May 29: The Celebration Of A Lie Comrade Timi Frank The mere fact that all the roads leading to and out of the International Conference Centre (ICC), venue of the mock celebration to mark the nation’s 15th Democracy Day anniversary, was militarily cordoned off shows there was nothing to celebrate after all. Celebration is not about the celebrant but for the well-wishers who voluntarily turn up to share in the joy of the moment. That is why the hand-picked guests who were comfortably ensconced in the deceptive ambience of the ICC on May 29 cannot be said to be true well-wishers but a rented crowd. May 29 is not a day for the government or political party in power but a day all Nigerians ought to celebrate. However, true Nigerians who would have loved to mark the day were not at the ICC. Even if they wanted to attend a ceremony marking the day some of their comrades died for, the menacing security around the venue would have turned them back. They were not invited. But they were not supposed to be invited because it was their occasion. The heavy security presence and the armoured tanks that surrounded the venue also put a lie to whatever was said to have been celebrated. There was nothing to celebrate and everybody knew it. How could we have been celebrating when only a month ago bombs exploded twice in Nyanya, a surburb of Abuja? What were we celebrating when over 200 girls abducted by terrorists over a month ago were still in Sambisa forest, some say Chad? What were we celebrating when a car bomb went off in a market in Jos killing over 100 including students, market women and children? Scores were injured. The killings have not stopped despite another six-month extension of emergency rule in three northeast states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. The latest victim was the Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idrissa Timta. What was there to celebrate when polytechnic and college of education lecturers have remained at home after commissioner of police Joseph Mbu ‘wahala’ bathed them with chemical laced with hot water during a peaceful demonstration at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja? What is the meaning of democracy without justice? What did we celebrate when those who have stolen the country blind are perennially retained as overlords to further plunder what is left? Why should we celebrate when Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been removed as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, to allow for allegations against him to be investigated, according to President Goodluck Jonathan, while the minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke did, not only mastermind the appointment of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers to forensically determine whether $20billion actually disappeared from our oil revenue but was there to show them what to do? The seething corruption in the system has caught the attention of the international community. Most world leaders have since abandoned diplomatic etiquette and told our government the home truth. They say say our government is corrupt. They also blame our socio-political malaise on the kleptocracy in the system. Yet we celebrate under a false ambience provided by a battalion of soldiers and an avalanche of policemen, State Security Service (SSS) and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)? Those who were supposed to be there were not there because those who were not supposed to be there were there. That celebration was a lie taken too far! The celebration was against the wishes of Nigerians especially parents in Chibok whose lovely daughters were shamelessly paraded in an online video by terrorists over two weeks ago. The girls have not returned home, yet thugs are being sponsored to disrupt the peaceful sit-outs being organized by the BringBackOurGirls campaigners at the Unity Fountain in Abuja. Public parks have also been made no-go areas for the selfless BringBackOurGirls campaigners. No thanks to the present administration which, having failed to use Mbu and his men to stop the movement, have hired layabouts and thugs to do the dirty job. ‘There is god oooo!’ Corruption in Nigeria has grown because it is highly encouraged. Chinua Achebe in his book ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’, asserts that “Nigerians are corrupt because the system they live under today makes corruption easy and profitable.” He says that Nigerians will cease to be “corrupt when corruption is made difficult and unattractive.” In another place the bard posits that “corruption in Nigeria has passed the alarming and entered the fatal stage.” He adds lamentably that “Nigeria will die if we continue to pretend that she is only slightly indisposed.” In Nigeria today Incredible figures are daily being rolled out as the amount being pilfered from the system. I dare say that this humongous theft of national funds is one of the factors perpetually making it impossible for Nigeria to attain its true potential. In 2011, Nigeria was ranked number 14 in the failed states index. The situation is even worse now that the government is unable to perform its duties on several fronts. Violence today has cascaded into an all-out internecine war. The standard of living is progressively deteriorating. The infrastructure of ordinary life has decayed. The greed of our leaders has overwhelmed their responsibilities to improve the people and their surroundings. The sheer level of economic deprivation and corruption in the country has fruited and exacerbated financial inequalities in the population, which in turn fuels political and social instability. Yet our president says all is well! The power sector which is supposed to anchor the nation’s growth initiatives has not gotten the boost apart from the pirated statistics of increased megawatts being paraded in the mass media by government officials. For much of the 15 years of democracy, the quantity of electricity generated has hovered between 1,500 and 4,000MW despite all the money that has been pumped into the sector. Eighteen firms were created out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as part of the efforts to transform the electricity industry. These included the Transmission Company of Nigeria, 11 distribution companies based on geographical spread, and six generating companies. Despite the sale of the power firms, Nigerians have not experienced any modicum of change in the availability of power. Yet we are asked to say no evil, see no evil! Another worrisome dimension is that the our country’s debt profile has continued on the upward spin despite the debt forgiveness it enjoyed during the President Olusegun Obasanjo era. The debt profile of the federal and state governments, according the Debt Management Office (DMO), as of March 31, 2014, stood at $65.25billion (N10.16trillion). The domestic debt component of the Federal Government alone stood at N7.18trillion (or $46.12billion) as of March 31, 2014. The domestic debt of the states, on the other hand, is N1.55trillion or $9.96billion. The external debt of both the states and the Federal Government according to DMO is $9.17billion or N1.43trillion. Over a one-year period, the total debt increased by 34.93 per cent and stood at N7.53trillion or $48.36billion as of March 31, 2013. The deceit this time is that government is now borrowing more from domestic sources and China instead of the Paris and London Clubs. Only last week the Federal Government said it has decided to put on hold some ongoing projects in the aviation sector due to lack of funds and skyrocketing interest rates on Chinese loans. So much for airport remodeling and transformation mantra of the Aviation Minister, Ms. Stella Oduah. What did we celebrate on May 29 when the much talked about Petroleum industry reform has not been given the needed push? The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which represents the instrument to transform the oil and gas sector, widely redolent with corrupt practices and outright deception, is today laying waste in the committee rooms of the National Assembly. The failure of the bill to see the light of the day signposts the weakness and reluctance of the present administration to restore sanity in the process of exploration and production of petroleum resources in the country. Yet we are told to celebrate phantom achievements! Painfully and despite much talk, our economy still remains mono. The failure of successive governments, in the last 15 years, including the present one, to diversify the economy has led to massive unemployment which in turn fuels insecurity, insurgency, kidnapping and armed robbery. Yet we are told to roll out the drums and wiggle and wriggle perhaps out of our deteriorating conditions. Since 2011 the implementation of capital budgets remains as low at 25 per cent and no effort is being made to improve on it. The National Assembly that is supposed to check the executive has been blackmailed into a conspiracy of silence. They have since been told that their resolutions are merely “advisory.” They could be taken. They could be rejected. Our government prefers the later. Little wonder that some critics have called for the scrapping of one arm of the National Assembly to cut cost. The remaining they suggest glibly, should be maintained as a necessary evil and not on the merit of its assignment or performance. Why should we celebrate when we are told that the National Assembly which is the bastion of our democracy, must only be seen and not heard? Two things came out of the contraption called celebration: total war against insurgency and amnesty for those ready to repent from Jonathan and the Minister of youth, Boni Haruna respectively. Presidential aides have since denounced the amnesty component espoused by Haruna saying those were not the thoughts of the President. So there was a fight between those who are beating the drums of war and those who are singing the songs of amnesty in Aso Villa. So much much for confused cacophony. ‘The falcon cannot hear the falconer’ crooned Achebe in ‘Things Fall Apart’. It is unfortunate that our President has continued to shirk his presidential responsibilities. His delivery, action and body language does not inspire hope. This sloppy style of leadership must change. No leader can solve a country’s problems, without first agreeing that they exist. This is why Nigerians were shell-shocking when our President declared Nigeria poverty-free. How can he then espouse measures to curb poverty when it does not exist? Or how can he ever successfully wage the widely avowed fight against corruption when the daily plundering of the nation’s financial resources by state officials only equates to petty stealing? Stealing is not corruption, says our President. What is stealing? What is corruption? Even though our President has consistently labeled the Boko Haram insurgents as “faceless” he has been dialoguing with them through the back door. So much for a group said to be a mirage! We hear he did not also believe the Chibok girls were kidnapped hence the over three weeks inaction that aided the terrorists in taking the girls far from reach. This is why a Yoweri Museveni had the guts to taunt our government and our country as a place where the commonest duties of government are never carried out! We hear our President was booed in South Africa with shouts of “BringBackOurGirls’. But his spin doctors said nothing of such happened. We will wait for Nigerians in the former apartheid enclave to corroborate the assertions. A new patriotic consciousness has to be developed, not one based simply on the well-worn notion of the unity of Nigeria or faith in Nigeria often touted by our corrupt leaders, but one based on an awareness of the responsibility of leaders to the led – on the sacredness of their anointment to lead – and disseminated by civil society, schools, and intellectuals. Achebe noted in his book, There was a Country, that “it is from this kind of environment that a leader, humbled by the trust placed upon him by the people, will emerge, willing to use the power given to him for the good of the people.” It is only when this happens that Nigerians can truly celebrate. Not annually. Not by select invitation. But daily in their homes, offices, schools, market places, religious houses and every where!
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 06:04:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015