Which way Nigeria?
By Rotimi Fasan
problems we ought by now to be done with. ‘Many years after independence we still find it hard to start/How long shall we be patient before we reach the promised land?’.
The singer goes on to urge Nigerians to save the country before it dies. That song reflects the present state of our country where we continue to move as if in a circle- just ‘dey perambulate’ as Fela would put it. What further proof do we need to show that we are in a state of inertia at the moment than the series of problems we’ve been grappling with without any solution in sight. At least the solutions so far provided have proven totally worthless. They tell us we’ve been here before as the following instances show.
For nearly a month now, long queues of vehicles waiting to buy fuel have taken over our country. Petroleum that Nigeria produces in crude form has been elusive. Businesses have been halted and life as we know it in modern terms has come to a virtual halt.
People continue to struggle to buy petrol at cut throat prices even as the money with which to buy is nowhere to be found. Hoarding has become the order of the day and government continues to issue threats that seem to strengthen the resolve of these fuel hoarders to continue in their illicit business. Marketers complain of lack of foreign exchange with which to do business.
They are telling us that unless government pays them nearly N500 billion they are being owed they would not be able to do anything to ease the pains we are in. Muhammadu Buhari is asking the National Assembly for authorisation to pay the money.
Nigerians were here just about six months ago. Goodluck Jonathan left Nigeria comatose with a huge energy crisis that appeared unsolvable. But after Buhari came in things took a radical change. After many weeks of relatively steady supply of petrol we are back again to where we were. And the solution to the incessant shortage of fuel, we are being told, is the same old solution we’ve heard all these years: removal of subsidy.
Buhari, we hear, is resisting pressure to do that just yet. But it seems it’s just a matter of time before the ‘come comes to become’. Ultimately, we will have to do without our beloved subsidy that seems more of an albatross on our necks now. Even when we can hardly point to the benefits of the so-called subsidy, we may have no better choice than to accept it is time we gave up on it. Perhaps that way we can have some respite.
Going apace with fuel scarcity is the even more intractable problem of power cut. The coming of the DISCOs does not seem to have taken us beyond the point NEPA and the Power Holding Company left us. We only appear to have changed names: the character remains the same.
Power supply is still a very scarce and unstable commodity. One wouldn’t know what connection that has with the recently announced ban on importation of small duty generators- the ‘I-better-pass-my-neighbour’ type.
We do know that companies importing generators have been fingered as having bad influence on power supply companies. Rumour has it that they are not averse to greasing the palms of NEPA/PHCN and now DISCOs officials who cut power in order to encourage Nigerians to buy more generators that are leaving our environments more polluted than ever.
But the issue is that power supply or the lack of it has been a problem since God-knows-when. In my part of our country, we have been without public power supply for the second week running. Nobody is saying anything about this even when the so-called marketers of the DISCOs go about distributing bills for power they didn’t supply.
The only solution long-suffering Nigerians thought they had to combat the regime of darkness imposed on them by the power providers is the recourse to the purchase of ‘I-better-pass-my-neighbour’ generators. Why did Buhari choose to place his ban on this very type of generators? Is this an attack on the common people, or a way to say that the fumes from this type of generators are more noxious than the bigger types to be found in the homes of wealthy Nigerians? Can this ban be the solution to our power problem?
When we leave that to look in another direction, we see that we are still a long way from home. With all these problems from scarcity of fuel and near permanent power outage, there is no room for the average Nigerian to manoeuvre their way out of crisis. We are not yet talking of those in the private sector.
But those in the public sector have to pay more to get to work. And because they have no power to do basic things at home they will probably go to work not well rested having spent the whole night fanning themselves in this hot weather.
Even though many of them have been working now for nearly a year without salary in spite of the so-called bail-out that the beneficiary state governments have refused to pay- in spite of being owed backlog of nearly a year’s salaries, the latest talk from our governors is that the workers must be ready to take a cut in pay. The minimum wage bill of N18,000 is now too much for the states to carry and they are threatening to sack wherever they can’t cut wages.
The common people, ordinary Nigerians, are the ones being invited to get hit in order for us all to save our country. The very people who brought us to this state of regression where we take one step forward and several backwards are everywhere living happily. They go on as if they know nothing about the foul smell of corruption that is now choking us all.
Those of them who have been accused of corruption and have been found guilty have not been brought to justice. They are still at their familiar game of looking for escape routes rather than returning what they have taken illegally. The National Assembly is about investigating Justice Danladi Umar in a case of corruption even as Senate President, Bukola Saraki, continues his defence over a case of false declaration of assets before the same Umar. A dejavu affair: If you Tarka me I will Daboh you!
Source: Vanguard
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