By Abba Dukawa
HOTPEN – Last week, Nigerians marked 62 years of attaining independence from British Colonial Masters. But too many Nigerians, there is nothing much to cheer about as the country had remained a toddler due to its inability to meet citizens’ basic needs and relatively some infrastructural developments.
Within six decades, Nigeria has also witnessed a different type of leadership that has moved from one stage of positive and negative development to the other coupled with a civil war and decades of military rule.
If Politics and self-interest are both aside, it is clear to the visible that in the aftermath of the civil war, the country’s situation has deteriorated from bad to worst as a result of bad leadership which gives them little reason to rejoice about the country’s statehood.
Like old stories on a new page of a book, governments at all levels have not been able to show much-needed resilience in confronting the daunting challenges bedevilling this country.
There is the general assumption among citizens and observers that with so much promise and opportunity, leadership at national, state and local government levels do not deliver on their constitutional responsibilities.
If our late leaders who fought for our self-governance were to resurrect from their graves today, what will be their perception of the country’s current situation?
They were leaders who dreamt for Nigeria to compete with the world’s most developed nations. Unfortunately, this dream wasn’t achieved as they all died unceremoniously.
No gains if one asserts that, the country is sliding back on a reverse gear rather than going forward. Our expectation has been taken away from us by some disastrous leaders both in the past and present.
For those of us that grew up during the military era and also witnessed the return to a democratic government, we have seen both the bad and ugly side of leadership which encompasses all forms of corruption. This act by some unpatriotic citizens has dragged our country backwards.
Even though I didn’t listen to Baba’s address to the nation on the day of Independence but I read his 47 paragraphs severally so that I dissect his address.
As usual, the address is full of self-glorifying as President Buhari said he remains committed to lifting over 100 million people out of poverty despite the insecurity, poverty and unemployment striking the nation. He made this assertion without reliable statistics from either the National Bureau of Statistics or any recognized institution, which baffled me and other well-meaning Nigerians.
It is under this administration that the level of unemployment rose astronomically in the last quarter according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The question is how could a president of a nation like Nigeria be so misguided in telling the citizens who are undergoing untold suffering with unsubstantiated facts? In addition to the untold suffering, Mr. president addressed reiterated his administration’s
commitment towards lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in ten years as the central plan of his second term in 2019.
To be fair, there is no administration in the country that has provided various interventions aimed at reducing poverty and hunger in the country such as N-Power, trader-moni, market moni, subsidized loans, business grants or Conditional Cash Transfers.
PMB’s government intends to reduce poverty in the country but all the gesture of his policies is far from being achieved.
Instead of poverty being decreased, many non-poor Nigerians are falling into poverty and about 95 million Nigerians are expected to be poor by the end of 2022.
In addition, poverty reduction in Nigeria appears to have stalled in the last decade, according to both back-casting and survey-to-survey imputation techniques. World Bank reports.
Nigerian at 62, one of the herculean tasks before citizens apart from security challenges, skyrocketed food prices, self-feeding and talk less of feeding a family has become a serious problem. Food which is a basic need for every household has become a luxury.
Even opportuned workers are passing through a very tough phase considering the meagre nature of minimum wage. Not to talk of millions of unemployed people in the 21st century, the country is dealing with similar problems of food inflation which has reached an unprecedented height. Common foods in the country like rice, garri, beans etc are now beyond their reach as prices of foodstuffs are now triple their prices as it was before 2015 without any government efforts to control the price.
It is undeniable, Baba has a good intention of making the country attain self-sufficiency in food, but the policy turns out to be unbearable to millions of Nigerians. The current situation has reminded Nigerians of the 1984 acute foods
shortage in the country.
Despite the proliferation of small and medium and large-scale rice processing companies across the country, the price of locally made 50KG bag of rice goes above the minimum wage.
On regular basis, these manufacturing firms and essential commodity sellers are hiking prices. However, government officials are intentionally distorting the reality for their self-survival and deceiving him to be in his good book.
Unfortunately, the Year 2015 marks a new dawn for the citizens and the country at large with high hopes and expectations that Baba Buhari would turn Nigeria around and create the basis for its improved prosperity.
No administration in the history of the country has enjoyed citizens’ goodwill like the present administration. Nigerians remain resolute and tolerant and in addition, exercise more patience.
The electorates never thought Baba would head a government bedevilled with boggling poor economic policies, poverty, insecurity, and challenges with endless things that are discrediting the administration’s goodwill and the nation at large.
With the way things are going, it is like Buhari is not the same person Nigerians were brought into power in 2015. Buhari’s fear factor has gone. Corrupt politicians and civil servants are having a free day as the fear of “if Buhari catches you” is gone and everyone does as he wishes.
To be continued