Happy Independence Anniversary Celebrations!

By Dr BonifaceChizea

To be happy about the celebrations of Nigeria's 66th anniversary must be a trip on self flagellation! Honestly speaking, what is there to celebrate with the deep hardship in the land; rising inflation, rising insecurity with the payment of ransom weaponised as means of illicit primitive resource accumulation, and rising fuel price. It has just been announced that NNPC increased the pump price of petrol to 1,430 Naira in Abuja. Do you appreciate the impacts of this development?

The hardship in the land is unbelievable. Most people can no longer afford to put food on the table. The number of Nigerians living below the poverty line is now estimated at 52%. We should let that sink in! It means that over 100 million Nigerians are affected! We hold another unenviable record as over 20 million children are estimated to be out of school! To put this figure in context, not many countries in West Africa, even Africa itself, have population figures above this number. Whither, therefore, is Nigerian's future?

Little wonder the number of Nigerians emigrating is befuddling. And they go overseas unwelcome and subjected to uncertain and harrowing experiences.

Twenty-seven Nigerians accused of illegal mining who were held in custody died under mysterious circumstances! Where else can that happen but in Nigeria. Obviously, those held for this offence and that have now lost their lives are mere foot soldiers. What happened to the over Lords who hired them? These are, of course, the movers and shakers in the land who are clearly above and beyond its laws. Why does illegal mining persist despite the fact that we adjudge them as illegal activities? Why is solid mineral mining not organised with proceeds accruing there from pulled into the Federation Account to be shared similarly as the proceeds from crude?

The President spent over twenty-one days overseas. We were told that he was on a working visit and therefore fully in charge without the need for any formal handover. But he will not attend the United Nations General Assembly. Surprisingly, he was shown waving bye to Macron, who was going to represent France at the event! Our President has so far not led the country's delegation to any of these meetings for the past three years. I suppose we all know the reason why, which we must not bother to repeat here!

Election 2027 is around the corner. Did you see the number of cars unveiled by Senator Abdulaziz Yari, the Director General of the President's re-election council? We can now begin to see where all the monies we have been looking for have been buried. It is now all about victory at the elections; any other matters pale into distant insignificance! But elections in a democracy are supposed to give verdicts about the government's performance in office. If the elections are transparent, free, credible, and fair; the verdict this time around is as sure predictable as it is to predict that the sun will rise tomorrow. But what of state capture and its ravaging effects?

The President returns to Lagos from his medical tourism and office bearers travel all the way from Abuja and even state governors congregate to welcome him at the airport with the President's personal anthem; 'On your mandate we shall stand,' renting the air. What an ugly spectacle to behold; talk about sycophancy! Nigerians to the last man must ensure that they are able to vote and double down to ensure that their votes count. The future of generations of Nigerians is at stake here!

Are we to celebrate; the conditions of infrastructure in the country are abysmal? There is nothing really to celebrate. The road network is nothing to write home about, no thanks to the unprecedented level of floods. We saw how travellers by road were marooned for days unending. The Benin bye pass where that illiterate governor presides was of a particular shame. We were regaled by our notorious professor of works about how the contractor mismanaged the contract. For the optics, he threatened to revoke the contract and sue the contractor. But back channel information tells us how a disproportionate percentage of what was paid as mobilisation was taken back as kick forward! Who is therefore fooling who? You can bet that after this grandstanding opportunity, all about this show of shame is buried, not to be remembered again.

There is this hospital in India where our former head of state Abdulsalam Abubakar went for knee replacement operation. At age 84, such ailments are not uncommon. But he had the opportunity to have provided an equivalent facility at home to have made such medical tourism uncalled for. In the interim, the private sector has risen to the occasion as a number of upscale well equipped medical centres have been provided across the length and breadth of this country

Well, as elections loom; we would like to seize the opportunity to remind the President of his observation that if he did not provide us with steady and reliable power supply that we should not vote for his return. It is common knowledge that we are nowhere near the fulfilment of that promise. What is even telling is that sometimes the quality of electricity supplied could barely out perform a candle light. So, Mr. President! How market now!

I pray for all of us that as we step into this new month that God's favour and grace would lead the way to light up our paths and guide every step to be as ordered by his plans and purposes for us. We pray that he would bless the works of our hands; grant us increase as he enlarges our coast to put smile on our faces; joy in our hearts, laughter on our lips, and as he adds strength to our strides and preserve and keep us from all evil and dangers. Amen.

Happy New Month. Shalom.

Dr Boniface Chizea is an economist.