Last week, some religious and traditional leaders lamented the state of affairs in Nigeria. What the leaders said was not new but, coming from such personalities who happen to be the conscience of the nation, it has become imperative that our political leaders should sit up and proffer quick solutions to our problems to avoid catastrophic consequences.
One of the religious leaders who spoke last week was the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) and Archbishop of Owerri, Most Reverend Lucious Ugorji. The archbishop said Nigeria was not just very sick but also on life support and quarantined in an intensive care unit. The cleric lamented that the sickness was prevalent in all sections of our national life. “We have sickness of segregation, nepotism, sectionalism, corruption, ethnicity, worthlessness of human life and a lot more,” he stated. He regretted that those managing the affairs of the country appeared to be either overwhelmed, incapable, unwilling or did not know how to rectify the anomalies.
Similarly, the Sultan of Sokoto and chairman of Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, warned last week that Nigeria was sitting on gunpowder, following these economic and security challenges. He said people were very agitated, hungry and angry and that the situation was getting to a level where they could no longer stop people from revolting.
The emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, said the same thing when the wife of the President, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, visited him recently. The emir asked the First Lady to tell her husband, President Bola Tinubu, that Nigerians were suffering. He said, although the government was making efforts, it should redouble its efforts to ease the suffering faced by the people.
Some socio-political groups like the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) have also lamented the suffering of Nigerians. NEF said recently that while millions of Nigerians were struggling to make ends meet, those in power seemed to be living in isolation or denial. It considered this indifference towards the suffering of the people as deeply troubling.
Already, there have been protests against hardship in the country. The protests occurred in states like Niger, Ogun and Kano. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has also proposed a two-day nationwide protest against hardship towards the end of this February.
There are many reasons to believe that Nigeria is sick. High insecurity, unemployment, food insecurity, high cost of living, exit of some multinationals, wobbling health and education sectors, corruption and poor value of the naira, among others, are some of them. Most of these problems are not new. The issue is that, rather than abate, the problems have multiplied and there seems to be no concrete attempt to solve them.
Nigerians face a grim reality. We had thought that the previous administration inflicted hardship on the people and the current administration had come to effect positive changes. Unfortunately, the situation has worsened. Leadership requires that the President should feel the pulse of the people. And the pulse of people today is that things are very hard. The country is drifting and we have never had it this bad for decades.
Essentially, what is lacking is transparent leadership. The masses were asked to tighten their belt while the leaders continue to revel in profligacy.
The President should see the religious and traditional leaders’ warnings as a wake-up call. He should listen to them because they feel the pains of the masses. At first, government should do something concrete to resolve the food crisis. Food is one of the basic necessities of man. When the majority of the populace cannot put food on their table, it leads to untoward consequences. Government is already doing something in this regard, but it should do more.
Let it retool the economy and initiate friendly policies that will attract investors. We need to change from being a nation of consumption to being a nation of production. That is one major thing that will engender employment, curb crime and shore up the value of the naira. Mechanised agriculture is the key in this regard.
Government should also revamp the education and health sectors. These are critical sectors that will impact on other sectors, if well taken care of. Democracy should be for the enhancement of people’s lives but it is not so in Nigeria. The President and his team should chart a new course. He has the job cut out for him, if only he can tell himself the truth. Time is still on his side to offer solutions. He and his team should stop the blame game that his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, did. He was elected to solve problems, not to apportion blame. He should focus on the job for which he was elected.