Adherents bellowed and bawled while pitching for Muhammadu Buhari to become President of Nigeria last March. During the electioneering, some of us lost old friends and quickly made new ones because of the political viewpoints we expressed. We were hated by some, and loved by a few more as a result of the political tent we chose to camp in. Pastors had disdain for pastors who refused to shout “Alleluia” behind the candidate many big pastors pulled for. Those who shared the same views about Buhari went on a joy-ride together on what was perceived as Buhari’s speed-train that’s now ascertained a slow-coach. We did what we still believe was the right thing to do at that crucial juncture in Nigeria’s unfurling history.
Bickerers against this government are innumerable. They believe that the breeze of change is not hitting them hard and fast enough. They are only banking on hope which, I was taught, makes not ashamed. “Nigeria is broke”; “the treasury is empty”; these are annoying statements we now hear. It may be the fact, but, it’s no news. This line was a singsong in numerous political songfests during and after the campaign and election. Step-by-step, Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo had once told the horror tale. The quoted figures of Nigeria’s debt and near-bankruptcy state statistics are still in our heads. What we knew and still know about the malodour of the economy was why a new President was elected. Those of us who hungered for change knew how badly we needed a fresh breath. There is nothing interesting in hearing over-and-over again what we already know. The relief we deserve now is how those horror stories we know will be no more.
Yes, we know that in the last three years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation withheld and spent N3.7tn oil revenue without budgetary provision and approval. Yes, we know that out of N8.1tn generated, only N4.3tn was remitted to the federation account. Yes, we know that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala allegedly spent $2bn from the Excess Crude Account between November 2014 and May 2015 “without approval.” Yes, we know that the cost of running the NNPC is much more than running the Federal Government. We know that many have stolen from Nigeria black-and-blue; and we heard some of them are returning their loot. Thanks for the information about yesterday. Friends, yesterday is not cash, it is a cancelled cheque!
We have been made to believe that the country is so broke that paying the salaries of public sector workers, who do not constitute 10 per cent of the population at both federal and state levels, has become a mountain too high to climb. We were also told that Nigeria is so broke that states are raking in debts they can’t repay in decades, and yet projects are not completed and salaries aren’t paid in 23 states of the federation. We know that the adopted palliative measure is to keep borrowing more money as we, for years unending, continue to sheepishly neglect and ignore other sectors of the economy that can generate more revenues. We are in a debt-boom especially in the domestic debt market, and the Debt Management Office seems always excited and eager to put seals of approvals on all applications. Much of these reckless debt escapades are perpetrated only to fund excesses of politicians and their political parties, not capital projects.
Those who have been telling us for years that we must fasten our belts because things are so terrible don’t live in the world an average Nigerian lives. They do not feel the pangs of persistent pain that millions feel. Government officials fly over the deplorable Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to conduct business and attend worship services in Lagos; and one wonders how they can make an accurate assessment of the people’s plight driving on potholes and valleys on Nigerian roads if they themselves don’t travel on them.
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https://www.today.ng/blog/34578/if-its-broken-mr-president-fix-it