By Steve Nwosu
I’M one of those who are convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari is pursuing a curious agenda. That agenda is that, by the end of his first four years, all of us would be looking as slender as he is.
How do I mean? Everyone agrees that this 2015 has been very harsh on us all – in terms of stomach infrastructure, yet Buhari is telling us that 2016 would even be tougher. As things presently are, we are unofficially in an austere regime, yet they are telling us that, come 2016, there would still be austerity measure – as properly and officially imposed. So, tell me: Must we all be looking like Buhari before we convince this APC government that we’ve already tightened our belts to the bone? Yet, they say there is light at the end of the tunnel, and they also swear it’s not the headlamps of an oncoming train. I just hope that we do not move from austerity measures to rationing of essential commodities – Essenco. Every- thing is just bringing back memories of Buhari’s first coming in 1983, and the Shagari government before it. We’re even now romanticising about War Against Indiscipline (WAI). Like Alhaji Lateef Jakande did in those days, some people are already answering to what they did with Security Vote. And now, I’m beginning to see some people getting jailed for 300 years or 85 years, ‘to run concurrently’.
What all these clearly show is that we’ve only been running around in circles all these many years (all motion and no movement), and that we’re now back to where Buhari left us 30 years ago. This has nothing to do with PDP or APC sentiments!
Of course, I have nothing against jailing treasury looters. But I have only one plea to make to them: While they’re imposing this new austerity measure, they should spare a thought for those of us who, without the austerity measures, are already as fat as Nasir el-Rufai (distant cousins of Nuhu Ribadu). Any further tightening of our already-tight belts could see us vanishing.
But then, do we really have to tread this scary path? Why are we so jittery over falling oil prices? Personally, I don’t think things are as bad as the government people would have us believe.
How do I mean? From the tales emerging from the probe of just two of the many offices through which our economy was bled in the last 16 or so years, it is clear that what actually got into our national coffers was less than 20 per cent of what was supposed to be there. And even at that, what ultimately got to be used for public good was less than a quarter of what was earmarked. The rest disappeared into private pockets. Use this model to look at Customs, NIMASA, NPA and other MDAs, and you’d appreciate that what we have been doing, in the name of running a national economy, all these years has been a mindless sacrifice to the goddess of waste and profligacy.
What this then means is that the $36 or $38 per barrel figure our crude oil is now selling, if fully captured into our public till and channeled to legitimate uses, is actually higher than the net amount we have been utilising for the same purpose since 1999.
What is the point in selling our crude oil at $100 per barrel when all that ends up getting to us is just about $15 or $20 per barrel – the rest having been pilfered along the way?
So, if, with Buhari’s position of zero-corruption, we’re now getting a net of more than $30 per barrel, we’re still more buoyant than we actually were, under PDP. And that is why I believe there is enough for governors to continue to pay the paltry N18,000 minimum wage they are now claiming they can’t sustain – when what we should really be talking about right now is the upward review of this slave wage. We can do it, if we focus on need instead of greed.
It is now very clear that what we genuinely need to run this country, and deliver the goodies, is actually a tiny fraction of the money we make. I believe what balloons our bills is the provision we have to make for greed. But, I guess I’m sounding like the layman that I am.
Re-Still on Biafra
Reading the rather explosive interview Dr. Junaid Mohammed granted The Sunday Sun at the weekend, I began to appreciate why our country has continued to run in circles. I suddenly realised how we have to force every development in the country to fit into our preconceived prebendal narrative. How every government appointment must necessarily be viewed from the prism of ethnicity and regionalism. And how we deliberately push ourselves to avoidable friction and bloodshed. How we mischievously open old wounds without any intention of treating it, but just to keep the pain fresh. It is in the North as much as it is in the South.
How, for instance, is it easy for Dr. Junaid to understand that Boko Haram insurgents are terrorists, who neither represent the teachings of Islam nor the sentiments of the people of Northern Nigeria, while he finds it so difficult to transfer this same understanding to the Igbo, the South East and the pro-Biafra agitations? Why are the demonstrations suddenly an agenda of Christian Igbo nation against Buhari, the North and Islam? Why does every Igbo person who goes off track represent the Igbo mold and model, while every Hausa, Fulani or Yoruba who goes off track is dismissed, with a wave of the hand, as an exemption from the norm?
But, like I’ve recently discovered, there is no point trying to make sense out of this. It’s the only commodity that self-serving political merchants have to sell to the gullible masses. And it always works. It keeps the poor masses busy while the politicians do their looting – with- out recourse to tribe or faith. That is why we are where we are. So, rather than address the many vexatious issues raised by Dr. Junaid, I’d publish some readers’ reaction to an earlier article on the central issue of the Biafra discourse:
There was an era of divided-we-stand in Germany, but when they realised that there was no benefit or strength in it, they pulled down the Berlin wall.
In Nigeria, there has been perceived marginalisation by one region against another. Gowon thought that Ironsi was attempting to marginalise the North, hence he toppled him in a military coup – and even made the careless statement that the basis for national unity does not exist. Remember, there is power in the spoken word.
We can have unity if equity is entrenched into our polity. Let the pro-Biafra agitators give the present regime time to address certain issues like roads. -Chinedu Ekwuno (JP), 08063730644
Biafra will succeed, with or without the likes of you. Do you think that by using abusive words like half-educated and illiterate on your own people that the Hausa and Yoruba would like you more…? -08035070309
My brother, Steve, don’t be too angry with your brothers. Reactions to your piece are bound to be diverse. Accommodate them. You know as we do that your people (Igbo race) are a marked people, as you rightly alluded: “Consistent pattern of injustice…” The group you described in pejorative terms is bound to, and indeed feels it more. Nwayo (take it easy)! Your write-up was balanced, only needed the educated to appreciate. -P.L. Osuagwu Esq., Owerri, 08024524544
Dear Steve, the ‘different approach’ you advocated in the concluding part of your well written “Still On Biafra’ is what we, the Ndigbo leaders, need to inculcate in the masses NOW OR NEVER. Thanks. -From HRM
Via - The SUN
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