On his emergence as Nigeria’s President last year, President Muhammadu
\nBuhari was faced with two broad choices; Continue the larcenous state of
\ncorruption he met when he cane in or cap the corruption well head and move
\nthe country away from the hugely predatory state through deliberate
\nactions and policies that will cleanse the badly desecrated Augean stable
\nand redirect the values that rule a country that had vicariously bled from
\nperilous and corrupt leadership. Having campaigned on the mantra of
\nChange, it was not a hard choice to make. He must topple the old sordid
\norder and install a new cleansed order that will govern not only the
\nconduct of governance but the general life in a serially abused country.<\/p>\n
Added to this was the fact that Buhari had to replace the same order that
\nhas ensured that a country so richly blessed and hugely endowed but which
\nwas practically writhing\u00a0 on all fours when he came to power. Nigeria,
\nunder the Jonathan regime Buhari succeeded, was a painted sepulcher. It
\nwas a grave dabbed with flattering white emulsion. Forget about the
\nnonsense of Nigeria being Africa’s largest economy, forget the padded
\npresentation of flattering GDP, forget about the feel-good statistics that
\nwere dripping from the previous government’s so-called economic team,
\nthere was nothing on ground to suggest that Nigeria had an economy; talk
\nnot of the largest in Africa. We had a gangsters heaven where oil was sold
\nand shared in such fashion that jarred humanity’s decency. That was termed
\na robust economy and all other sectors that should drive a normal economy
\nwere killed in a frenetic rush for oil money.<\/p>\n
All infrastructures needed as props to an economy were dead, unemployment
\nwas soaring in such mad fashion such that it took a mere advertisement of
\n3,000 immigration jobs for millions to flood every available public space
\nin Nigeria and many were trampled to death for jobs that never came. In
\nshort, Nigeria was an extension of hell on earth. Yet, oil price went as
\nhigh as $140 per barrel and Nigeria exceeded its OPEC quota but life
\ndiminished to that in a state of nature in the same period. You are wont
\nto hear one of the campaigners of the outgone Jonathan era tell you how he
\nused to get rice and pure water free of charge in that era yet it tells
\nquite a story that a regime that reaped so huge from an oil boom
\npurportedly used tens of trillions of Naira it reaped from oil sake to
\nimport rice for its citizens!<\/p>\n
In a country where the artificial fruits of corruption value chain had so
\ndistorted the value system, enriched quite a good number of knights of the
\nrotten order, given millions of others false hopes of security, Buhari
\nknew he made a very risky choice by seeking to topple the corrupt order
\nthan had thrived since independence. He knew that most Nigerians are like
\nthe Israeli\u00a0 rabble who care less of history or tomorrow but whose only
\ninterest is the now, now and now. The Israeli mob were mobilised to rebel
\nagainst Moses on their way to the Promised Land with such blasphemies that
\nMoses should have left them to be wiped out in abject slavery in Egyot,
\nbeing fed with morsels of captivity and being clobbered to death than for
\nthem to temporarily lack bread on their way to the Promised Land. For
\nthem, as for Nigerians today, there would be no tomorrow. Yesterday is
\ngone and today is what matters. Buhari knew all these things before he
\ndecided to change the same system which, in the long run, has finished off
\nNigeria and would have buried it if the country was so unfortunate to have
\ncontinued with the Jonathan government.<\/p>\n
Come to think of it, can any of the people struggling desperately to mount
\na political campaign of how things are under Buhari today tell us what
\nwould have happened if Jonathan had continued in power and carried on in
\nhis sordid ways and met oil at $27 a barrel when, as at the time he left,
\noil was still selling above $60 and 23 states were bankrupt and couldn’t
\npay workers salaries running up to one year? Could any of those
\nfrantically working the mob up to revolt against Buhari just because he
\nhad plugged the rat holes from which they crumbled this country, tell us
\nwhat would have happened if a Jonathan had met oil at $27 a barrel when
\nhis government borrowed half a trillion Naira to pay federal civil
\nservants’ salaries when oil was still selling above $70 a barrel? It would
\nhave been so disastrous that bynow, Nigerians would have been cutting
\nthemselves up and eating were it not for the coming of Buhari. Facts are
\nsacred. A government that got 23 states bankrupt and borrowed half a
\ntrillion Naira to pay civil servants salaries when oil was above $60 a
\nbarrel would have buried the country were it to still be in power when oil
\nplummeted to $27 a barrel. This is the fact those who have made it a daily
\ncatena reminding us of how life has been hard under Buhari are either
\nignorant of or want to hide from others in the process of reviving a
\nnefarious interest.<\/p>\n
So Buhari was aware that his decision to stop corruption and such massive
\nplundering of state resources as happened under Jonathan, was bound to be
\nunpopular among a citizenry who have been left with no option than
\nimprovise corrupt ways to live. For one, he knew that those that
\ncriminally benefited from corruption will not watch and allow themselves
\nto be brought down. They must fight, with the huge resources they have
\nstolen and in cahoots with their ilk littered all over the country. He
\nknew they will fight in different forms and guises so he is not surprised
\nat what is happening today. Perhaps, that is why he had remained stoically
\ncommitted to what he is doing despite the antics of these rouges. Again,
\nhe knew that it will be easy to recruit the masses, collective victims of
\ncorruption, to mass against such redemptive actions by just promising them
\nbread and butter. He knew that in embarking on the mission to rid
\ncorruption from the country’s body fabric, he would come to a head-on
\ncollision with a formidable and well stacked brigade; ready to lay down
\ntheir lives to ensure that such system that had so empowered them is nit
\nreplaced. That is what exactly is happening today.<\/p>\n
Nigeria is in recession, that’s a fact. No one is denying it. No one is
\ndisputing\u00a0 the fact. No one is disputing the discomforts that attend it.
\nBuhari is not mincing words about it. He had, at each stop of the mending
\nwork he us doing, pleaded with Nigerians to be patient. The ground has to
\nbe cleared, tilled and the drops tended to fruition before we expect
\nharvest. It is as natural as it is logical. Moreover the recession we are
\nsuffering today was long foretold. Eminent economists and social
\ncommentators warned that we will be where we are today if we did nothing
\nto meaningfully use the oil boom Jonathan frittered away like worthless
\nrag. When the regime and its acolytes were\u00a0 carrying Byzantine plundering,
\nmany people warned that the oil dollars that was funding that bizarre
\nlicentiousness will run out someday. The government never listened. No
\neffort was made to improve our facilities. Nothing was done to create
\nopportunities and employment for\u00a0 the teeming jobless youth as nothing but
\negregious freeloading thrived and this in turn, grew a culture and life of
\nextreme debauchery and idolatrous consumerism where the country indulged
\nin unrestrained importation of freebies and junkies. The bubble was soon
\nto burst as the country bankrupted on the eve of Jonathan’s exit from
\npower when states couldn’t pay salaries, talk not of engaging in any
\nmeaningful capital project and his government had to borrow a hefty half a
\ntrillion Naira to pay salaries when oil was still going for a princely sum
\ncompared with what we have today.<\/p>\n
Yes, Nigeria is in recession and the Buhari Government has rightly
\nadmitted this. Nigeria is in recession because oil price thumbed. Nigeria
\nis in recession because displaced politicians sponsored criminals and
\noutlaws to destroy oil pipelines and halved Nigeria’s oil export quota
\nbecause they want to ‘avenge’ their political loss. Most importantly,
\nNigeria is in recession because the Jonathan government which harvested a
\nprovidential oil boom supervised the wholesome plunder of the money that
\nwould have been saved, as other nations do, to avoid what we are facing
\ntoday. Nigeria is in recession because previous governments presided over
\nthe complete ruination of our infrastructures, neglected every other
\nsource of revenue, refused to invest in agriculture, healthcare,
\neducation, power, roads, rails, industry, trade and commerce. Nigeria is
\nin recession because previous governments adamantly refused to diversify
\nour economy but stuck to free sharing of oil accruals. None of these was
\ncaused by Buhari but by those that mismanaged our good fortunes, looted
\nevery available resources and left the country for dead.<\/p>\n
But Buhari is the solution and has undertaken quite brave measures to save
\nthe country . He is frontally tackling the recession in quite a unique
\nway. He had outlawed corruption and in the process, saved our meager
\nresources for the country. He has invested handsomely in agriculture,
\nsolid minerals, power, roads, railways, education, health and other vital
\nsectors that undergird a solid economy. He has clearly gone beyond oil in
\nfinancing our national budgets and has\u00a0 stabilized the polity such that in
\nthe period of recession, states that went bankrupt when Jonathan was
\nselling oil at above $60 a barrel are now sure of paying their workers.
\nThe only thing that has been put out of circulation is stolen and illicit
\nmoney and it is a matter of time before those hooked on corruption value
\nchain source more legal and decent means of survival.<\/p>\n
With Buhari’s prescription, we can see that even in the period of
\nrecession, roads that were left to rot for the decades when we were
\nswimming in oil money are being rehabilitated today. We can see that it is
\nduring this recession that modern rails which formed topics for fairy
\ntales when we had so much petro-dollars are beginning to become real. We
\ncan see that huge investments are now being made in capital regenerative
\nprojects in a moment of recession than when we had more than enough
\ndollars in our kitty. We can see that self sustenance\u00a0 in agriculture is
\nbecoming real during this recession. We can see that the much hackneyed
\ndiversification of our economy is happening in this period of recession.
\nWe can see that he had dealt corruption a bloody nose despite the
\norchestrated antics of the pro-corruption brigade. He has taken measures
\nprevious leaders had been afraid to take or were too compromised to take
\nbecause he is carrying no baggage. He is a long distance runner unlike his
\nopponents who are just people of the moment. He is rugged, determined and
\nsteely both in his character and in his resolve to turn Nigeria’s most
\ngloomy moment to her most glorious.
\nPeter Claver Oparah<\/p>\n
Ikeja, Lagos.<\/p>\n
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On his emergence as Nigeria’s President last year, President Muhammadu Buhari was faced with two broad choices; Continue the larcenous state of corruption he met when he cane in or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n