by 
By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim
There is no doubt that the protest that greeted President Bola Ahmad Tinubu’s earlier decision to disburse N500 Billion by giving N8,000 to 12 Million families for six months has actually forced him to retreat and call for the review of that decision . With the call for the review, many Nigerians have questioned the thinking and intellectual capacity of those in government before coming up with such idea. Was there no better alternative to that 8k/12M policy that will be more beneficial to all Nigerians? What was the yardstick the government intended to employ in determining or selecting the families entitled to such palliatives? Some Nigerians outside the government circle have proved to be more intelligent and capable of proferring better alternative when they said: “ N500B will purchase approximately 8000 of 60 seaters (luxurious) buses. Instead of giving 8k to 12 million poor families, why not distribute these buses across the country to ease the cost of transportation? You would also be creating jobs in the process. And each State and FCT will get 216 buses which will drastically reduce transport fares and used for 10 years without giving issues as regards repairs. Is this not better than 8k per household for six months which implementation monitoring cannot be guaranteed?”
The brilliance of the above suggested alternative has justified my long time position that every patriotic Nigerian must be “Special Adviser” to any government in power on any national issue on the state of the nation. Where are the men of ideology in government or those appointed as Special Advisers by the President and Governors whose opinions ought to have been sought to provide brilliant idea or advice? Was the policy of 8k to 12 million families not deeply thought about by government before being brought to the public? If President Tinubu is to succeed, he needs the brilliant idea and advice of ordinary Nigerians than that of those he appointed as special advisers to run his government. Nigerians that are not in government have demonstrated this by proffering different reasonable alternatives to the 8K/12M and it is now a good thing the government has decided to review the policy. Tinubu having earlier asserted in his inaugural speech that: “We lift high this touch so that it might shine on every household and in every heart that calls itself Nigerian”, then why now trying to be selective on the 8K/12M in the name of the so-called “Vulnerable Nigerians.” Are virtually all Nigerians not vulnerable with the level of pain and agony Nigerians have been subjected to over the years courtesy of bad governance?
We unfortunately live in the part of the world where those in government are not ready to learn from the mistake of their predecessors. During the period of Covid 19 pandemic, many palliative support materials that were arranged and meant for ordinary Nigerians ended up being hoarded and this eventually forced some Nigerians to go on rampage and the outcome of which became very disastrous and the country is yet to recover from that. Any government’s policy of going about distributing money to selected set of people as done under the previous administrations is not the best way to attend to the plight or welfare of Nigerians and likewise the so-called exaggerated school feeding programme through which huge funds must have been misappropriated when most Nigerians daily battling with anger and poverty.
Solution to the country problems is not in the President or Governors appointing outrageous number of aides and special advisers. The other day when it was reported in the news that the Speaker of the House of Representatives was planning to appoint more 30 aides, one became very baffled that if the Hon. Speaker was adding more to those already on the ground, then how many aides will be appointed by the Senate President? Leadership and governance should not be solely about trying to compensate friends that helped leaders into power with unnecessary appointments but rather the compensation should be about Nigerians that voted them into power. Appointment of unrestricted numbers of aides or special advisers only increases the cost of governance rather than reducing it. When the larger part of treasury goes into taking care of those in government, then what will be the fate of the governed? Proliferation of political offices same way government agencies are being proliferated only leads to them doing the same thing or doing nothing at all. This will never be in the interest of the nation and her citizens.
Nigeria is no doubt blessed with high number of brilliant people that are not serving in government. You find many of them everywhere brilliantly analysing issues on the State of the Nation particularly in the media where they proffer reasonable solutions to various issues affecting the country. If those in government can be very attentive, they will surely benefit a lot from their wonderful ideas when it comes to running the affairs of the country. It will be very unfortunate when we continue having leaders that are not ready to be attentive to the reasonable public opinions. When there are other alternatives in the first place to which the N500 Billion can be used for the benefit of all Nigerians, then where did the idea of 8K/12M come from? When the Nation’s refineries are not functioning to internally process the crude oil the country is blessed with, why not the thought of using the fund to fix them and even build new ones to refine the product rather than taking them to other countries for that purpose? The contemporary political leaders if ready, equally stand to learn a lot from our past Nationalists and leaders who struggled and attained independence for this country. This include the likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello all of blessed memories .Although these great leaders are dead but did not go away with their great ideologies. They left behind wonderful and brilliant speeches, literary works and blue prints on various government policies and how to achieve them if the contemporary leaders are really determined and committed to serve the Nigerians that elected and entrusted them with power.
When we are still battling with the problem of food scarcity and insecurity in the country, why not the thought of putting such fund into advance technology, intelligence, strategy and sophisticated modern weapons to aid our security forces in dealing ruthlessly with the terrorists and other criminals that have chased farmers away from their farmland while at the same time thinking along providing modern farming implements and equipment for mechanized farming to revolutionize agriculture in various States of the Federation? There is no better way to make foods surplus and create employment for the jobless Nigerians than investing heavily in agriculture .This country is blessed with vast arable land rich enough for foods production and springing up of industries.There is possibility of exporting the excess to the other foreign countries. If Nigerian leaders are truly committed to chasing away hunger and poverty from this country, there is no alternative to agricultural development which require serious action on the part of government rather than rhetoric. Also the attitudes of State governments to land policy must change as situation where large portion of farm lands are indiscriminately being granted by the governors to the estate and property developers is becoming too disturbing and this need to be seriously checkmated. Nigerians with sincere interest in large scale farming and farm settlement must be encouraged with great incentive by the Governors of various states who are the custodians of the lands in their respective States. Regular and adequate supply of electricity is equally important for the growth of industries. Reactivating the railway system to ease transportation of agricultural produce from one point to the others as well as other goods and services must be addressed. No progress and development can be achieved if necessary infrastructures are not taken serious and put in place by the government.
It will not be in the interest of the country if foreign companies operating here are allowed to enjoy more advantages over the companies owned by Nigerians. A situation where foreign companies are allowed to exploit Nigerians by making huge profits and taking them to their countries while Nigerians are disallowed such privileges even in the foreign countries need to be seriously looked into. In this regards, I completely agreed with Mr. Reno Omokri when he said :
“Nigerians must stop emoting and start reasoning. We ought to place far higher taxes on the South African companies doing business in areas where we have shortage of local companies with the ability to compete, and for which there is a high need. That is what Europe, America and Canada are doing to us .Placing serious obstacles on immigrant visas for regular Nigerians, but lowering the bar for Nigerian doctors, nurses, and teachers, because they need those Nigerian professionals due to shortages in their home lands…The EU, UK and US are very good at using tariffs and retaliatory actions to promote their own military-industrial complexes. We must also be alive to this and assert ourselves economically.”
Many African countries including Nigeria are responsible for their own under-development because when you have a situation where professionals particularly in the area of medical science and technology that are educated and trained in Nigeria and upon being employed are not properly treated when working with the government establishment. Those professionals are bound to be lured and shipped away by the foreign countries that need their services to develop their own countries. This is exactly what is happening in this country today when the professionals educated and trained here are leaving the country in great numbers to other countries that will value and appreciate their services .This exodus of professionals has greatly affected the work force in the various sectors particularly the health sector that has lost many of its personnel to the foreign countries.
Now that the educational institutions belonging to the Federal government have began to execute their plan of increasing the school fees, one just prays and hopes this will not mark the beginning of the collapse of those federal institutions which has been one of my great fears over the years . By a Federal Ministry of Education’s circular issued as far back as 25th May 2023 on the eve of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s exit from government , the increment in the school fees of the Unity Schools was approved by the Federal Government from N45,000 to N100,000. If you like call it one of the Buhari’s parting gifts to the Nigerians. One thing that is now certain is that it has become a burden left behind by Buhari to be carried by Tinubu. APC government is APC government; he who inherits the asset if any will surely inherit the liability. And as if the Federal Universities were waiting for the announcement and execution of that circular and having earlier let the cat out of the bag that Nigerians should expect 200% fee increment in the university , the University of Lagos has set the ball rolling by its 400% increment as those paying N19, 000 before are now expected to pay N190, 000. With this latest development and coupled with the so-called removal of oil subsidy, other States’ owned schools and private schools are also planning to announce their own school fees increment. Ironically, this is a country that has been rated among the countries with the highest number of children out of schools. Will this development not boost the population of the children out of schools or school drops out? Are Nigerians now going to pay the price for the governments’ failure to heed the advice that the Federal and States’ schools should be well fortified against the unnecessary proliferation of the private institutions?
This is a season for serious thinking among the patriotic Nigerians to come up with brilliant ideas and solutions to some of these problems confronting this country and assist those in government if they are truly ready to be very attentive. Since we have no other country to call ours, we must be volunteers to render advice and put forward brilliant and reasonable ideas to move this country forward. God bless Nigeria and Nigerians!
NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with my above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair and objective rebuttal.
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abdulrasheedibrahim362@gmail.com
23nd July 2023
