I have found it absolutely necessary to write again in the course of our
nation’s chequered history. It is my fervent hope that everyone stumbles
upon this piece, reads and digests the contents. It is none other than
the ongoing grim and obviously sad situation on the ground which
stares us ominously in the face. This, you will all agree with me, has
drawn the attention of our neighbours in the West African sub-region.
However, there is no denying the fact that Nigeria has a government in
Abuja headed by a man with a military background in the person of
President Buhari. I shall in the course of this piece shed light on why
government exists. One of the major reasons, for starters, is to make
laws, moreso a wide range or variety of rules which are desirable for
society to properly function and progress. These rules are often
created to provide law and order and ultimately protect society from
conflicts which have happened throughout history.
That man by nature is selfish, domineering and often lords over others
is not in dispute. This has often led to conquests, subjugation and
expansion both on the social and economic fronts. Today, we have a
country made up of over 250 ethnic nationalities with different
historical, religious, cultural and social backgrounds fused into a
large distinct polity by the historic amalgamation of 1914.
It is time we evaluated this government’s results on security, social
welfare and infrastructures development – to serve as indicies of its
performance and effectiveness.
May 29, 1999 goes down in history as the year Nigeria again returned to
civil democratic rule. Extant laws were modified and new ones were
made to meet exigencies, age-old yearnings and aspirations of
Nigerians geared towards the security and well-being of our people. It
is the interest and desire of every Nigerian to be safe in one’s chosen
place of residence in the federation of Nigeria. In the dim past,
Nigerians slept with eyes closed and some of us could hit the road even
at night from Nigeria’s coastal plains to the Sahelian regions of
Northern Nigeria. Sad to say today all that has changed as our country
has been over-run by Janjaweed armed militias thereby making the
government of the day a cacophony of an epic diabolic proportions.
Security
In terms of security which is one of government’s statutory
responsibilities, the government in Abuja, you will agree with me has
not only failed woefully but abysmally. Banditry, killings and
kidnappings are on the ascending order of magnitude – one of the
trademarks of a failed leadership. What I often cherish is a larger
Nigeria to give us a vocal voice in the comity of nations but the
bloody insurgency in the northeast is increasingly making this a pipe
dream as our territory shrinks by the day due to the ongoing armed
invasion by insurgents who are fighting to actualize a sovereign islamic
state in the embattled region.
We have never had it so bad! No one, you will all agree with me, is
comfortable with the obviously sad situation! Armed criminal gangs now
play the piper and dictate the tune while Nigerians look on helplessly
as the government of the day cowardly throws in the towel. Over 750
cases of criminal abductions have been recorded with a whooping N10
billion reportedly paid in ransom to these tribes of socially
undesirable elements who say it is either their diabolic whims and
caprices prevail or there would be no Nigeria. The situation is even
grimmer in the north as scores of Nigerians in that part of the country
have gone untimely to the grave. Nigeria’s once glorious and peaceful
north has been overrun by armed militias! Whither are we bound?
Down south, the situation is better imagined than real. Criminal
elements who masquerade as herdsmen wielding assault rifles often
unleash terror on our people. Farmlands are often destroyed, farmers
are hacked to death in their tens and hundreds giving rise to food
shortage and scarcity. To compound our grief, the northern traders
under the auspices of Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers
of Nigeria have blocked foodstuffs supplies to the south. Where you find
foodstuffs that have been smuggled in the cost is prohibitive. This is a
region whose means of livelihood are destroyed daily by some criminal
elements from that region of the country. I am very sure Nigeria will
cease to exist if the south which considers the former a drag speaks
with one voice and retaliates. It never rains but it pours, so the
saying goes. Into what grave dangers would these further lead Nigeria
with a cast of neophyte actors at the helm?
Like what presently obtains in the north, communities in the south have
been overrun by the same band of mephistophilan Homo Sapiens from
extinct barbarian tribes. Government appears at its wit end as the
security measures put in place have collapsed like a pack of cards and
returned us to the proverbial vicious circle.
Social welfare
Governments the world over make provision for the citizenry. This
borders on assistance programmes geared towards the well-being and
quality care of the country’s citizens.
In other words, in pursuing social welfare group of assistance
programmes are designed to help the people such as housing, education,
family circumstances, medical care, food distribution at safety nets,
subsidies to name but a few.
In the build-up to 2015 federal elections in Nigeria, the All
Progressives Congress as a party then in the opposition with a vibrant
voice promised to rapidly transform Nigeria to the proverbial lost city
of El-Doraldo. With these alluring promises which border on security,
social welfare, infrastructures development, introduction and
implementation of fiscal policies that would make the Naria, Nigeria’s
monetary unit equal in value to the US dollar, Nigerians fell for the
merchants of falsehood hook, line and sinker and threw the PDP and the
Jonathan administration into the graveyard – a blunder which over 85%
of Nigerians rue to this day. Under the PDP-controlled Federal
Government, the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo paid off
Nigeria’s debts and built up our foreign reserves even when crude oil
sold for much less in the international market while under President
Jonathan with good economic managers Nigeria rose from behind, overtook
Egypt and displaced South Africa to become Africa’s largest economy
after a rebasing calculation of our GDP. These were in indeed
interesting times and important epochs in our economic and political
history which made life super abundant and gave rise to Hegira home at
the time as against frustration, hunger, hopelessness and thoughts of
imminent death that now hang over our heads like the ancient sword of
Damocles. Today, our people flee Nigeria in droves as security of lives
and property increasingly becomes elusive.
Going by the promises they made at the sad period under review and our
entitlements in terms of social welfare programmes, how many Nigerians
today receive assistance from the All Progressives Congress-controlled
Federal Government? In many countries when you are unemployed you are
entitled to social benefits which is a proactive step towards curtailing
crimes and a host of other social maladies.
In civilized climes, society participants when plagued or faced by
certain untoward events receive assistance from government. How many
times has the Federal Government assisted you with payment of house
rents? How many times have you received unemployment compensation in
cash from the Federal Government being part of their promises in the
build-up to the 2015 presidential election? Sad to say this is not only
unobtainable in the near and far future but may only happen the day pigs
begin to fly as APC remains in power. On this wise, Buhari’s emergence
has only succeeded in anihilating the democracy Nigeria enjoyed in 16
years under the Peoples Democratic Party with a batteted economy, bloody
insurgency, separatst feelings and agitations, poverty, hunger and
frustration ultimately sounding us the death knee.
Education
Today, in terms of education, Nigeria under the APC-controlled Federal
Government has fallen from its Olympian height. Strikes which last for
over 10 months and sometimes over 12 months by academic and
non-academic staff who only ask for their entitlements – better wages
and living conditions – often disrupt our school academic calendar
thereby bringing about drop-outs and half-baked products into our labour
markets. This re-echoes Chinua Achebe’s famous line in his best-seller
of all time “Things Fall Apart ” – “Where are the young suckers that
will grow when the old banana trees die” My recent visit to a certain
Federal Government -owned school in Nigeria broke my spirit as the
school in question was totally bereft of infrastructures. Only three
teachers were in a school with no learning or teaching aid whose
salaries, I gathered, are paid by public-spirited natives. That is what
it is probably like all over the country which private schools operators
have taken advantage of by notoriously fleecing over 70% Nigerians who
live below the breadline. In consequence of this, many children have
dropped out whereas in other countries government often assists parents
to ensure children remain in school. Only yesterday, Edo State
Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki as a trail blazer and visionary leader par
excellence made two Executive Proclamations which make it compulsory
for parents to send their children to school while the state government
on its part proclaimed access to Free Basic Education for all children
in the state which is reminiscent of the lost golden age under Prof.
Alli while Governor of the defunct Bendel State. This again is another
important epoch in a PDP-controlled state which ought to be replicated
by other governors in their states. Thanks to Pa Awolowo’s Free
Education Programme of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), I, for
one, would not have seen the four walls a secondary grammar school. That
makes the late sage a living example of what man can be and accomplish
in the realm of excellence and virtue.
Infrastructures
On infrastructures development we must now turn. “The only way to have
stable electricity is to vote out PDP” , The Nation newspapers published
on July 12, 2014 quoted Babatunde Fashola as saying while Governor of
Lagos State, adding that the then PDP-controlled Federal Government
lacked ideas. Ironically, the man who spewed this shocker headed the
power sector for four calendar years. James Watts, may God rest his
soul, the inventor of the steam engine who is honoured with Watts and
kilowatts with which units of electricity is measured today must be
looking askance at this naysayer for his inability to add one megawatt
to the national grid for four calendar years. People like him and the
party he represents should remain silent forever on national issues
having lost the credibility to lead. In fact, I had expected Babatunde
Fashola to resign a long time ago being part of the clogs in our wheel
of progress.
So on what basis is the ruling party seeking power retention by the
ongoing party membership re-validation exercise when everything is at
sixes and sevens under its watch? Is it to field or recycle or foist
their candidates with spent brains yet again on Nigerians? Are the
grossly oppressed and abused victims still ready to bond with their
captors and oppressors by identifying with these merchants of
falsehood? This would be another Stockholm Syndrome at play! Today
inflation figures under the ruling All Progressives Congress have spiked
double digits while crimes of varying degrees particularly violent ones
are on the ascending order of magnitude with the government losing the
battle on all fronts and at every turn. Like I did just say this has
given birth to separatist feelings and agitations. At one time
Nigerians lived happily together but today the reverse has become the
case as Buhari’s style of governance has polarized Nigerians on ethnic
and religious lines.
Today, hyper-inflation stares us ominously in the face which has reduced
us to sub-species and mindless hominins by outdated monetary policies
which inflict dehydration on our finances and economic well-being.
One of the vocal voices that harassed President Jonathan out of power in
the person of Yemi Osibanjo, a university professor, is one of the
daddies that call the shot today. I often sit back hand on chin
wondering how he feels about the injustice he did to over 200 million
Nigerians who now thrive on dirt and dirty surroundings caused by
debilitating poverty, unemployment and ethno-religious fundamentalism.
What about his principal Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the self-styled Jagaban and
former Lagos Governor’s assertion that
“General Muhammadu Buhari is an agent of destabilization, ethnic bigot
and religious fanatic”?
He did expressly say Buhari would disintegrate Nigeria. This was
contained in a Wikileaks transcript in a conversation between Tinubu
and the US consul-general in 2003. Events playing out today are pointers
to that fact as Nigeria’s ship of state which Buhari pilots today heads
spirally for the rocks.
May God save Nigeria, a nation in death throes under the APC-controlled
Federal Government.
*Iyoha John Darlington, a former governorship candidate of the
Peoples Party of Nigeria in Edo State 2020 governorship election is an
opinion leader and public commentator on national and global issues.