A CITIZEN'S RIGHT TO RESPOND

Nick Agule

Email: nick.agule@yahoo.co.uk

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Facebook: Nick Agule, FCA

*MUSINGS From Chief Niyi Akintola SAN*

It is disheartening to hear that our oil was traded away by barter in this 21st century under our nose and all of us were keeping quiet.

Under Buhari, 21 to 23 trillion naira was borrowed and we conceded to the loan being paid back through oil lifting. 95% of our oil output being lifted daily to offset the indebtedness leaving only 5% of our daily production for 230 million people to manage. Oh my God!

Where were all of us when Emefiele &Co were selling the voodoo economic theory to the economic illiterate Government of Buhari? What is being done to make every participant in that government accountable? Where is the 23 trillion borrowed? Where are the projects executed with the loan borrowed? Where are the roads, refineries, aircrafts, Ships, ports , educational institutions etc built, constructed, executed or commissioned? Were we under a spell moreso after those who brought Buhari had informed Nigerians that the Daura General was only good at instilling discipline but lacks basic Knowledge of economics and Administration?

Obasanjo did warn, Obaseki warned, Soludo warned, former INEC chairman professor Jega warned, Professor Jega warned, AKEREDOLU warned but we all travelled to Afghanistan during the time.What was wrong with all of us then? AREWA leaders warned, Afenifere warned, Ohaneze warned, Southern and Middle Belt Forum warned but the general populace kept quiet..

All these opinion leaders that should serve as our gate keepers lack unity of purpose. They saw the danger coming but out of selfishness and incoherent ideological vision, failed to galvanise the general populace into positive action to stop the undertaker called Buhari.

I googled the various statements and warnings of these individuals and organisations today, and alas, they warned of the then impending danger, which have now become our garments.

Obasanjo was categorical in many of his then unwanted letters. Yes he was one of the leaders who brought Buhari in 2015 but never stopped telling us that other than his Spartan discipline, Buhari is an economic illiterate and an incompetent administrator. We ignored the old Otta farmer and failed to interrogate him as to why he encouraged us to substitute one disaster for another.

This writer was not innocent either. Many of us on this platform alongside our other colleagues across the country provided the legal cover for the See no evil, hear no evil and say no evil General. What a calamity?

Where do we go from here? A Daniel has now come to judgement to whip all of us out of our complacency and we are up in protest against him. What do we expect him to do? Must we continue to observe the terms of the obnoxious loan backed by natural resources that is expensive, deep in corruption deeply untransparent as postulated by Moghalu and Adesina above?

Can't the 10th National Assembly undo what the grossly incompetent 9th National Assembly did? Must all of us ,our children and generations yet unborn remain under the mortgage? Reading through the postulations and cries of the various pressure groups mention above over the last 8 years, I feel sorry for us all.

Yes, mo sorry pupo fun gbogbo yin , apology the iconic musician Lagbaja. Please educate me and get me out of my ignorance.

Which country in the world allows its commercial banks to charge the outrageous interest rates being charged in Nigeria?

Google the dividends declared and the after tax profits declared by our commercial banks in the last 5 years and you'll see how the banks have been killing Nigeria by instalments over the years.

I agree fully that PBAT should go after all the commercial banks and their CEOS living or dead together with their assets, offshore and inshore with immediate effect. They have taken too much for the owners to see.(Apology to Chinua Achebe. The time to act is now. Chief Niyi Akintola SAN

*MY RESPONSE*

I am sorry Chief but this Daniel is performing surgery on us without anaesthesia.

I live in the UK, the Govt subsidises education for our children up to age 18 100%! I mean the Govt pays all the fees and books. We parents pay for uniforms and school lunch. Poorer households pay nothing as the Govt pays for uniforms and meals as well.

The same UK Govt subsidises our healthcare free of charge at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. I mean the Govt picks up all our healthcare care bills - consultation, tests, admission, surgery, drugs etc - 100% and we pay nothing. Those working pay a token for drugs!

Imagine the UK PM wakes up one morning and says subsidy on education is gone! Subsidy on healthcare is gone! And the UK PM does not announce how we can suddenly begin to pay for education or healthcare, Chief do you know the UK will go up in flames and the UK PM will definitely have to lose his job for peace to reign?

Chief this double whammy policy of removing subsidies on petrol and forex unification has brought untold hardships to the people. This Govt is not showing any sympathy at all! Instead the impoverished people are seeing the savings made from these policies spent on buying exotic cars, renovating residences, foreign trips etc. Before the President took office he was already a billionaire so what if he sacrifices his own wealth instead of using monies taken from the poor to live a lavish lifestyle?

A loaf of bread now costs more than 1k. A family that buys a loaf of bread everyday will pay more than 40k but minimum wage is 30k which not all states are even paying! How do you expect this family to survive. 30k is $20! This Govt's policies have thrown families to live on $20 a month!

There's nothing wrong with subsidies on petrol. What was wrong was the criminality. The President has the powers to have fought (whip) the corruption into line but he rather chose to whip the already impoverished people!

The President made promises to the labour unions including provision of CNG buses, up till now no CNG bus is running to ameliorate the sufferings of the people who have experienced hike in transportation costs in hundreds of percentage points! And yet their incomes have remained the same!

Chief our constitution mandates that Govt policies must be humane! We can't say that of the current Govt.

The President in his inauguration speech promised and rightly so that he'll cut interest rate to single digits. But the CBN just hiked rates to the all-time highest at 22.75% which hurts the productive sector of the economy so badly! This is an economy begging for breath to grow and generate more output! Interest rate hike does great damage to that! And the consequent loss of jobs because as borrowing becomes more expensive some producers will choose to close shops and throw workers into an already choked job market! Those who have the naira and are buying dollars to save, pay foreign fees, foreign medical, maintain families abroad etc will not save that naira even if interest rates rise to 100%! Therefore faced with the twin evil of inflation and low output/unemployment, the CBN tragically chooses to fight inflation at the expense of output/jobs! Whereas what the economy needs is output and jobs, inflation will not kill us if we are producing massively and unemployment is tackled!

As the President nears 1 year in office, he hasn't touched on the big ticket items that will revive the Nigerian economy:

1. Refineries are still in the stranglehold of the NNPC who has mismanaged them for 20 years and counting! The President needed to lease/sell the refineries to more competent operators within 6 months in office!

2. Power supply has remained 3,000MW. The President recently returned from Qatar where 12,000MW is supplied to 2.8 million people! How then can Nigeria's economy of 200 million people survive with 3,000 MW? It's impossible. The big bottleneck in power supply is the transmission company of Nigeria which is in firm control of Govt who lacks funds to expand and maintain the capacity. The President recently appointed a Mgt team for the company when he should have lease/sold to global power operators within 6 months of taking office! Generation cannot generate what transmission cannot carry and distribution cannot distribute what transmission doesn't give them! Lease/sell transmission now and revoke DISCOs licences as you intend Mr President.

3. Agriculture. Insecurity has sent packing a large number of farmers from their farms. The President has not brought the security under control rather things are getting worse as more farming communities are being sacked under his watch. The little food that's been attempted to be produced is eaten up by cows! We are a nation that prioritises the feeding of animals over the feeding of humans. And our agriculture is still by manual labour which produces little. A year in office is enough for the first set of farm machinery to have been deployed to our farms. The President needs to give focus to agriculture.

4. Steel plants needed for our industrialisation are begging for attention. Lease/sell.

5. The railways are begging for attention. The capacity to make transportation to be cheaper and safer and job creation is humongous!

6. Dredging of our waterways to pave the way for inland marine transportation to save our roads, create jobs and provide gateways for exports is begging for attention.

7. Our gas a much valuable resource (transition fuel) is still being flared! 1 year in office is enough time for the President to have read the riot act to the oil companies to harness the gas they produce with crude oil instead of extracting the crude oil and wasting the gas.

When the economy grows, Govt revenues will also grow and important services such as healthcare, education etc will be better provided by the Govts!

Chief the President needs to do better!

8th March 2024