Nigeria, just like in some parts of the Occident, has been the greatest opportunity and the worst influence; a place of creation and decay, of freedom and subjection, of riches and poverty, of splendor and misery, of communion and lonesomeness—an optimal milieu for talent, character, vice and corruption.

Many desirable things are advocated without regard to the most fundamental fact of economics, that resources are inherently limited and have alternative uses.

In the 2015 presidential election campaign, the All Progressive Congress promised Nigerians 'Change'; change from bad economy to good, from bad healthcare system to the best, from insecurity to safety, from unemployment to employment and so on. Who could be against good healthcare system, safety, or employment opportunity? But each of these things is open-ended, while resources are not only limited but have alternative uses which are also valuable. No matter how much is done to promote health, more could be done. No matter how safe things have been made, they could be made safer. And no matter how much jobs are available, more could be created.

Facts and Fallacies of 'Change' of this administration subjects many widely held beliefs to the test of hard facts and it is glaring that many beliefs held about the ability of the present government to fulfill its electioneering campaign promises cannot survive that test, including some, like the creation of 3,000 jobs annually and payment of five thousand Naira stipend to Unemployeed graduates that have already collapsed like a house of cards and others where the truth turns out to be the direct opposite of what has been so often asserted such as equating dollar with Naira, increase in foreign reserve and others.

The purpose of this article is not simply a debunking, in order to conduct a sort of demolition derby of ideas, but to reveal fallacies that have had harmful effects on the well-being of millions of people in this country. Economic policies based on fallacies can be and have been devastating in their impacts.

Fallacies are not simply crazy ideas. They are usually both plausible and logical—but with something missing. Their plausibility gains them political support. Only after that political support is strong enough to cause fallacious ideas to become government policies and programs are the missing or ignored factors likely to lead to “unintended consequences,”

.in politics, particularly when they invoke some principle that engages people’s emotions. “Change” is one of those undefined words which have attracted political support for policies. While the fact that the word is undefined is an intellectual handicap, it is a huge political advantage. People with very different views on substantive issues can be unified and mobilized behind a word that papers over their differing, and sometimes even mutually contradictory, ideas. Who, after all, is in favor of unchanged policies of the last administration? Similarly with “social justice,” “equality,” and other undefined terms that can mean wholly different things to different individuals and groups—all of whom can be mobilized in support of policies that use such appealing words as the All Progressive Congress has done.

From the experience of former spokesperson of the All Progressive Congress and the current minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, a strong advocate of policies that are backfiring often attribute these bad consequences to something else. Lai Muhammed have claimed severally that the bad situation left behind by the former administration would have been even worse if it had not been for the wonderful policies the present government of the APC advocated.

There are many reasons why fallacies have staying in power, even in the face of hard evidence against them. Elected officials, for example, cannot readily admit that some policy or program that they advocated, perhaps with great fanfare during their campaigns have turned out badly, without risking their whole careers. Similarly for leaders of various causes and movements. Others who think of themselves as supporters of things that will help the less fortunate are finding it so painful to confront evidence that they have in fact made the less fortunate worse off than before. Currently, a bag of sachet water which sold for N70 in January this year is currently selling at N150, same with basic food items such as garri, beans, rice, Maggi and so on whose prices have taken a dangerous nosedive at a high level. In other words, evidence is too dangerous politically, financially and psychologically for some people to allow it to become a threat to their interests or to their own policies but the evidences of the current hardship faced by Nigerians are ubiquitous and dangerously harmful to destroy by any image launder of the government.

In dissecting the facts and fallacies of 'Change', Over the years, unemployment rates have tended to be chronically higher, and the periods of unemployment chronically longer, reducing the rate and shortens the period was what the people expected while going into the 2015 presidential election but after nine months, this expectation still remain elusive. In the recent clandestine recruitment carried out by the Central Bank of Nigeria, sons and relatives of affluent politicians serving in this government were recruited without following the due process anchored on federal character principle. Nigerians are biting their fingers just to access common basic needs such as water, food items, medical, education and others as a result of increase in costs.
Before the 2015 presidential election, Nigerians' hope was to usher in a government that will revamp our ailing industries and reactivation of comatose refineries thereby reducing the cost of petroleum products on consumers and create jobs for the unemployed qualified graduates. This expectation remain a lost ball in the high weeds and regrettably lugubrious, the scarcity of the products goes on unabated, with a liter of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) also known as petrol sales between N150-170 today. While the 'Change' administration is making remarkable impact in its fight against insurgency and corruption, it has done nothing to improve the standard of living of the electorate, the common man can barely afford two-square meal a day, businesses have crippled due to fall in power generation and distribution and high cost of raw materials. These, and more to come, are the facts and fallacies of the 'Change' administration in Nigeria.

Onogwu Isah Muhameed
Lokoja, Kogi state.
@onogwuMuha