Fellow Nigerians never cease to amaze me with our unusual level of endurance, tolerance and equanimity in the face of adversity. Our optimism seems to know no limits, even when the prognosis grows dire.
We’re incurable optimists in the face of extreme and obviously bad circumstances. Our national character seems to be, ‘E go better!’ Things would turn out for the better, as far as most Nigerians are concerned, and I don’t think it’s a bad idea. However, everything has a limit, otherwise, it becomes unreasonable. Things appears to be getting out of hand.
Intermittent price increases in goods and services is a recurrent decimal in any economy, but what’s going on in Nigeria’s pricing index today, as it relates to consumer goods and services across the nation, is absolutely abnormal. It is totally indefensible.
You purchase an item today, but when you go to buy the same item tomorrow, the price has jumped ten percent upwards. We have never experienced this kind of sporadic, but consistently upward spiral of consumer goods prices. This is the first time the price of a product would increase 30 percent within one month! Things weren’t as bad as they are today, as back has before.
It’s clear that under the current terror war, Nigerians everywhere are bearing the brunt of a brutal war that’s taking its toll on the national economy as never before. The main reason advanced by government for the current artificial price increase is that terrorists like Boko Haram and bandits are preventing farmers and agro-allied workers from operating freely on farmlands. Production is going on at a heavy price.
In many communities in the north, farmers are forced to pay levies to local war lords like bandits/terrorist, who ‘rule’ in captured territories, before being allowed to function at all. Our security personnel are overwhelmed, so there’s little they could do to police the entire vast north, which is constantly at the mercy of terrorists. I hate to admit this, but it’s true that parts of the north is a now warlord country. Terror groups are holding vast large land in northern Nigeria.
The global shift of focus from fossil fuels to green energy has taken a direct hit on our oil-dependent economy. Experts have highlighted this threat for decades. Given the fact that we have billions of unsold barrels of crude oil on the high seas, without ready buyers shows clearly that we’re in serious trouble. Unfortunately, there’s no hint of fiscal responsibility in the financial habit of our profligate public officers, some of whom continue to loot public coffers as if they’re in direct competition against one another.
The outrageous salaries and emoluments of elected politicians remain a big drain on public resources. In the face of that, government spendings continue to rise year on year, with little control.
Our foreign partners complain that recovered looted funds are being re-looted; so, they give us harsh guidelines on how to spend looted funds returned to Nigeria. Imagine the insult! Foreigners telling us how to invest our own money, since we won’t do the right thing.
For the first time ever, Nigeria is now faced with a serious dilemma. First, there’s a cash-flow problem in the face of growing governance bills. Second, local farmers and food producers can’t work freely without being harassed by criminals masquerading as terrorists/bandits. Worse still, the Nigerian government cannot, and does not have the capacity to secure every part of the country at the moment. Even Generals admit this.
We keep faith that our service men and women are on top of the situation, and quietly believe that, somehow, they’d win war. But the reality often comes right back. How far are we to victory?
Now, the question: What’s the way out for the country? I don’t think there’re new ideas in the books. What’s missing now is not the political will as has been often said. The problem is the inability of this government to fully mobilize the populace and engineer a national consensus in the fight against insecurity across the country.
The growing militancy in the regions, especially secessionist agitations, have altered the definition of insecurity.
There’s an ethnic dimension to the struggle now because of the rise of the violent Fulani herders who engage farmers in incessant communal skirmishes. Their audacious bid to seize lands from communities for local grazing, and the Buhari Presidency’s tepid response to the challenge, has further complicated the entire security algorithm.
The wrong signals already sent by the initial reluctance of Buhari and his key officials to rein in the rampaging Fulani herdsmen across the country, has greatly affected the credibility of his government in his overall campaign against criminality in Nigeria.
President Buhari must now respond with equal vigour and without partialty, to the growing criminal activities of persons who are intent on disturbing the peace of the nation, regardless of their religious affiliations, ethnic nationalities, or political persuasions. That’s how to get the current terror war back on track.
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