birthed the country’s independence in 1960 but it is not unexpected in a country where those entrusted with the power to pilot the affairs of the nation seems to have lost the necessary compass for navigation.
One of the obvious missteps made by the government of recent was the removal of the fuel subsidy on the pretext of the quest to eliminate corruption at the
petroleum industry without putting in place adequate measures to cushion the effect of the removal on the people and economy.
Surprisingly, till date, it is very difficult to categorically state without any equivocation that Nigeria is not paying subsidy or, the exact amount of subsidy being paid on a liter of petroleum product because of the numerous times that the government had justified the increase in the pump price on the altar of subsidy removal.
In fact, it appears that the fuel subsidy discourse only becomes public issue whenever there is low voltage in the corruption current that powers the sharing machine among the cabals and remains silence whenever the mission to increase pump price in order to ensure enough sharing among the cabals is achieved.
This can be deduced from the drama displayed by the Dangote refinery and NNPC months before the commencement of petroleum product production and the complete silence on the exact landing cost of a litre of petroleum product from the refinery from both sides.
Meanwhile, the government had on several occasions declared that it has successfully transformed the petroleum industry from a closed market to a free market smooth enough for healthy competition among the players in the industry. Unfortunately, in reality, what seems to be in place is the continuation of monopoly by the NNPC in the nomenclature of a sole off taker.
No wonder, some have argued that the invisible hands predicted to have the potential of crashing the pump price of premium motor spirit at the inception of the construction of the Dangote refinery has been amputated by the visible hands of the cabals masquerading as NNPC thereby, dampening the hope that monopoly in the sector will soon give way for competition.
That Nigeria is too rich to be poor is not in doubt but what remains in contention is the willingness of those entrusted with the power to pilot the affairs of the country to seek the original compass of prosperity and progress handed down at the independence and update it to reflect the needs and aspirations of the people so the the plane of the country currently on autopilot can respond to command.
Femi Oluwasanmi,
Atakunmosa,
Osun State.
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