How Many More Rivers Do We Have to Cross?
Did you hear the selfappraisal of President Muhammadu Buhari declaring that he has made Nigeria better than he met it in 2015?
Yes-o, I heard and read the vexatious assertions. They are not only misleading, but very provocative. How can anybody claim that life is better now than it was in 2015?
But can you fault some of the things he said he has achieved? Can you deny the non-existence of his many legacy projects?
Legacy projects my foot! People are dying of hunger and insecurity and you are talking about 2nd Niger bridge. Is it not those who have life that will use the bridge? Or the so-called many internal roads and inter-state roads, are they meant for ghosts? The roads are for the living.
Besides, do you know that our debt profile has now increased to over six trillion Naira? Do you know what we are owing China? What kind of country is this?
They say we have spent over N4 trillion in subsidizing fuel importation, yet, we cannot find petrol to buy. Seven years after, the Buhari government can neither build new refineries nor fix the existing ones. We are the only OPEC country that imports refined petroleum products. Diesel is now selling for over N800 per litre. Industries are shutting down as production cost hits the roof. Banks and even Supreme Court justices are cutting down operation time because of the exorbitant cost of running diesel generators. Every year, Aso Rock, the very seat of the federal government, budgets billions of Naira for generator expenses. Are we a normal people? For the fifth time this year alone, national electricity grid has collapsed, as if it is standing on plastic feet. Power generation has dropped to less than 10 megawatts for a country of over 200 million people. Do you think we are normal? And you say Nigeria is better off today? How do we expect investors in such an environment? Who made that assessment?
Look, you don’t understand what is happening. Do you know there are millions of Nigerians who don’t know how they will get their dinner tonight? Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths are jobless university graduates? Why do you think the #EndSARS protest of 2020 resonated so loudly across Nigeria?
In 2015, how much was a bag of rice? We were buying it between N15,000 and N1700 per bag. Today, after our CBN has supposedly granted local farmers huge loans to grow the same rice, that same bag of rice now is over N30,000.
At the time Buhari took over in 2015, a US Dollar was exchanging for N160/$. Today it is about N610/$. There is hunger in the land. Cost of living is terribly beyond the reach of millions of Nigerians.
Instead of creating the promised 3 million jobs per year, over 5 million Nigerians have lost their jobs in the last seven years.
(Raising his hands like a traffic controller)
How convenient! Do you remember that Nigeria was already in a state of economic coma before the outbreak of the pandemic?
Anybody who claims life is better now is an enemy of the country. If you even discount every other thing, the fact that thousands of people have been killed and people are being unsafe even in their homes, you will know that we
are damn worse off than we were in 2015. We have simply jumped from frying pan to an acidic fire, under the Buhari administration, and you are here claiming that life is better. What are the indices of that claim?
Look, as I speak, 50 of the passengers kidnapped since March 28 in the Abuja—Kaduna train attack are still in the bush. They are now being threatened by snakes and scorpions. Nine of them are said to have died in captivity. And you say life is now better? Is there any week we do not hear of mindless killings and abductions? Is that the sign of being better? Churches are being bombed here and there.And every now and then, there is a standing claim of “Mr President has directed the Service Chiefs to do XYZ”. When those instructions are not carried out, what are the repercussions? Can’t you see we are not making any progress as a people?
Unless you are rich enough to send your children to private universities, public universities can no longer guarantee successful completion of varsity education. What a country! This is no to talk of the offensive miasma of corruption, where just one man could steal N80 billion unchecked .... Has our suffering not increased geometrically? How many more rivers of sorrow and hardship do we have to cross before we will experience thralldom?
You must not dabble into classified security matters. It is not an acrossthe-counter issue. It is a complex matter beyond the national boundaries. It is a problem that stretches from here to the Sahel region. Security matter is everybody’s matter. All hands must be on deck. It did not start with the Buhari administration. It did not start today and will not just go by tomorrow. After all, the Chibok Girls’ kidnap did not occur under the Buhari administration. And did you not even hear that the military rescued another two of the Chibok girls last Wednesday? Government is on it.The train attack victims will be released. Buhari is hopeful that all the issues will be resolved before he hands over.
Hmmmmm, you know what they call delusion? Look, the rain fell, rain water did not fill the bucket; is it the dew that will fill the bucket?
A man had seven years to tackle a problem but he practically kept sleeping on duty, is it now that it is quarter to go that he will solve the problems? Don’t deceive yourself, it is clear Buhari was a mistake. A national mistake! Nigerians cannot wait for May next year for him to go back to his goats and cattle in Daura, so we can have our country back.
Regular politicians have failed us. Irregular politicians like Buhari have even failed us all the more. That is why many people are deeply disenchanted with these same old politicians who promise nothing and do nothing, but empty the treasury.
Thankfully, the message of a New Nigeria is breaking and bursting every corner of the country. It is resonating. Nigerians, especially the youth want their country back, from those who have dealt so harshly with us over the years.
Hey, Stop there! Jobs were lost because of COVID-19 pandemic. It was all over the world, it was not peculiar to Nigeria. In fact, many countries have not recovered from the global effect of that affliction. So, leave Buhari out of this.