Audacity is a willingness to take bold risks. It implies a disregard of restraints commonly imposed by convention or prudence. In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects or implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environment. Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. Hopelessness is having no expectation of good or success; giving no ground for hope; incapable of solution, management, or accomplishment; incapable of redemption or improvement; not susceptible to remedy or cure; causing despair.
When this government came in on 29th May, 2024, it had the audacity to take risks, but didn’t have the integrity, capacity, and competence to take decisions based on clearly defined policies and programmes. Their history shows that they are simple transactional political merchants whose only ambition is to hold onto power and money, and trade with them. No government which had the interest of the people at heart will declare from the first day in office “fuel subsidy is gone”, knowing the tremendous hardship it will impose on the people without any plans to cushion the effects of the removal. There’s no country on earth that has ever increased its price on refined oil in one fell swoop from N195.00 to N517.00, which has since increased to N815.00 in some places and N1,200.00 in some places, yet the product is unavailable, and remained the same. Commuters queue in filling stations for hours to pay N900.00 per liter for a product that flows in their land like river.
Judging from this scenario above on the removal of oil subsidy, can one say that this government is giving people an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in their lives? Or can one say that with the action of the government in relation to the removal of oil subsidy that the government has created in the people the atmosphere of having no expectation of good or success; giving no ground for hope; incapable of solution, management, or accomplishment; incapable of redemption or improvement; not susceptible to remedy or cure; causing despair? It is crystal clear that the removal of fuel subsidy, without due process of allowing the removal to exhaust the days set by the law, which was 30th June, 2024, and without any consultation with all the stakeholders in Nigeria, which resulted in about 300% increase in fuel price simply gave no ground of hope to the people. It simply means that the philosophy of this government anchored on renewed hope was dubious and mischievous. This government simply have the audacity of renewed hopelessness. Ndume described it as the government of the worst set of the citizens who are compulsive thieves.
The whole idea of the nation-wide protest says it all. It started with a harmless request to end bad governance. Hunger in the land increased the momentum. Insensitivity and threats by the government reinforced the agitation for good governance. This government is so incompetent that they are even unaware that when people are hungry, threats actually embolden them rather than deter them. Reason is that they have nothing more to lose, whether alive or dead, so threats communicates the impression that the government is insensitive. Hunger had beaten them up and the government is ordering them not to cry. The greatest tragedy of this government is that it’s populated by men who came from Lagos and Rivers States and are carrying the mentality of absolute dictatorship inherent in their administrations in those states and wanting incompetently to foist it on Nigeria. Simple, they will soon learn the hard way that “Nigeria no bi Lagos or Rivers State”.
This government did not just stop at removing the fuel subsidy, it depreciated the naira by more than 300%. The insincere reason given by it was that it intended to remove the gap between the official and parallel exchange rate price. This is not true. The government was just looking for ways to extort more money from Nigerians. When they came in, Nigerians gave them about N500.00 to receive government’s $1. With the unconscionable depreciation of the naira, citizens now pay them about N1,500.00 to receive government’s $1. They only intervened when they realised that the government also needs to pay itself N1,500.00 to receive its own $1 it needs to buy imported refined oil. If it didn’t intervene, it meant that the fuel would have been unaffordable even by the government. Indeed, even at N1,500.00 per $1, government had to reintroduce oil subsidy to be able to continue importing the refined crude. Every decision this government embarks on thinks of itself first, before remembering the people. This is audacity of renewed hopelessness.
Following the issue of naira depreciation is the issue of increase in electricity tariff. This government increased electricity tariff by almost 300%, yet the electricity is not available. In addition to the hike, the government divided electricity consumers into bands of the rich and privileged, and the poor and less privileged. Band A category was deceitfully promised 20 hours of light a day, while other lesser bands are condemned to take the leftovers of the Band A customers. This deceit was introduced as a way to make the Band A customers accept to pay higher tariffs than other bands. By this action, this transactional government has shown that it’s interested in sacrificing the interest of the poor for the rich. Needless to say that even the Band A rich class are not getting upto average of 6 hours of light per day. People cannot even effectively say which Band they are in because everyone is suffering same fate, yet the Band A customers are paying more. By Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, government is forbidden to discriminate against citizens. The issue of bands is discriminatory and unconstitutional. However, this government is not known to be an effective keeper of the rule of law. Electricity today is unaffordable and unavailable. Audacity of renewed hopelessness.
Proceeding from the issue of high electricity tariff is the issue of cost of governance. The poorest government in Nigeria history is running the largest bureaucracy made up of 48, soon to be 49 Ministers, when constitutionally, it would have been able to make due with 37. This is about 12 Ministers above the benchmark for the appointment of Ministers. Profligacy is another name for this government which is continually pleading for patience from the downtrodden over the hunger inducing programmes it is incompetently churning out, but is very impatient in wasting money in trillions over non productive matters.
What contribution will a private jet and a presidential yatch make to the solution of the hunger in the land? What will a N6b car park for the national assembly contribute to solving the electricity crisis in Nigeria? What has the purchase of 100% imported suv jeeps for more than 469 National Assembly members got to do with the reduction of security in the land? How do we reconcile the budget of N21b to build another house for the Vice-President of Nigeria when he already had a beautiful mansion at the villa, and an allocation of N20b for electronic gadgets for the office of the Chief of Staff to the President while Nigerians are living under the bridges from where they are expelled from time to time. Trillions of naira is shared incoherently to undeterminable number of people in the name of palliatives why the main determinable palliative, which is the oil subsidy, is removed to the detriment of the economic and social well-being of the people and the economy. Audacity of renewed hopelessness.
Security is the most fundamental of all the duties of government because one has to be alive before even enjoying any fundamental human right. Suicide bombing is re-echoing in our country. Five female bombers recently killed various people in Borno on the vain imagination that they will be rewarded with paradise. I am at a loss whether God will also reward them with seven young male virgins with pointed private part to be infinitely satisfying them sexually for having the audacity to murder many of their kinsmen who share essentially same religion. Indoctrination is one major demonic manipulation that proceeded from the pit of hell. That fellow men on earth will be propounding theories that suggest that murdering fellow human beings is a ticket for heaven is baffling. It’s even more baffling that someone will believe it, because if it’s true, only the children of the wealthy and rulers will be qualified to be granted the right to be suicide bombers.
The masters that send the suicide bombers will stay around the earth to enjoy themselves while the suicide bombers will die to rot in the burial ground and probably in hell, God forbid. Unfortunately, it’s always a hopeless environment that gives rise to insecurity which gives rise to suicide bombers. Even army, police officers and men are targeted and killed around the country. The government is exercerbating the security problem by not protecting the protesters and even sponsoring violence against the protesters in the name of protest against protesters. Farmers are frustrated and cannot go to their farms due to insecurity as substantial number of them have been killed in the past by terrorists, armed robbers and bandits. Their government had failed them as some of them had resorted to paying tax and other levies to the bandits to be alive.
This government must understand that it’s the one that is sponsoring the protests in Nigeria directly by sponsoring the protest against protesters and indirectly by allowing hunger and hardship to reign supreme in the land. Only good governance can prevent protests. With bad governance, protests are inevitable @endbadgovernance.