Something seems to be fatally flawed with most Nigerians especially those
\nwho are orchestrating a politically-induced mass hysteria about hunger
\npresently. Something seems not to be in place with their orchestra even in
\nthe face of the obvious reality that Nigeria has been vandalized and
\nhunger and want unleashed by those that deliberately mismanaged our good
\nfortune, stole us blind but have now mutated into choir masters of the ‘we
\nare dying of hunger’ orchestra, re age the country. Make no mistake about
\nit.\u00a0 Nigeria is in recession. Growth has slowed down but this is a global
\nexperience that targets those countries that depend on crude sale for
\nfunding their economies. Terrible cases like Nigeria where caches of
\ncorrupt and unfeeling past leaders employed corruption and cluelessness to
\nloot the good fortunes of their countries at the peak of the global oil
\nharvest, stand out. Their cases are pathetic as they speak of the curse of
\noil, even when oil is supposed to be a blessing.<\/p>\n
Nigerians are feeling the pangs of recession. Oil which is the sole
\nmainstay of Nigerian economy, has stopped yielding the golden egg. Added
\nto this is that sponsored political warfare has been levied on this
\nmainstay by those that are still hurting from their loss of access to
\nsteal state resources. As there are no fallbacks, it is only legitimate
\nthat the country will plunge into recession as it did. In countries that
\nmanaged their resources well, this would not have been the case. The huge
\nsavings and huge investments in regenerative infrastructures would have
\nbailed such country out, as it is bailing many countries today. The
\nsavings for the rainy day would have bailed such countries from gliding
\ninto recession and would have steadied their economies against the
\nvagaries of global oil prices.\u00a0 But Nigerian past leaders, especially he
\nimmediate past Jonathan era where Nigeria made its richest harvest,
\nadamantly refused to save. It did not invest in critical infrastructures
\neither. It built no social investment and was rather consumed in
\ngluttonous free loading of vital state resources for its mandarins and
\ncahoots. At a time Nigeria should draw heavily from its huge investment
\nand savings, it had nothing to fall back on when oil prices plunged. That
\nis why we are in recession today. That is why there is hunger and hardship
\nin the country.<\/p>\n
Nigerians are not hungry because Buhari stopped the stealing of state
\nresources by few remorseless individuals. Nigerians are not hungry because
\nBuhari rolled out measures to safeguard the little foreign reserve we had.
\nNigerians are not hungry because Buhari decided to stop the wasteful
\nimportation of food and other freebies which would have, by now, emptied
\nour little foreign reserves. Nigerians are not hungry today because Buhari
\ndecided to plug the many rat holes through which minions of the previous
\nregime stole the country dry. Nigerians are not hungry today because
\nBuhari decided to invest in critical regenerative infrastructures the
\nprevious governments adamantly neglected to rot away. Nigerians are not
\nhungry today because Buhari is insisting on probity and accountability in
\nthe application of public resources. Contrary to what those that are
\nindulged in rigorous mischief trading today are saying, the afore
\nmentioned measures are all geared towards rectifying our mistakes and
\nplacing the country on sure and certain paths of greatness.<\/p>\n
That Nigerians are hungry today needs no genus to explain. As actions
\ncarry consequences, the deliberate acts of corrupt public officials to
\nloot the treasury can only result in one consequence; hunger and privation
\nas we have in Nigeria today. When and how we got to the present is
\ndecipherable from the sordid recent history of our nation where prodigal
\nmercenary governments presided over the ruinous plundering of national
\nwealth by choice lickspittles, leaving the country for dead. With the
\nbenefit of hindsight and with stark statistics that predates the present
\nBuhari regime, it is easy to know why and how a richly blessed country
\nfound itself in the present economic quagmire. It is not just about the
\ndownscaling of global oil prices but more about the irresponsible attitude
\nof past governments to feed the tongs of corruption and allow it
\nunhindered sail in the conduct of public affairs in Nigeria. The failure
\nto save and invest in regenerative capital projects and the desire to
\nplunder everything in sight led\u00a0 Nigeria into the economic mess it is
\nwallowing today. It is the reason why Nigerians are hungry, as those who
\nwere directly complicit in bankrupting the country desperately whelp
\ntoday.<\/p>\n
So Nigerians are hungry. Thank God we have a regime that has boldly
\nplunged into very bold project of redirecting the country on the paths of
\nprobity and accountability. It could have been disastrous were we to
\ncontinue with the past purblind regime that deified only corrupt
\nconsumerism because there would have been nothing to steal today were the
\nnation cursed to continue with the past regime. Nigerians, despite the
\nshort term mischief being employed to confuse and further take advantage
\nof them, must feel grateful that we have a regime that had foregone greed
\nand rapacious self-fending to rescue the country from this quagmire; a
\nregime that has boldly decided to plug corruption, recover whatever it can
\nof the dwindling state resources and invest them in the critical sectors
\nthat were abandoned when the country was swimming in abundant petro
\ndollars. We must, in the ambience of our national life, thank God that a
\nregime that is minded to tame our irascible craze to live far above our
\nmeans, has started practical application of the much-talked
\ndiversification of our economy and ensure that conduct of statecraft
\nconfirms to maximum\u00a0 standards of financial rectitude. Deep in our
\ncollective hearts, we know that there was no other way left for us to
\nrescue a hugely mismanaged country as Nigeria. There was no alternative to
\nreinvent a sinking behemoth. There was no other way the Nigerian Titanic
\ncould have been steered from the rocks!<\/p>\n
But then, what beats me is the Janus-faced attitude of some Nigerians
\nespecially those who deliberately plunged the country into the present
\nmess and their hirelings who are busy recruiting hapless victims of their
\nvile acts to join them to bleat ceaselessly about hunger and hardship in
\nthe country at present. How come those who are making a sing song of
\nhunger are the same people carrying placards urging EFCC not to
\ninvestigate Patience Jonathan for her ‘hard earned’ millions of dollars?
\nHow come those whose voices have cracked for relentless beating of hunger
\nbe the sane persons saying that prosecuting Sambo Dasuki and his coterie
\nof beneficiaries in the $2.1 billion arms scandal is political with hunt?
\nHow come those who are chorusing about hunger and hardship are the same
\npeople sponsoring and indulging on a politically-sponsored vandalization
\nof oil pipelines in a bid to cripple the Nigerian economy in their
\nvengeful political causes? How cone the same crooners of hunger and
\nhardship are the same people mounting shameful street parades and show of
\nsupport for the alias Metuh’s, the Fani Kayodes, the Tompolos, the
\nAkpobukelemes, the Amosus, the Saraki’s, and other sundry genre of alleged
\nplunderers of our treasury? I am really lost here!<\/p>\n
How come those who are mounting national orchestra of hunger and hardship
\ntoday are ready and mobilizable pawns those who unseemly canibalised our
\nnational treasury just the other day easily recruit to mount street
\nprotests for them? How come those who bleat about being hungry
\nshamelessly defend the vandals that set upon our treasury and cleansed it
\nin such reckless manner just yesterday? How come those who mouth hunger
\nand hardship readily engage in fisticuffs in defence of rouges and
\nplunderers just because they come from their neck of the wood and adhere
\nto their own religions?\u00a0 How come those that yak of hunger and hardship
\ntoday are the ones that offer themselves as body shields to those who
\nhave been implicated in gargantuan acts of corruption, especially in the
\nimmediate part regime? How come those who make the loudest noise of being
\nhungry are the same people that seek every means to offer defence to the
\nshameless vermin that raided Nigeria’s resources the other day? My
\nconfusion builds up still.<\/p>\n
How come those that have formed a political sing song of hunger and
\nhardship struggle desperately to tell us to stop talking of the recent
\npast when oil, our mono economy sold for over $140 a barrel and the
\ncountry sold over 2.8 million barrels a day but to talk of the present
\nwhen oil hovers between $27 and $45 barrels a day with output going down
\nto as low as 1.2 million barrels a day? How come those that are stomping
\nall over the place seeking to hew political capital of hunger and hardship
\ngrow silent on how their masters looted several trillions of Naira that
\nwould have been employed to build a real economy that does not depend on
\nthe fluctuations of oil prices? How come those that cry their eyes out of
\nhow hungry they are form themselves into fighting mobs for the very
\nrobbers that levied mass hunger and destitution on Nigerians through
\nuncurbed stealing? My bewilderment gathers momentum.<\/p>\n
How come the same people that are shouting on rooftops that Nigerians are
\nhungry are the same people that have employed several means to hide the
\nbillions of dollars and trillions of Nairs they stole from the Nigerian
\nstate? How come those who are frantically yelping of hunger and hardship
\nemploy the last strength of their lives to defend the most banal treasury
\nlooter and threaten thunder and brimstone should any harm befall such
\nlooters? How come that our eminent citizens have found it fashionable
\nsermonizing about hunger in the land but have grown conspiratorially
\nsilent on the detestable acts of a few predators that looted the country
\ndry and levied hunger and untold hardship on Nigerians? How come those
\nthat have found a campaign mantra on hunger and hardship are the ones that
\nissues moratorium and carry placards when any of the moths that ate our
\nlives out is questioned? I am getting more confused.<\/p>\n
How come some Nigerians seem to be under a blanket amnesia in locating
\nwhere the rains started beating them? How come some Nigerians are playing
\nthe ostrich in locating where their problems started with a view to
\nsolving such problems in an enduring way? Does hunger induce amnesia? Does
\nhunger provoke a loss of sense? Does hunger also obliterate the memory?
\nDoes hunger erode human capacity to think? Does hunger imbue
\nirrationality? Does hunger vitiate the human capacity to decipher? Does
\nhunger make humans senseless? The answer may depend on which side of the
\naisle one is looking at the issue. True, Nigerians are hungry because the
\neconomy has been viscerally ravaged since independence. The down spiral in
\nthe price of oil only provided a trigger to what eminent Nigerians, policy
\nanalysts and economists have been warning us of for many years now. The
\nexaggeration to our hunger and hardship is purely political. It is purely
\na campaign slogan for those that were displaced from power last year
\nbecause they mismanaged our affairs. They merely kick-started another
\ncampaign when the last election was hardly completed. They are beguiled
\nand mischievous sons of lucifer that still deign no end to manipulating
\nthe minds of Nigerians for their perpetually selfish ends.<\/p>\n
But I know our hunger, as a people that were robbed silly for several
\ndecades by political marauders, is different from the noisome hunger and
\nhardship being parroted by those that seek to roll back the present effort
\nto tame corruption and its ancillary effects. Our hunger is different from
\nthose of the displaced predators who warehouse our national patrimony in
\ncoded bank accounts spread all over the world, choice assets and
\ntreasuries as well as in tank farms, underground wells, latrines, storage
\ntanks, etc. They are crooning of hunger and hardship as mockery to us; the
\nreally hungry and as a political war cry to seduce Nigerians to allow them
\ncome back and continue the ruination that brought hunger and hardship to
\nus today. Our own hunger stems from the fact that our national resources
\nwere plundered and we are left high and dry as the resources stopped
\nflowing in. Ours is real and the hope for its mitigation lies squarely in
\nthe many bold efforts the Buhari regime is making today. Ours does not
\ninduce amnesia. Their own hunger is artificial. It is a phantom. It is
\nfake. It can only work when it lures all of us to amnesia and make us
\nblind to the real facts why Nigerians are hungry today as well as the
\nignominious roles of these merchants of vices in landing us where we are
\ntoday. Their hunger can only be satiated by returning our resources to
\nthem to continue the ruination the present regime wants to arrest. In due
\nseason, those who are unaware of the mischievous intent in the
\norchestrated ‘we are hungry’ mantra being promoted today will shake off
\ntheir temporary amnesia and further safeguard the country from their
\nnefarious interests.<\/p>\n
Peter Claver Oparah<\/p>\n
Ikeja,\u00a0 Lagos.<\/p>\n