Pius Utomi Ekpei
By
Prince Charles Dickson
The greatest lesson in life is to know that sometimes even fools are right—Winston Churchill.
So, that the country is in recession is not the news, has never been the news, despite all the debates, arguments, mutual consent and accusations…who is at fault and who is not at fault…
I decided to share this as my admonition for this week, and it sums up why presumably Nigerians are in their current state.
Only last week, Governors of the nation’s 36 states devoid of party affiliations endorsed proposals of the Federal Government Economic Management Team (EMT). Not only did they endorse the plans to bring the nation out of recession, but equally passed a vote of confidence in the Minister of Budget and National Planning, and that of Finance. These governors say that the two had put into the tailor shop materials to bring out good clothing lines for Nigerians.
This pass mark was coming barely a day after the Senate had called for the reassignment/sack of the same duo for incompetence and inability to manage the economy.
So you see why Nigerians ‘dey’ suffer, governors say all is well as long as they collect subventions, they all say that our problem started with over-dependency on oil earnings, they say that there is a need to restructure and reset but they are NOT WILLING TO DO ANYTHING, and need be to say, DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT TO KNOW, except share money!
And one ‘wonders’ why Nigerians are suffering, we hear in one sweep the injection of cash into the system but we also hear that several billions are removed from the same economy, a case of giving antibiotics without food in the system.
These are governors with the exception of one baring two that all owe a minimum of two months salaries, in some cases strange happenings such as paying civil servants in percentages have occurred. And we wonder why Nigerians are suffering.
There is no political office holder in real-time and here I imply Minister, Commissioner, Governor, Legislator that is being owed two months salaries, while oil and gas earnings keep falling, and Nigerians are suffering these men and women have done nothing exceptional to merit the nomenclature of leaders….
Nigerians are suffering as all sectors are going comatose, Nigerians are suffering because ethos such as ‘you can do well in recession’ is being sold to them. ‘All will be well soon’ is being pushed down their throats. We are suffering because there is a criminal disconnect between the leaders and the led.
These men and women who are Nigerians still thrive in the same old ways that are responsible for the collective suffering of all. They are still thinking either within the box or outside while forgetting that in times like these there are no boxes.
Let me share more…asked on the state of economy “what do you say to people and economists who believe that we are going no way?”
Kemi my beloved Adeosun said, “Recession is technically successive quarters of negative growth. Actually, if you look at the trend of the Nigerian economy, growth has been slowing down consistently since 2012…”
And you tell me we are not in trouble…This particular government sure does love the word TECHNICAL, and technically speaking perusing through her answers to most questions in her ‘Queen’s’ accent only makes more Nigerians suffer. While English is being x-rayed by our economic experts, the Nigerian economy is barely staying afloat.
And like I did in the days of Ngozi Iweala, let me tell Kemi and Udoma…While I am not in the habit of just attacking government officials, I will not just disagree with these Ministers and their ilk but draw their attention to some realities, not just them alone but our other ‘dealers’ that are gearing up to buy our national assets.
All their economic talks are attracting the wrong kind of attention, and really there’s little being done by leadership because they are insulated and for a fact the populace are stuck in their docile train.
It is in this suffering train that Kemi and co. fail to understand and neither do we understand as a people, that we are only victims of ourselves as a nation.
Nigerians are suffering because they don’t know there is peoples’ power. If only all our young folks got off Facebook, stopped looking for jobs as PA to SA, and SA to SSA, and simply marched towards the Villa, or National Assembly or to their various governors, the story would have been better.
How many times I have said we are just naïve, in today’s Nigeria, no Minister’s kid is looking for a job, no governor’s ‘real’ brother was looking for an immigration or FIRS job. No local government chairman has an issue with getting his ‘real’ sister a job. The political classdon’t know that there’s no electricity, because Rimi road, Adeoye crescent, and Mbakwe close all have houses powered by generators.
Kemi and her co-travelers don’t understand the pain of a family whose substantial monthly income goes into purchasing cooking oil (kerosene).
For those that have lost someone, if you really understand that all is not well with Nigeria, let’s join hands in giving our leaders a wake-up call. If not, they will continue to deceive us, and change us at the whims and caprices, whether Jonathan or Buhari…for how long–only time will tell.
It is so vivid and touches heart. You did well Mr P C Dickson. Thanks for throwing light on the sufferings of people of Nigeria.