Nigeria: A nation where the economy grows stronger while the citizens groan

President Buhari has made history as the first C-in-C in power when the precious citizens of Nigeria suffered for months to access PMS. The ongoing fuel scarcity started in the Month of November 2017 and till this moment; our people are still suffering to buy FUEL for 200naira per litre in both Lagos and Ogun States. I am told it is costlier in some other parts of our struggling and fraught nation. The question is; how do you expect people to be suffering to access what we do have in abundance and at the same time rolling out drums, dancing and praising your hero—PMB and his bungling and disorganized team? 

In the wee hours of today, the first problem I needed to solve was to comb everywhere for FUEL—as a woman would look for a lost coin. In the same vein, I was so cheerless, seeing a sea of faces of our people, wasting their precious time, queuing for what we do have in abundance, but not made abundantly available to our people to buy. How can we be paying those in the corridors of power so much but instead of solving problems for our people, they are daily creating problems for them? Our people deserve more than they are getting and it is so depressing.

I am of the estimation that we need “Silicon valley” in every State in Nigeria, not “Cattle Colony.” The world left where we are decades ago. Some days ago, I got fascinated by the story of two Somalis—who became multi-millionaires in dollars—in a war torn and hunger whipping country like Somalia. How did they get to where they are? They started an e-commerce business. While I do not have any problem with Fulani herders (as long as they do not burn people’s farms and butcher them), I make bold to say that what we need are not herders, what we need are e-business inclined folks. We need to raise millions of young men and women as those two Somalis—who are TECH-driven. This is where the world is right now and we need to catch up with them if we are ever going to make it as a people.

The governor of Central Bank recently reeled out some figures, saying that our economy is doing very well. Infact, we were told that our economy is one of the best on earth today. But the question is; how can an economy be getting stronger while our people are daily losing jobs and businesses? Under the administration of President Buhari, over 16million folks have lost their jobs and countless folks, their businesses, yet we were told a few days ago that our economy gets stronger daily. Isn’t that a political economy?

How can an economy be getting stronger daily and most of our people are getting weaker financially? If we are doing well economically, we would not need any paid economist to tell us, the common man on the street should be able to know. Of what good is an economy that is growing that the common man isn’t feeling its impact? Since the beginning of the administration of Mr. President, I notice that there are folks who have chosen to ‘worship’ him even when he is wrong.

I am of the opinion that they do detest him because praising a man when he is wrong is not loyalty, it is wickedness. Some weeks back, I was teaching somewhere and I said this to them: “Buhari has enough people on his payroll to tell him what he wants to hear, you do not need to join them. The best you can do is to always tell him the truth without being frightened. Telling someone the truth is different than abusing him…”

It was very bumpy and jagged economically when President Obama took over the baton of power from President Bush, but in two years, without trading blames as we enjoy doing here, he was able to create some millions of jobs and when he was stepping out of the office, he was able to pass on a nation that has in her possession—a very robust and healthy economy. In a few months from now, it shall be three (3) years that President Buhari took over the baton of power and blaming GEJ and his ministers for things that are not working now is absolutely irresponsible. Mr. President does not have up to a year in office anymore. And whatever legacy he wants to leave behind when he steps out of office, I humbly advice that he begins to work on it right now.

Those who have been promising him landslide victory in the coming presidential election are deceiving him as they deceived GEJ. No one’s vote is automatic again in Nigeria. Only those who deliver on their electoral promises (and those who do have a track-record of success) shall be voted for. We are no longer voting for deceptive political parties. We are now voting for individuals across all political parties that are alive and active.