Voice of Emancipation: Sleepwalking into Anarchy

By Kayode Emola

It is nearly a year since Nigerians excitedly went to the polls to elect a new president, each candidate promising heaven and earth despite all knowing the precarious situation of the country’s economy. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu became the eventual winner and immediately began enacting drastic decrees, starting with the removal of the petroleum subsidy on day one of his presidency.

This subsidy removal, however good the prospect is for the government and the country may proof to be the last straw that will break Nigeria’s back. Every commodity and even functions of government have come to rely on petroleum products since the 1970’s, with successive governments facing a boom or bust situation.

However, no president has been able to deal with the situation of the petroleum subsidy as this affects everyone in the country. It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, old or young, strong or vulnerable in Nigeria, you will in one form or another need this petroleum product for your daily tasks to function properly in the society. This is the reason the issue of subsidy removal has been very controversial in Nigeria.

One would have expected that once the subsidy was removed, Nigeria will bounce back from its deficit, but alas, the situation is getting worse by the day with no one capable of proffering any tangible solutions to Nigerians. This is now causing anxiety in all corners of the country with prices of commodity going through the roof leaving the ordinary man with little hope for the future.

What the subsidy removal has done is inflict severe pain and hardship on millions of Nigerians due to high inflation and forced millions more into poverty. Yet my people are looking for a messiah to come and rescue the country that is already destined to fail.

Recently, the Central Bank (CBN) Governor announced that they will have to dip their hands in people’s domiciliary account to try and stabilise the currency which has been on a freefall since the inauguration of this present government. This to me shows a desperate country and government officials that has run out of ideas on how to transform the economy.

The truth is that Nigeria has one of the lowest productivity levels in the world and any form of subsidy that the people enjoy is still not enough to help them get by with around 50 percent (around 88 million people) of the population living below the poverty line. There is therefore bound to be trouble if subsidy removal is not implemented carefully and thoughtfully.

It is now evident that no matter what policy any government bring to Nigeria, it is bound to fail due to the extreme poverty the people are facing. Coupled with that, the high debt to revenue ratio has not left headroom to provide infrastructure that can bootstrapped the economy therefore making matters worse both for the government and the people.

One would have expected that in the face of these many challenges, the current government will give Nigerians the opportunity to decide their future rather than plodding onwards as if all is well. It is only a fool that will not know that all is not well with Nigeria and pretending as though it can come out of its current predicament is a wishful thinking.

The only thing keeping Nigeria is our cowardice and until we break that fear in us many of our people will continue to suffer or perhaps die in silence. It is very clear that there is no segment of the country that is happy to keep the status quo called one Nigeria apart from the elite who are benefiting from the rot in the system.

If it is only the politicians and their cronies that are benefiting from the largesse of Nigeria, then it is better to go after these people and ask them why they are hellbent on destroying the lives of millions of people they swore to represent.

It is high time we reminded the politicians that it is they need to shut down politics in Nigeria so that a viable solution such as peaceful dissolution can be arranged, if not with the hunger and frustration in the land, it is only a matter of time before the whole country engulf in flames bringing with it chaos and anarchy.

I hope and pray that our people can rise to the occasion of demanding their freedom from this oppressive system of government that Nigeria is practicing that only takes care of the rich and leave most of the people in penury. If we don’t rise now to save ourselves and our children, we may become trapped in this circle of doom that has nothing to offer us.