BUHARI, TINUBU AND SUFFERING NIGERANS
Sonnie Ekwowusi writes that the government could do more to promote the welfare of Nigerians
THE NUMBER OF NIGERIANS LIVING IN MISERABLE CONDITION AND ABJECT POVERTY KEEPS INCREASING DAY AFTER DAY
Recently the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu spoke the plainest truth about the state of the nation to President Muhammadu Buhari. Those words of wisdom from Tinubu should not be glossed over. Amid the many troubles buffeting the Buhari administration especially the tainted corruption in the government which is supposed to be fighting against corruption, Tinubu’s words to Buhari call for a deeper reflection if we are truly interested in knowing where Nigeria’s main problem truly lies and how to tackle it. At a gathering to appraise the mid-term report of the Buhari government, Tinubu reminded President Buhari that too many Nigerians are suffering and that he should henceforth focus on ameliorating their sufferings.
Tinubu is right. We cannot get tired of repeating ad nauseam that the political enterprise is not an end in itself: it is only a means to achieving the real end which is the wellbeing of the people. The primary objective of all types of developments-economic, social, cultural and political- is to promote sustainable human development. In other words, human development is the epicentre of all developments. The real parameter to use or the generally-accepted criterion to use in assessing the performance of the Buhari government in the last two years is the living condition of the ordinary Nigerian. Last Tuesday I listened to Presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina on Channels TV. Adesina dwelt mainly on the mid-term report of the Buhari government. He reeled out some kilometres of roads and other public infrastructure allegedly patched by the Buhari government as part of the mid-term progress report of the government. In summary, Adesina stated that cynics should not be too quick to dismiss the Buhari government as a failure because governance is a continuum and the Buhari government is still poised on its journey to get to its ultimate destination.
The truth of the matter is that the number of Nigerians living in miserable condition and abject poverty keeps increasing day after day. Just take a studied look around. What can you find amid government movements and flashes of light? Misery, anguish, despondency and hopelessness. In truly assessing the performance of the Buhari government, and, indeed any government, the questions to ask are: do the people have access to electricity supply in order to be able to power their electric fan and sleep at night and so become productive at work? Do they have access to drinkable water? Do they have access to medical treatment in public hospitals at affordable rate? Do they live in a degrading environment where people shamelessly urinate and defecate in the open?
The thing is that the Buhari government came to power with scatter-brain ideas. First, it took President Buhari six months to form his cabinet. Thereafter the government said it was fighting corruption. Paradoxically the government reeks of corruption. It is now battling to rid itself of corruption. The latest is that the DSS are now shamelessly fighting with the EFCC in public. The most painful aspect is that the living condition of the ordinary Nigerian has become worse than it was in the preceding years. This has drawn the ire of Bola Tinubu.
Of course, government talks big. It advertises a mouthwatering agenda. It announces big budget. It gets hold on the media to portray it in good light. But beneath all these ashes of false security lies the suffering of the Nigerian people. Lots of Nigerians will be celebrating the coming Christmas in misery and frustration owing to genteel poverty. Recently 26 Nigerian girls (although Abike Dabiri-Erewa says there are only three Nigerian girls have been named) perished aboard a Spanish vessel on their way to their sex-slavery abode. According to the United States Department of State report, of the 2,500 minors who practice prostitution in the streets of Italy, 2,300 are minors from Albanian and Nigeria. Apart from Italy, young Nigerian prostitutes have successfully invaded Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, South-Africa, Ghana, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Austria, United Kingdom and other countries. Nigerians constitute the largest group of prostitutes in Norway. There are over 600 under-aged Nigerian girls prostituting in the Netherlands. These poor girls are lured into prostitution abroad under the guise of gainful employment. To them, prostituting abroad is a strategy to escape poverty
Apart from young girls fleeing Nigeria, young Nigerian medical doctors are fast fleeing Nigeria too. Last week my young medical doctor friend confided in me that almost all his doctor colleagues had fled Nigeria. Besides, other Nigerian professionals are fleeing too. Nigerian families are still busy dispatching their children to the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, France, Australia, Japan China and so forth where they feel they can be gainfully employed. President Buhari just came back from receiving medical treatment in the United Kingdom. If Nigeria were a liveable country, these categories of Nigerians would not have been fleeing the country.
Therefore amid the scandalising human misery and abject poverty in Nigeria both the federal and state governments should in the coming months adopt new strategies for promoting the welfare of ordinary Nigerians. First, there should be steady electricity supply in Nigeria. If there was steady electricity supply many young Nigerians engaged in multiple small-scale enterprises would have used their God-given talents to create wealth for themselves. Instead of churning out unskilled young graduates who are unemployable, we need an educational system with strong emphasis on skill acquisition. For example, we need educational institutions such as the Institute for Industrial Technology (IIT), located off Lagos Badagry-Express-Way, Lagos that give qualitative technical and vocational education to young people in order to make them employable. Government cannot give what it does not have. Oftentimes the civil society understands the needs and problems of the people better than the government. Therefore the government should humbly enter into partnership with private humanitarian and charitable organisations with viable mechanisms and structures for alleviating poverty.
Two years had rolled past. Nothing has changed. The same failed leadership; the same electricity failure; the same hue and cry over corruption; the same injustice everywhere; the same collapsed educational system; the same government people stealing government money. We have travelled this road before. Now is the time for a new beginning. The Buhari government should make a difference. The 21st century economic development approach is more concerned with the welfare of the people than with government rhetoric.