Prince Ewemade Konkons is an author of substance who has written many books. He, however, decided that his 10th book should be titled “Nigeria: A Nation in Distress”. Immediately I informed one comrade about the book launch and the title, he quickly quipped, “Indeed. A nation in disaster not in distress oooooooo!” It’s possible Ewemade, who is based in the United Kingdom was even trying to be patriotic by just titling his book a nation in distress.

 

President Bola Tinubu
President Bola Tinubu

 

 

It’s important to note that the rot in Nigeria didn’t start from Tinubu’s regime, but it appears to be climaxing in his tenure. From 1999, Obasanjo laid the foundation for the caricature elections we have today in the Fourth Republic. His elections in 2003 and 2007 were so flawed that the beneficiary of Obasanjo’s 2007 presidential election, President Umaru Yar’Adua, who succeeded Obasanjo, admitted publicly that the election that brought him to power was flawed.

Umaru Yar’Adua spent about three years in office and died, but that was after he ill-advisedly reversed Obasanjo’s privatisation of the refineries without making sufficient efforts to repair the refineries before he died. Boko Haram insurgency started in his regime in 2009. Goodluck Jonathan took over from Yar’Adua and couldn’t find solutions to the insecurity problems of Nigeria. Boko Haram threatened the three states of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, and even Taraba in his regime, but effectively took over about 17 local governments in the North East. They foisted their flags in those local governments and declared those enclaves an Islamic caliphate.

Buhari displayed the worst knowledge of economics and security. In addition to the insurgency continuing in the North East, it spread to the North West in its worst form that prompted men from Katsina State, Buhari’s home state, to voluntarily submit their wives and daughters to bandits and terrorists, for their sexual pleasure in order to save their lives from being killed by them. Governor Masari was seen crying openly and going into the forests to negotiate with the terrorists to spare his people. Farmers-herders clash in North Central climaxed during Buhari’s regime.

The economy under Buhari went down so rapidly that Buhari illegally resorted to ways and means borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria. By the end of his regime, he had illegally borrowed more than N22 trillion from the Central Bank. His social investment programme scheme was replete with corruption to the extent that his Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Directors in the ministry were arrested for carting away billions of naira. The money budgeted for the poor people was constantly shared by the rich, appointed to supervise the sharing, with no consequences to them by the government of Buhari. To worsen Buhari’s plight, he was a constant visitor to foreign countries on account of ill health that took him out for sometimes six months at a time. Although ill health cannot be said to be his fault, the mere fact that he travelled abroad for solutions to his health revealed the dilapidated state of our medical facilities. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was on strike for more than nine months during Buhari’s regime, signifying the comatose nature of our educational facilities. At the end of Buhari’s regime, our security, economy, education, health care facilities and war against corruption were all practically comatose.

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Tinubu came in with the Renewed Hope Agenda through an election described by the international community as below the minimum standard required for conducting free and fair election. After the ignoble 2023 presidential election, our electoral system has been on a free fall. The off-cycle gubernatorial elections in Kogi, Imo, Bayelsa, Ondo, and Edo elections saw a new level of electoral manipulation which saw INEC officials who surreptitiously handed over authentic result sheets to politicians to pre-fill before election day, which the corrupt INEC officials illegally fed into the IREV Portal on election day as the results from the polling units. The INEC officials went to the extent of changing figures in the backend of the BVAS and other electronic devices used to conduct the Edo off-cycle election.

What is happening in our electoral process is the worst indicator of how distressed Nigeria is. At least, democratic countries have the opportunity to vote out erring leaders they choose. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the people are no longer the deciders of their leaders. Their leaders are now imposed on them by INEC, and the courts. In this regard, we are no longer practising democracy but according to Senator Ali Ndume of the All Progressives Congress (APC), we now have the government of the kakistocrats and kleptocrats (government of the worst of us and government of the desperate thieves). This is the kind of leaders that fraudulent elections trump up.

In the area of security, Tinubu promised from his first day in office that “Security shall be the top priority of our administration because neither prosperity, nor justice can prevail amid insecurity and violence. To effectively tackle this menace, we shall reform both our security; we shall invest more in our security personnel, and this means more than an increase in number. We shall provide better training, equipment, pay and firepower.” Today, almost two years into Tinubu’s regime, insurgency has resurged in the North East and North West. This week, more than 40 farmers were killed in Borno in a day by the Boko Haram terrorists. The Lakurawa terrorists have intensified attacks in the North West killing five soldiers on 16th January, 2025. Six soldiers were killed this week in Borno. An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in Abuja killing people in a primary school. Kidnappings have increased across Nigeria. The nation is in shock and fear owing to insecurity. As these attacks are going on, Tinubu is in faraway Abu Dhabi, attending a function, which he embarked on immediately returning from the swearing-in of the Ghanaian President for a second term in office. Nigeria is in distress or can we say disaster and there’s an absentee President who does nothing about it.

When this government came in on May 29, 2023, Tinubu, on the inauguration ground, without resort to any consultation, illegally removed fuel subsidy against a provision in an existing law, that the subsidy will be removed by June 30, 2023. This subsidy was removed when refined fuel was 100 percent imported, thereby skyrocketing the price of fuel from about N195 to about N617 on first day, and to about N1150 today. With the devaluation of naira by about 300 percent at the same time, cost of living became unbearable. Food became unaffordable. Tinubu’s kinsmen shot the first salvo when they welcomed him to Lagos on his first visit that they were hungry (ebin pawa). The entire country went on protest between August 1st to 10th, 2024 for hunger and hardship. In December of same year, more than 70 persons died all over Nigeria in stampedes for food and N5000. As all these deaths happened, the President was enjoying his Christmas holiday in his home town of Lagos and granting presidential media chat in which he was scoring himself excellent in his duties as President. Electric power is virtually absent in the country with 12 national grid collapses in 2024. Nigeria is in disaster indeed.

Inflation rose for the fourth time in December last year to an all-time high of 34.8 percent, while food inflation is unbearably high, climbing to more than 42 percent. Naira reached a pitiable level of almost N2000 per dollar but is now cooling off at about N1700 per a dollar. More than 50 percent of the manufacturing companies in Nigeria have collapsed while the remaining ones are all enduring one sickness or the other. The telecommunication companies are understandably about to increase their tariff in order to remain afloat or risk collapse under the excruciating pain of business losses. The economy has become an apology, yet this government lied to the Nigerian people that it will reduce inflation in Nigeria to 15 percent in 2025.

Tinubu appointed 48 ministers into his cabinet. The largest in the history of Nigeria at a time Nigeria is poorest. The government imported all the vehicles it uses for all its operations when there are locally made vehicles in Nigeria. This government awarded a road contract costing N15 trillion to a company that prompted Nigerians to question the propriety of the award, especially at a time it borrows more than N13trn to cover its budget deficits, and at a time when most of the roads in Nigeria are dilapidated.

The only solution to this distress is in the effective implementation of the Rule of Law. The people must find a way to enforce the law on everyone, including the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We have to borrow a leaf from South Korea where a sitting President is now under arrest for investigation on his efforts to truncate democracy through the declaration of martial law in South Korea. He was first of all impeached and while his removal was being processed he was arrested for questioning over his martial law declaration. Nobody is above the law. Nigerian people should enforce electoral laws on INEC officials by insisting that their votes must count and be counted in all elections. Election is the pillar of democracy and if we don’t have free and fair elections, we may as well kiss our democracy goodbye, and remain perpetually in distress.