Nigeria- a beautifully endowed nation; a nation blessed with great people, resources, brain and beauty; God’s own country. It’s the fifth day of the strike saga this January, 2012 and believe me - the government is not willing to cave in just like that and Nigerians more than ever before are still talking tough. Should we continue wasting precious time and productive lives? Nigeria, no doubt is gifted but I hope not with greedy and selfish individuals.
The whole scenario to me is like a prince who has a manager over his father’s estate. He is given allowances (stipends) regularly, and becomes complacent (as long as he is at least getting something from the estate).One day (all of a sudden), the manager of his father’s estate decides to take away the little stipend he receives and guess what? The prince is ready to lay down his life and fight to sustain the mite he enjoys. The question is: Why can he not fight for the entire estate, that even his children and generations to come will enjoy from? Why can he not fight so that poverty will be wiped off completely from his race? Why can he not fight to ensure accountability of his father's estate?
We are like the prince fighting for a copper coin, when the ‘greater treasures’ we own are being taken away right before our very eyes. We even risk our lives to vote them in during elections (as long as we still enjoy N65/litre of PMS).
What is N65/litre of fuel compared to the corruption sweeping us away? PMS can be restored to N65/litre, but does that guaranty the jobs our graduates don’t have? Does that secure the lives and property of Nigerians? Does that even stop the greedy politicians from sending our monies abroad and lavishing money like they have a print house in their rooms?
How long Nigerians? Let’s take the bull by the horn, not by fighting for a meager subsidy which whether we agree or not has not and cannot better our lives, we will only remain and maintain the status-quo (an endowed but struggling nation).
A CNN reporter once described us as 'a country whose economic and financial situation is a complete write-off'. I felt so ashamed after listening to him (because I knew he was mistaken and that statement was an exaggeration). It’s time for a revolution far beyond subsidy and surely far beyond N65 per litre of PMS.
What should we be fighting for? Could we use our collective energies and resilient spirits to critically analyse the budget yearly especially the 2012 budget proposal? Would we protest en masse to check every allocation at the Federal, State and Local Government levels and how they are spent? If we must fight for the masses, let us fight for a just cause.
There are many projects which funds have been allocated twice or even three times and nothing was done. Together with the likes of Pat Utomi, Tunde Bakare, Femi Falana and others (leading this campaign), we can serve as 'watch dogs,' send newsletters, and challenge the greedy ones via the media. That’s what I call true patriotism. Civil Societies should call us for a fight against corruption and not a fight against subsidy removal which is not even a material portion of our heritage. Over 70% of the entire budget is spent on re-current expenditure, yet we only see subsidy removal as the problem. We have about 500 lawmakers, who each get mind blowing allowances from our collective golden pot and continue to widen the gap between the rich and poor, yet we see N65 per litre as the problem.
Should we also talk of bad roads in Nigeria? But as long as they open our palms and place N76/litres of PMS (difference between N65 and N141 paid by the government) in them, we are contented. Electricity has never improved since I was born, it has rather gone worse, and we only complain idly on our sofas and couches in our generator-powered rooms as long as we enjoy the so called subsidy.
Indeed, we have sold our birth rights. And fortunately for us, unlike Esau, we can get it back. But first, we must amend the constitution that seems to immune our law makers and has given metal wings to our politicians. Let us make our own laws and remove every unwanted loop hole in the constitution where most people have taken cover.
Enough is Enough, Yes. But it is wise to fight the right battle.
Written in January, 2012 during the "Occupy Nigeria" campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment