Follow Us on Google
There’s no sane human being that will ever wish that his country collapses. When people are living under the same roof, especially, husband and wife, no matter how soured and toxic their relationship has become, they will never pray that their house collapses. Reason is not because each cares about what happens to the other, but they realise that it is even in their enlightened self interest that the building doesn’t collapse. If it does, all of them may perish. This is why the scriptures proclaimed that if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Every Nigerian is guilty one way or the other for what is going on today. Our country is going bad not because of the violence of the bad people, but because of the silence of the good ones. The only thing evil needs to prevail is for the good people to keep quiet. I was broken in bits when a good friend of mine that can even boast of being better placed than most Nigerians being a retired Director in the civil service lamented bitterly “I really wish I had an alternative country I can call mine”. This sorrowful lamentation is revelational. It reminds us that we do not have another country we can call ours. Even if you have another country, you may be a second class citizen there.
What is happening in Nigeria today is bizarre. I didn’t know leaders can be this weird. How can our leaders practically destroy this blessed country with their hands and they are sleeping well. A leader negotiated to pay workers N70,000.00 per month, about $42 at today’s exchange rate of N1,650.00 per dollar. Fuel price was about N540.00 per litre. Before the minimum wage was even paid, this government heartlessly increased fuel to about N1,200.00 per litre in certain places. The salary of a Nigerian worker can only purchase about 58 litres of fuel, just enough to fill the tank of a car. This worker is expected to attend work everyday, where the transport cost is unaffordable. He is expected to eat everyday where food has become unavailable and unaffordable. He is expected to report to work everyday where the security to his life is no longer guaranteed. He is expected to pay for his children’s school fees. How? This is simply unbelievable.
The economy witnessed the greatest thunderstorm during the 2023. The shock in the economy came with the illegal and ill advised declaration, during the inauguration of President Tinubu on May 29, 2023, where he quipped, “fuel subsidy is gone”. This automatically changed the pump price of pms from N185.00 to unstainable N540.00 and N660.00 and more in some places.
Accompanying this unfortunate untimely subsidy removal policy, was the unification of the dual exchange rate which saw naira depreciate by more than 300% and climaxed at almost N2,000.00 per a dollar, before it started cooling-off. The truth is that this is not anything near unification of the dual exchange rate, it is simply an ill-advised depreciation of the naira. Unknowingly, this administration and its advisers failed to understand that this singular action instantly trippled the value of the debt the government is owing foreign entities in dollars. When this government came in, the dollar exchanged for about N480.00 official rate, but today, it exchanges for about N1,650.00, meaning that the debt owed by the government valued at N480b to a $1b before the unification will now need about N1.65 trillion to a $1b to pay back, because of the incompetent devaluation of the naira.
Great companies like GSK pharmaceutical company, P&G, and others have packed their baggages and left. Thousands of manufacturing companies are collapsing everyday. Manufacturers Association of Nigeria put it that about 40% of the manufacturing plants are gone. They gave the reasons of frequent policy flip-flops, astronomical energy costs, multiple charges, hyper inflation, and toxic environment as some of the causes of the slaughter of the manufacturing plants. Food inflation has hit the roof. Hunger and hardship reign.
Insecurity has resumed full force. Nobody is spared. As factories are closing up, kidnapping industries are booming. Formerly untouchables are being touched. Royal fathers are disrespectfully killed and even their corpses are not spared from being ransomed. In Ekiti, Sokoto, and Imo States, the stories are the same in the kidnapping and slaughter of traditional rulers and other Nigerians. We are graduating from ungoverned spaces to ungovernable spaces. The reason Nigeria has not failed must be God.
The revelation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd that it is owing about $6b in debt is mind boggling but not entirely surprising. It means that it’s technically bankrupt. What was this money used for? A presidential jet worth about N150,000,000,000.00 for air travels. A cardillac limousine beast bullet proof worth almost about N1,000,000,000.00 for land travels. Just one car amidst a convoy of cars. Everything about these ostentatious items are imported and will require imported personnel and parts to service them. This is just for one person.
For more than 30 years, the refineries have not worked, yet the workers are paid. The Academic Staff Union of Universities protested against the non implementation of its agreement with the government in 2009 and stayed away from work for some months. The government invoked the law of no work no pay and did not pay them. The NNPCL workers have not worked for about 30 years but they are all paid. If the government stopped employing new persons in a moribund firm like NNPCL by now all the workers would have retired. It means that government is still employing people and paying them for work not done. The reason is that the workers are made up of the children of the corrupt politicians and the children of the rich, while the teachers are composed of the struggling talented Nigerians. This is why it is imperative not to commercialise a public business enterprise in a corrupt society like ours without first of all privatising it. The organisation was able to accumulate $6b debt because it is the Nigerian masses that will be extorted to pay the debt. If NNPCL were privatised, it will be making profit not loss. Time to sell them off is now. Time to sack all the leadership of NNPCL is now. Time to prosecute all the bandits in NNPCL is now.
Of interesting dimension in the operation of the NNPCL is the Dangote angle. Dangote refinery has just become operational and suddenly Dangote has now found the NNPCL a worthy ally. Same entities that were fighting each other just recently. The reason is not far fetched. Dangote wants to replace the monopoly of the NNPCL with the monopoly of Dangote refinery. Here is the deal. Dangote refinery will be allowed to produce all the fuel, while NNPCL will be allowed to buy all the fuel. With this contract, Dangote can fix any price he likes and announce any quantity he likes and NNPCL will agree that they bought all. They will sell to Nigerians purportedly at a subsidised price.
The differences in the quantity and the price is the oil subsidy fraud we have been hinting about since inception of the subsidy regime. Whenever subsidy is paid, fictitious quantity will become consumed at fictitious price. When subsidy was removed, the demand for fuel came down from about 60m litres a day to about 40m litres a day. The difference of 20m litres was a fictitious, fabricated quantity never consumed. With Dangote selling to the NNPCL alone, their incentive of continuing with the fuel subsidy corruption when they imported all the refined petroleum products will not be tampered with. Their incentive to enjoy their corruption as a monopolist will also not be tampered with. They will assist Dangote to collect any price he wants from the coffers of Nigeria and avoid the anger of Nigerians that he is selling at an outrageous rate since the anger will be directed at NNPCL which will now be deemed to be doing the selling. Nigeria is a huge crime scene. This is why it’s interesting to hear Dangote proclaim that he built the refinery to help Nigerians. No! He is a capitalist. He built it to help himself. I was taught in business administration that the aim of any business is to make profit. If Dangote wants to help Nigerians, let him sell directly to Nigerians at N517.00 per litre.
The human rights record of this regime is terrible. What have the persons who demonstrated against hunger and hardship to do with treasonable felony? It appears that the government was simply preparing for the ungodly increase in the petroleum products and decided to maltreat these innocent people as a way to send a message of intimidation to other would be protesters that they would be severely dealt with if they try it. What has the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) President, Joe Ajero got to do with terrorism just because he is pressing for higher wages for workers.
Time for accountability is now. Please, any leader who does not intend to bring these people to account if elected must stay out of politics for now. Nigerians have suffered enough for a new leader to tax them more in order to have money to execute his projects. The amount of money stolen by these kakistocrats and kleptocrats, if recovered, should be enough for any leader to start with if voted into power. If Nigeria must survive, corruption must attract the stiffest penalty. The summary of why Nigeria is about to collapse is corruption. Bad leadership is enthroned by corruption. President Tinubu is in China with other African leaders lined up to shake the Chinese President. China was poorer than Nigeria, until they made corruption to attract death penalty. Today, they are the second largest economy in the world. Our collapse is not irreversible if we are willing to embark on the Chinese option.
