“Are you better off this year than four
years ago?” US President
Reagan,1981-1989.
When Reagan was contesting against
Jimmy Carter, US President, 1976-1980,
he asked Americans the same question
over and over again, “Are you better off
this year than four years ago?” Much as I
hardly supported Reagan’s approach to
governance because it represented
“government of the rich by the rich for
the rich” – a bastardisation of
democracy, he left us with a metric for
judging whether or not we had been
well-served by governments, at Federal,
States and Local government levels in
2012.
With only two days left in the year, that is
a question which each of us can
reasonably answer for ourselves without
waiting for governments’ spin doctors to
tell us what to think.
However, please permit me to provide a
guide for our decision making by
pointing to certain areas of our collective
lives about which we can obtain some
consensus.
File Photo: Tambuwal, Mark, Jonathan
On security, the former Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of Nigeria, CJN, Justice
Dahiru Musdapher, had this to say on the
rising insecurity in the country. “Boko
Haram insurgency, political violence,
corruption, nepotism, tribalism,
indiscipline, abduction and kidnappings,
armed robbery, murder and extortion,
bombings of places of worship and
innocent Nigerians are all indicators of a
failing state”.
The year, which started with an
economic crisis, ended with an
explosion of kidnappings. Somebody
estimated the price Nigerians paid as
ransom at close to N750 million in 2012.
Yet, since October 1, 2010, when the first
major bombing took place in Abuja, till
now, nobody had been successfully
prosecuted – despite repeated
assurances by the President that the
culprits will not go unpunished.
The mother of the Finance Minister was
kidnapped a few days after President
Jonathan had assured foreign visitors
that Nigeria “is safe”. Obviously a
President, so far removed from reality
about security, might also be self-
deceptive about other matters and
should not be believed. Do you feel more
secure today than this time in 2011?
On power generation and distribution,
the Vanguard reporter, Clara
Nwachukwu, provided us with this
depressing revelation on December 24,
2012 on page 1. “No fewer than 38
electricity generating turbines are
grounded in various power plants in the
country”.
Perhaps that is all we need to know
about power. Still, we remember that
there was once a Minister of Power
called Professor Bart Nnaji, who, shortly
after his appointment as Minister
promised to deliver 5,000MW of power
by December 2011. The year ended and
the nation was still stuck with about
4,000MW – approximately the same as in
1999.
Instead of an apology in 2012, the
former Minister issued another promise;
an empty one it has now turned out to
be. This time it was to increase power
supply to 6,000MW by December 2012.
As you are reading this column, Nigeria
is again generating less power than the
single largest power plant in South
Africa. The 5,000MW target is proving to
be a mission impossible.
Meanwhile, between January 1, 2012
and today, this country has added
another 4 million people needing power
supply. Are we better off today than on
the first day of January this year?
The score card on corruption is easy to
place on the table for all to see. The year
started with an anti-masses fuel price
increase from N65 per litre to N141 per
litre or 170 per cent increase authorized
by a President who went to school
shoeless.
The nation was thrown into a political
crisis which lasted for weeks. Later, it
was discovered that the nation had been
defrauded by fuel marketers with close
links to the corridors of power. Still,
Nigerians have been forced to live with a
49 per cent increase in fuel prices. So if
you spent N20,000 in 2011; you would
have spent N29,800 this year.
Since Jonathan became President in May
2010, no major case, involving multi-
billion naira embezzlement of private or
public funds, has been concluded; and
no one had gone to jail. In fact, this has
been the safest period for safe-crackers
in the history of Nigeria. Money
laundering, pension funds scam, crude
oil theft, fuel subsidy swindle, MDAs
larceny have all yielded “dividends of PDP
democracy” to criminals with strong
links to the corridors of power; they
have also ensured that “Fellow
Nigerians” and “Fellow widows”
continue to be impoverished. Foreigners
tell us that an estimated $750 billion had
vanished from our shores; while
government is begging for a mere $9
billion loan. Are you better off?
The expanded Presidential Airline fleet,
and the nation’s largest, was depleted by
one military helicopter which was
deployed to ferry people whose tummies
were full of choice food and drinks; not
to protect the pipe lines or fight
kidnappers. Only God knows how many
times bombers have been flown to bring
amala and okro soup until a tragedy
exposed the impunity.
Anyone who fell for the crocodile tears
flowing at the funerals must step up for
MUGU OF THE YEAR AWARD. Why?
Nollywood actresses drop phony tears
every hour on our television sets for the
fun of it. It is possible that as you are
reading this piece another one is on the
way to an island to carry crayfish. God
help us. But, are you better off this year
than last year? That is the issue.
Meanwhile, we started the year with
DANA Airlines, AIR NIGERIA, AERO
CONTRACTORS, and four or five others,
easily forgotten. Now the Federal
government has taken control of AERO
without telling us. That means that the
airline, now down on its knees, will soon
be flat on its back.
Governments have never managed
anything successfully and this one is not
different from the rest. Increasingly,
Nigeria is becoming a four airline nation
– Arik, IRS, Overland and Presidential. I
can assure you, as a regular traveler by
air, that Molue drivers and conductors,
ruffians as we call them, treat their
passengers with more courtesy than any
Nigerian airline – without exception.
No nation among the top twenty would
have allowed the atrocities committed by
our airlines to go unchecked. Meanwhile,
take another look, a close look, at the
new airports in Lagos and Abuja and
you would wonder if the Ministry of
Aviation has any competent civil
engineer. Am I better off this year, with
respect to air services? The answer is
definitely NO. But, are you?http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/12/was-it-a-good-year-2012/

Happy new year in advance