The Danger Signs Are Real

CHAIRMAN’S MEMO

By Garba A. Dangida

There are is common belief that after every hardship come relief.  This belief has its roots in religion, especially Christianity and Islam. Most people who embraced these faiths have come to terms with this reality.  Such is the case with the masses of our country. They take consolation in the fact that life is a mixture of the two seasons – hardship and relief, one comes after the other. 

But in Nigeria, it seems the only season the people have been going through since the 1980s is hardship. I cannot remember any season of relief for the Nigerian masses since the Obasanjo administration that enthroned the current democratic dispensation in 29^th May 1999.  Every leader that came had promised the masses that relief was coming after their hardship.

The Buhari administration which the Nigerian masses regarded as their own because of his perceived sympathy with the poor did not fulfilled that promise of relief after hardship.  Instead, it was one hardship after another.  

The Tinubu administration that is barely three months in office has started with another regime of hardship for the Nigerian masses.  The removal of the only subsidy Nigerians masses were enjoying – fuel subsidy has sparked up an unprecedented inflation that defies any explanation. The prices of food items, transportation fares, and other essential services and commodities are going high almost on a daily basis.

When I reflect on the situation in Nigeria fear grips me because I can see a danger looming if our leaders at all levels do not take appropriate steps to address this gross injustice of pushing the masses into more hardship than relief. The masses are the ones that troop out to vote during every election cycle. They defy rain, sun or any whether condition to exercise their franchise but they are always at the receiving end of every anti-people policy.   Every economic policy rolled out by our governments shift sacrifices only to the poor. The big men in power and their hangers on are exempted from the sufferings. 

Take the recent withdrawal subsidy for instance, while the masses are sacrificing to pay more for fuel and every other thing they use in their homes due to price increases, the members of the National Assembly and other political office holder are enjoying a gigantic wage increase.  The federal legislators recently approved for themselves 70bn Naira to purchase bullet proof cars while the people they represent are trekking on foot to get to their work places. What a gross injustice!

The level of poverty in our country is so disturbing we have now been ranked as the world capital of poverty with more than half of our population in multi-dimensional poverty.  This is unacceptable in a country with an annual Gross Domestic Product of 506.6bn dollars and $21 trillion dollars as annual oil revenue! 

I believe if the leaders can release half of this amount to provide the necessary infrastructure and subsidized social services like health care, electricity, water, education, Nigerians masses would be among the most comfortable set of human beings on earth because those are the things they want from their leaders.  They are not asking for more.

While in other countries an increase in the price of bread or flour can spark up a mass protest or rebellion, Nigerians tolerate every act of their leaders and dismiss any invitation for a mass protest with a wave of the hand.  They keep faith in God, and believe He will bring succor to them. 

My appeal to our leaders from federal down to local governments is they should have the fear of God in their relationship with the masses.  They should not take the docility of our people as a weakness or advantage to oppress them beyond limit.  We have seen how the masses in other countries checked out their leaders from their presidential palaces and sent them on exile.

Some countries have been tone apart, and different war lords have taken over the pieces, unleashing terror on their citizens.  Both Libya and Sudan are in this situation at the moment.  Still in some countries, the military are coming back after several decades of recess.   A few examples are Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and recently Gabon. We do not want this to happen to our country but if our politicians keep ignoring the cry of the poor, it can happen.  God forbid!

Our politicians should understand that it’s God that is keeping Nigeria peaceful as one country up to this moment.  That God has been merciful to us for keeping our country intact despite threats from different angles, is not an assurance that we have immunity against what is happening near us.  We should give gratitude to God for His mercy and change our own ways. The leader should lead with justice and fairness, and equity. They should have sympathy for the masses.  The masses too should be kind and love one another.

My final words to all are that we should not adopt a sit and watch attitude while our nation is gradually sliding to the abyss.  If the anger of the masses reached a boiling point, there would be no fear or excuses. They will attack every one they see with semblance of prosperity.  If you’re a car owner or live in your moderately beautiful home, you’re a target.  If you take your children to private school or get them treated for any ailment in a private clinic, you’re a target! If you wear clean and beautifully designed clothes, you’re a target.  Nobody is immune to mob actions, once he or she is living well.

So what is the way out? The way out is to show kindness and be caring to the masses around you. We all should assume the responsibility of government since our leaders see to have turned deaf ears to the cries of the masses. They erroneously believe that they are secure in their mansions because they have long perimeter walls the masses cannot scale over, and have scores of security men, and a dog as back up.  All those are not as reliable security as making those poor masses happy with little from what you’ve amassed.

The masses need food, they need shelter, they need clean water, they need good roads, and they need hospitals and schools for their children.  They also need security.  If the governments have become so irresponsible that they cannot provide these basics, we the middle class and those with means should pool resources together in our various communities to provide those things for our poor masses. We are doing it for our own good, because like the late sage Chief Obafemi  Awolowo once said, if we think we can take our children to good schools and get them good jobs when they graduate while abandoning the children of the poor, we are joking because those children we abandoned will come back to deny us peace. They will attack our children to vent their anger for being forsaken by their parents.

For the Nigerian masses, my advice is that they should not go violent.  Let them return to God and pray for His intervention in the affairs of our nation.  They should pray to God to deal decisively with whoever has a hand in destroying the fortunes of the country, inflicting hunger and poverty on them, and looting their commonwealth, if they fail to repent.

Prayers are better than violence.