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I don’t know how many of us know that sometimes it doesn’t require the booming of guns before a country can collapse and disintegrate. Issues of the loins destroyed the once great Roman Empire. The people were hungry and the ruling class were very occupied reveling, even the king it is said was in the midst of wine and beautiful women when Rome began to burn. He couldn’t see the signs and when the unraveling began he couldn’t understand that a Roman General had crossed the Rubicon.
He was fiddling while Rome burned. Delusion of grandeur can be unearthing. The empire collapsed and the king and court jesters didn’t escape the fury; they all died a most miserable death. Many of you reading this may not have read the story of how England was forced to move away from monarchical system to republicanism and finally a mixed grill of democracy and decorated monarchy. The ruling class, especially under the monarchy, chose to play god at the expense of the wellbeing of the people.
It boomeranged badly. When the revulsion began the signs were very clear that danger loomed over the empire. Rights inherent to the people were being trampled on recklessly, even the freedom to work and eat was systematically being abridged. The people were suffocated greatly to a point, where situations tasked the human endurance to its very limits. Something had to give. The hitherto docile people revolted and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Even the sea was boiling and the mountains, you can imagine were melting.
Nothing could roll back the anger. As reggae music legend, Bob Market would sing, it was a case of total destruction with no solution. Goggle King Henry V of England and the history of England we know today will hit your sight. You will see the similarity between the Nigeria of today and the era in question. You will see leadership by manipulation and how it left the population prostrate. The other thing you discover is how the ruling class enjoy and do everything to take advantage of privileges to the detriment of the downtrodden.
We can talk about France, Spain, China and Russia and you will see the same pattern and what came out of them. For reasons of space we won›t go that far but it is very important to draw attention to the fact that we in Nigeria have stepped into the circle right now. There is a succession of poor quality leadership. Someone once wrote in a newspaper article that late Robert Mugabe once wondered aloud why many Africans expected Nigeria to rise and be the giant of Africa when with the number of universities in the country, graduands and experiences they have, the people appeared content to elect into office persons with no evidence of formal education.
Never mind that in our crude kind of political environment where narrow minds have selected half-baked graduates and thrown them up for public offices, where their poor performances became an issue, good tutorship in a modern world is still a vital requirement for excellence in leadership. Imagine British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Barack Obama, former American President, discussing the world economy and the place of Nigeria with former Muhammed Buhari and….Anyone can predict disaster for a particular country in the mix. It is partly the reason we in Nigeria have run into far greater mess in more recent times.
It is only in the black world we see governments start and end with policies that emasculate the people. Buhari tried to get into the office of the president on three occasions and failed before he finally made it. For all of eight years he couldn’t fashion out internally generated solutions for crude oil refining even though by the time he campaigned he claimed to have a good grasp of the problem and the sustainable solutions to it.
He called subsidy a scam and importation of fuel criminal. In office he did worse. His subsidy infusion was far much higher. Importation went haywire and he went on a loan borrowing spree. If he were knowledgeable he would have known that foreign borrowing is an albatross for any country without a productive base and which lacks sound organization. He and his ruling court jesters chose to make us purchase fuel at international market prices when the living conditions were anything near the standard.
President Bola Tinubu came in even though his victory is subject of litigation in the election tribunal. Coming from the old western region known for liberalism, the expectation was that the country’s challenges would receive fresh review and more people-friendly approach adopted but from the events so far it would seem he has kept faith with his pledge to run the Buhari path. He had barely been sworn into office when he decreed fuel subsidy out of existence. It was expected but what wasn’t was the haste attendant to the action.
He could have opted to sit down, take a critical look at the issue before making a pronouncement. Instead, he launched the people into penury before commencing the search for palliatives. No sane society takes this path. Barely a month after removing the subsidy, there is another increase in prices announced by the government agency not as a result of interplay in the areas of supply and demand. As you read this the electricity companies want to jerk up tarrifs, petrol lifters would have to pay road tolls, vehicle owners must pay for proof of ownership, meanwhile prices of basic necessities of life have increased, inflation is running so high.
Few citizens into very productive engagements can›t move. Labour mobility or mobility generally is greatly hampered. The suffering in the land has become very unbearable. It is just that we run a country of very limited statistics otherwise the figures of citizens just transiting to the world beyond would frighten the hell out of each and every one of us. People are dying. The heat is really on. None is certain any longer where the help would come from.
Truth is, the future is not looking good. The President is not talking. He appears lost in action. His aides have told us about the looming food crisis and have reeled out measures they think can stem the tide. They want food in the reserves released to force down prices. You look at that and wonder what kind of economic sense that makes. How much food does the country have stored in what number of reserves? We hear grains. In how many regions are grain the staple food?
Why are we not talking about refining our crude locally? How come Nigeria can›t have uninterrupted electricity supply? Is it possible to have an economic boom without taking out all the mercenaries and jihadists deliberately brought into our country to further supremacy struggles and who have constituted the main threat to peace and stability? What is the vision for the new Nigeria? When people don›t have a destination, everywhere will look like a road.
What is more, the creeping into our body politics of impunity should worry all. When the intelligence arm of national security begins to carry heavy assault rifles and constitutes first line force in securing the state it is not out of order, it is an abberation suggestive of infusion of highhandedness into what ordinarily should be a democratic setting. What happened at the arraignment of the suspended Central Bank Governor at a Federal High Court in Lagos was a huge shame and costly national embarrassment. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hide our messy internal contradictions. Very unfortunate. Nevertheless, happenings in the country have gotten to a level we all must begin to be very worried. We may wake up to see that a country can just collapse without anyone firing a bullet.
