Today, Nigeria is in a place where everyone – government, opposition, and the people – should work together. It is not a time for divisive or self-servicing conversations and engagement. There is fire on the mountain in Nigeria, even though many who should know do not seem to realise it.
This is why I find the recent exchange between the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the Presidency, distasteful, to say the least. Such political bickering is equivalent to Nero’s legendary fiddling while the ancient city of Rome was aflame. Partisanship and self-justification are not luxuries that political leaders mindful of the people should entertain at this time in our national history.
I say this because things are tough for the majority of Nigerians, and people are on the edge as recent protests in parts of the country have shown.
But we do not need people to get on the streets to accept that things are tough; we see the hunger in the land, the lack in our pockets and the long faces and solicitations from family, friends, and associates. These days, such solicitations come from quarters of dignified and private individuals who would hitherto keep their problems to themselves. It is a situation where nearly every Nigerian is at the end of their willpower.
This fact is evident with the increased level of crimes and criminal activities in the country. Kidnapping for ransom, ritual killings, as well as internet fraud have become so rampant that many citizens now sleep with one eye open. At such a juncture, a country that is sincere with itself must accept this evidence of the albatross that an uneducated, untrained, bulging youth population can become.
It is possible to blame the current economic hardship, which apparently pushes people into despair, on the policy choices of President Bola Tinubu’s administration. But that would be self-serving and hypocritical of the political opposition.
Although Tinubu is currently at the helm, the two main economic policy decisions this administration had made were promoted by nearly all the parties during electioneering in 2023. If we identify the removal of Premium Motor Spirit or petrol subsidy as one of the reasons the cost of living has become so unbearable in Nigeria, both Atiku and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party also had this idea. Of course, they now claim after that they would have gone about it in different ways. If any of these parties were elected, they would still have removed the subsidy. It is the same with the foreign exchange policy adopted by the Tinubu administration; so, what would Atiku, and other opposition leaders, have done differently? Even if they had divergent policy ideas, we must realise that even the best policies require periods of gestation. Even if they don’t, bitter criticisms and public tantrums do not solve problems.
More importantly, most of the current players on the Nigerian political scene have had the opportunity to prove their capacity to affect the nation’s fortune at one time or another. But there is no evidence that they made any demonstrably sustainable impact on the nation.
Abubakar was Vice President for eight years. He has also moved from one party to the other, including being a member of the All Progressives Congress for some years without any lasting impact. Aside from being a former state governor, Obi once served as a National Economic Council member under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Kwankwaso also once served as a state governor in Kano, where his protégé, who currently sits as governor, saw citizens protest hardship just last week. The point is that none of these significant political figures has demonstrated an outstanding capacity for transformative governance. This is why we are where we are!
As lawyers talk about the principle of cause and effect, Nigeria is where it is today because of the shaky foundation of the past. Government irresponsibility at all levels, national depravity, and the lack of productivity over the past decades is why this country has run down the drain into this economic and moral crisis so fast.
However, even Nigeria’s current existential challenges present a unique opportunity. History teaches that every crisis that threatens a society’s survival also presents an opportunity for revival. It presents opportunities for political leaders to coagulate and rescue the country from going down the abyss. This is not the time for the political elite, which has contributed in no small measure to our current predicament, to continue to play their divisive and sanctimonious politics to the disadvantage of the people and, if care is not taken, the damnation of the country.
Nigeria’s problems are evident to all now, and every hand must be on deck to solve them. The people are hungry because farmers have been driven off their farms by criminal herders. The country is broke because of its lack of productivity and the inability to attain capacity in oil production, aided by the massive theft of crude in the country. How do we solve all these problems without forming a united front wherein all possible solutions must be put on the table and discussed?
Nigeria needs an urgent coalition wherein the federal government is humble enough to collaborate with all state governments, regardless of party affiliations, to improve the opportunity for Nigerians to thrive in their country. It also behoves opposition parties and figures to be patriotic enough not to see this period as a moment to score cheap political points. This is the time to build the confidence of the people in their country, and constructive criticisms and suggestions cum collaborations on the way forward will do the nation a lot of good. This would work even at the level of states each party controls. Every little step would take us closer to the destination and the government cannot continue to give excuses.
For instance, Tuesday’s offering by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, about how much Nigerians have expended on medical tourism and education shows how bad things are in the country. While it is convenient for leaders to blame ordinary Nigerians for seeking opportunities for health care and educating their children abroad, the government must realise that this tendency indicates its failure in those areas. Apart from that, there is also the critical point of how much government functionaries contribute to medical and educational tourism. Leaders must, therefore, also tame their taste for this exotic material, which the country cannot produce.
For instance, how much would Nigeria have saved by buying locally-made vehicles for government officials instead of imported ones? Legislators who took those expensive SUVs at the National Assembly come from different political parties. Couldn’t some of these parties now pontificating help Nigeria prevail on their members to resist importing these cars? But they didn’t! Members of all parties found justification to receive the cars as part of the perks of their offices.
In the final analysis, therefore, Nigeria’s salvation hinges on getting our politicians to stop treating the country as their meal ticket! If this does not happen fast, we risk the anger of the people. You cannot squeeze a man’s ball and he won’t fight back. That is the state of an otherwise endowed society reduced to tatters by a mindless elite whose insatiable appetites have appropriate the prosperity of generations unborn. The political elite must stop taking the people for granted thereby avoiding the unleashing of the impending indiscriminate venom that may come.
Credit: Niran Adedokun