The Truth Must Be Told!

By Godday Odidi

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children”.-Hosea 4:6

The recent phrases of the two leading political parties in Nigeria; PDP change the change and APC from change to progress; one opposition and other is ruling. The issue here is that, Nigerians have entered into one chance vehicle that the driver of the vehicle has no direction to lead a country of over 170 million people.

Nigeria’s economic recession is no longer news but the issue here is that President Buahri does not have any economic direction to pilot the affairs of the country where highly trained professors in economics cannot be called upon to proffer solutions to this current economic mess. All economic business schools being established in Nigeria are all useless in this present administration.

President Buhari came into power with the hope of bringing formidable leadership to the people while the last administration was seen as a perpetual failure. His ferocious fight on corruption was highly welcomed by all Nigerians but the continuous blame games on the last administration shows the ineptitude of leadership never prepared for.

Let me digress a bit on the population theories of Reverend Thomas Robert Malthusian of 1798 stated that; that nothing could be done to wipe out poverty which is inherent in a given society and that poverty can never be related to either good or bad government. These theories are basically for Nigeria as a country that has lost its African economic power whose GDP now -2.6 percent.

In 2015 general elections, we all Nigerians were politically hoodwinked to vote for a reliable president that has leadership etiquettes to rule Nigeria only to discover that such leadership expectations were all seen on the pages of Newspapers not in active implementation. In as much as we Nigerians are too religious and afraid to speak out our minds for being molested by SSS or EFCC, I am here to voice out my pains of this recessive government

Few days ago, I went to a high brow area in Lagos, after visiting a friend that has one of the most expensive hospitality business in that area, so, after our business discussion and I headed to a nearby supermarket to purchase some groceries for the weekend, seeing the price tags on each item, I was perplexed to the core and I ended up purchasing one item for N2,340 which was formerly N1,700 .Though, I thought it was because of the environment of the rich and later went to a roadside supermarket to purchase other items but I was more frustrated that the price tags of the commodities tripled the supermarket one. It was now dawn on me to remember what the supermarket owner told point-black that producers of these commodities are bitterly crying for savior.

Generally speaking, with the present economic hardship, many companies including shipping and airlines have closed down in recent times while workers are laid off and some still seeing better days in this leadership where sea ports have become cemeteries and mortuaries now. It has come to my notice that the high rate of people going into selling of petty goods are high while buying of these goods have drastically reduced. Too many corporate beggars on the streets and public buses, using all tricks to beg using God as tool for blessing.

It is unfortunately that our so-called big politicians do not care about the plight of the poor than making empty promises on the pages of the national newspapers. Due to the present economy, most corporate companies no longer run adverts on national newspapers, radio and television stations again.

Again, President Buhari appointed a wrong Minister of Finance who speaks good English but novice on economic policies to move the country forward. Does Buhari really working with his ministers or taking national decision alone. The Minister of Communication recently told Nigerians to prepare to pay tax on any phone call, text message and data, probably by December, Nigerians will be paying for urine and excrete. The foreign exchange market hike in dollar has multiplier effect on the prices of both local and foreign goods and services in Nigeria.

The drive to support Agriculture is a welcome development by this present administration which everyone applauded from the beginning but the implication is that only few benefitting in this economic recession. For this government to conclude another plan for external borrowing to finance short and long term projects, that shows there is looming danger in the economy if not curtained now.

Most states cannot pay workers ‘salaries and everybody sits at his or her comfortable abodes, saying prayers only can cure the present economic mess. President only relying on faith without active work, then Nigeria is heading towards a huge economic recession where our GDP will not only minus zero but no zero to minus again.

My question here is, does President Buhari’s advisers and ministers listening to public opinions of Nigerians all radio and television stations or social media platforms? If they do, Nigeria would not have been in this mess. Many fake facebook accounts of President Buhari has flooded our social media and recently promised Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of partnership to train our growing youths in ICT, but one more question, does Buhari operates facebook account? The former President Jonathan was always on facebook to disseminate information on Nigeria’s leadership and the way forward. Though, his leadership was weak to tackle corruption and security challenge in the Northern region.

Indeed, Buhari might have good intention to rule Nigeria but abysmally failed to learn from his past predecessors than throwing game blames on former President Goodluck Jonathan. The latter failed to identify political sycophants that ended his government in fiasco. President Buhari must wake up now, Nigerians are dying in droves.

Godday Odidi
Public Affairs Analyst
Lagos



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