Something seems to be fatally flawed with most Nigerians especially those
who are orchestrating a politically-induced mass hysteria about hunger
presently. Something seems not to be in place with their orchestra even in
the face of the obvious reality that Nigeria has been vandalized and
hunger and want unleashed by those that deliberately mismanaged our good
fortune, stole us blind but have now mutated into choir masters of the ‘we
are dying of hunger’ orchestra, re age the country. Make no mistake about
it. Nigeria is in recession. Growth has slowed down but this is a global
experience that targets those countries that depend on crude sale for
funding their economies. Terrible cases like Nigeria where caches of
corrupt and unfeeling past leaders employed corruption and cluelessness to
loot the good fortunes of their countries at the peak of the global oil
harvest, stand out. Their cases are pathetic as they speak of the curse of
oil, even when oil is supposed to be a blessing.
Nigerians are feeling the pangs of recession. Oil which is the sole
mainstay of Nigerian economy, has stopped yielding the golden egg. Added
to this is that sponsored political warfare has been levied on this
mainstay by those that are still hurting from their loss of access to
steal state resources. As there are no fallbacks, it is only legitimate
that the country will plunge into recession as it did. In countries that
managed their resources well, this would not have been the case. The huge
savings and huge investments in regenerative infrastructures would have
bailed such country out, as it is bailing many countries today. The
savings for the rainy day would have bailed such countries from gliding
into recession and would have steadied their economies against the
vagaries of global oil prices. But Nigerian past leaders, especially he
immediate past Jonathan era where Nigeria made its richest harvest,
adamantly refused to save. It did not invest in critical infrastructures
either. It built no social investment and was rather consumed in
gluttonous free loading of vital state resources for its mandarins and
cahoots. At a time Nigeria should draw heavily from its huge investment
and savings, it had nothing to fall back on when oil prices plunged. That
is why we are in recession today. That is why there is hunger and hardship
in the country.
Nigerians are not hungry because Buhari stopped the stealing of state
resources by few remorseless individuals. Nigerians are not hungry because
Buhari rolled out measures to safeguard the little foreign reserve we had.
Nigerians are not hungry because Buhari decided to stop the wasteful
importation of food and other freebies which would have, by now, emptied
our little foreign reserves. Nigerians are not hungry today because Buhari
decided to plug the many rat holes through which minions of the previous
regime stole the country dry. Nigerians are not hungry today because
Buhari decided to invest in critical regenerative infrastructures the
previous governments adamantly neglected to rot away. Nigerians are not
hungry today because Buhari is insisting on probity and accountability in
the application of public resources. Contrary to what those that are
indulged in rigorous mischief trading today are saying, the afore
mentioned measures are all geared towards rectifying our mistakes and
placing the country on sure and certain paths of greatness.
That Nigerians are hungry today needs no genus to explain. As actions
carry consequences, the deliberate acts of corrupt public officials to
loot the treasury can only result in one consequence; hunger and privation
as we have in Nigeria today. When and how we got to the present is
decipherable from the sordid recent history of our nation where prodigal
mercenary governments presided over the ruinous plundering of national
wealth by choice lickspittles, leaving the country for dead. With the
benefit of hindsight and with stark statistics that predates the present
Buhari regime, it is easy to know why and how a richly blessed country
found itself in the present economic quagmire. It is not just about the
downscaling of global oil prices but more about the irresponsible attitude
of past governments to feed the tongs of corruption and allow it
unhindered sail in the conduct of public affairs in Nigeria. The failure
to save and invest in regenerative capital projects and the desire to
plunder everything in sight led Nigeria into the economic mess it is
wallowing today. It is the reason why Nigerians are hungry, as those who
were directly complicit in bankrupting the country desperately whelp
today.
So Nigerians are hungry. Thank God we have a regime that has boldly
plunged into very bold project of redirecting the country on the paths of
probity and accountability. It could have been disastrous were we to
continue with the past purblind regime that deified only corrupt
consumerism because there would have been nothing to steal today were the
nation cursed to continue with the past regime. Nigerians, despite the
short term mischief being employed to confuse and further take advantage
of them, must feel grateful that we have a regime that had foregone greed
and rapacious self-fending to rescue the country from this quagmire; a
regime that has boldly decided to plug corruption, recover whatever it can
of the dwindling state resources and invest them in the critical sectors
that were abandoned when the country was swimming in abundant petro
dollars. We must, in the ambience of our national life, thank God that a
regime that is minded to tame our irascible craze to live far above our
means, has started practical application of the much-talked
diversification of our economy and ensure that conduct of statecraft
confirms to maximum standards of financial rectitude. Deep in our
collective hearts, we know that there was no other way left for us to
rescue a hugely mismanaged country as Nigeria. There was no alternative to
reinvent a sinking behemoth. There was no other way the Nigerian Titanic
could have been steered from the rocks!
But then, what beats me is the Janus-faced attitude of some Nigerians
especially those who deliberately plunged the country into the present
mess and their hirelings who are busy recruiting hapless victims of their
vile acts to join them to bleat ceaselessly about hunger and hardship in
the country at present. How come those who are making a sing song of
hunger are the same people carrying placards urging EFCC not to
investigate Patience Jonathan for her ‘hard earned’ millions of dollars?
How come those whose voices have cracked for relentless beating of hunger
be the sane persons saying that prosecuting Sambo Dasuki and his coterie
of beneficiaries in the $2.1 billion arms scandal is political with hunt?
How come those who are chorusing about hunger and hardship are the same
people sponsoring and indulging on a politically-sponsored vandalization
of oil pipelines in a bid to cripple the Nigerian economy in their
vengeful political causes? How cone the same crooners of hunger and
hardship are the same people mounting shameful street parades and show of
support for the alias Metuh’s, the Fani Kayodes, the Tompolos, the
Akpobukelemes, the Amosus, the Saraki’s, and other sundry genre of alleged
plunderers of our treasury? I am really lost here!
How come those who are mounting national orchestra of hunger and hardship
today are ready and mobilizable pawns those who unseemly canibalised our
national treasury just the other day easily recruit to mount street
protests for them? How come those who bleat about being hungry
shamelessly defend the vandals that set upon our treasury and cleansed it
in such reckless manner just yesterday? How come those who mouth hunger
and hardship readily engage in fisticuffs in defence of rouges and
plunderers just because they come from their neck of the wood and adhere
to their own religions? How come those that yak of hunger and hardship
today are the ones that offer themselves as body shields to those who
have been implicated in gargantuan acts of corruption, especially in the
immediate part regime? How come those who make the loudest noise of being
hungry are the same people that seek every means to offer defence to the
shameless vermin that raided Nigeria’s resources the other day? My
confusion builds up still.
How come those that have formed a political sing song of hunger and
hardship struggle desperately to tell us to stop talking of the recent
past when oil, our mono economy sold for over $140 a barrel and the
country sold over 2.8 million barrels a day but to talk of the present
when oil hovers between $27 and $45 barrels a day with output going down
to as low as 1.2 million barrels a day? How come those that are stomping
all over the place seeking to hew political capital of hunger and hardship
grow silent on how their masters looted several trillions of Naira that
would have been employed to build a real economy that does not depend on
the fluctuations of oil prices? How come those that cry their eyes out of
how hungry they are form themselves into fighting mobs for the very
robbers that levied mass hunger and destitution on Nigerians through
uncurbed stealing? My bewilderment gathers momentum.
How come the same people that are shouting on rooftops that Nigerians are
hungry are the same people that have employed several means to hide the
billions of dollars and trillions of Nairs they stole from the Nigerian
state? How come those who are frantically yelping of hunger and hardship
employ the last strength of their lives to defend the most banal treasury
looter and threaten thunder and brimstone should any harm befall such
looters? How come that our eminent citizens have found it fashionable
sermonizing about hunger in the land but have grown conspiratorially
silent on the detestable acts of a few predators that looted the country
dry and levied hunger and untold hardship on Nigerians? How come those
that have found a campaign mantra on hunger and hardship are the ones that
issues moratorium and carry placards when any of the moths that ate our
lives out is questioned? I am getting more confused.
How come some Nigerians seem to be under a blanket amnesia in locating
where the rains started beating them? How come some Nigerians are playing
the ostrich in locating where their problems started with a view to
solving such problems in an enduring way? Does hunger induce amnesia? Does
hunger provoke a loss of sense? Does hunger also obliterate the memory?
Does hunger erode human capacity to think? Does hunger imbue
irrationality? Does hunger vitiate the human capacity to decipher? Does
hunger make humans senseless? The answer may depend on which side of the
aisle one is looking at the issue. True, Nigerians are hungry because the
economy has been viscerally ravaged since independence. The down spiral in
the price of oil only provided a trigger to what eminent Nigerians, policy
analysts and economists have been warning us of for many years now. The
exaggeration to our hunger and hardship is purely political. It is purely
a campaign slogan for those that were displaced from power last year
because they mismanaged our affairs. They merely kick-started another
campaign when the last election was hardly completed. They are beguiled
and mischievous sons of lucifer that still deign no end to manipulating
the minds of Nigerians for their perpetually selfish ends.
But I know our hunger, as a people that were robbed silly for several
decades by political marauders, is different from the noisome hunger and
hardship being parroted by those that seek to roll back the present effort
to tame corruption and its ancillary effects. Our hunger is different from
those of the displaced predators who warehouse our national patrimony in
coded bank accounts spread all over the world, choice assets and
treasuries as well as in tank farms, underground wells, latrines, storage
tanks, etc. They are crooning of hunger and hardship as mockery to us; the
really hungry and as a political war cry to seduce Nigerians to allow them
come back and continue the ruination that brought hunger and hardship to
us today. Our own hunger stems from the fact that our national resources
were plundered and we are left high and dry as the resources stopped
flowing in. Ours is real and the hope for its mitigation lies squarely in
the many bold efforts the Buhari regime is making today. Ours does not
induce amnesia. Their own hunger is artificial. It is a phantom. It is
fake. It can only work when it lures all of us to amnesia and make us
blind to the real facts why Nigerians are hungry today as well as the
ignominious roles of these merchants of vices in landing us where we are
today. Their hunger can only be satiated by returning our resources to
them to continue the ruination the present regime wants to arrest. In due
season, those who are unaware of the mischievous intent in the
orchestrated ‘we are hungry’ mantra being promoted today will shake off
their temporary amnesia and further safeguard the country from their
nefarious interests.
Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com