BY REV. FR. GERALD NWAFOR
The Nigerian government is killing its citizens with a thousand cuts, if not a million cuts. The fuel increase, the food scarcity, the insecurity, the depilated infrastructure, the corrupt justice system, insensitive political class, tribal bigotry, religious fanatism, economic quagmire, spiritual aridity, and many more.
In high school we were told that democracy is the government of the people by the people for the people, but in Nigeria it is best defined as the “Government by the thieves, for the thieves and of the thieves. Some have opined that it is a government by the few and for the few,” but I disagree because if it by the few as we see in Saudi Arabia and England it will still benefit the people in one way or another.
But what we are seeing in Nigeria is a far cry from what a government should look like. A country where pen-robbery is celebrated and promoted. A look at the political class where people become millionaires simply because they won an election.
Where people were promoted in government offices and overnight, they were swimming in money. People may want to blame the public for not taking to the streets to protest but a look at the nomenclature called Nigeria would inform you how divided we are in today’s Nigeria. We may look at the big picture where the bad president came from the north and the Northerners would say that he is a good thief because he or she is our own.
And taking to the street would be a war against the whole of the north not against the bad leadership of the person in power. Look at the last election where it was clear that the INEC chairman should go and answer for the glitch according to him that destroyed the electoral process in 2023 the west and the north decided to protect him. You may ask why.
The answer is not far-fetched, he is our own and he is still in the driving seat of the election process in Nigeria.We are dying daily because of the behavior of the political class.
I saw where they put in the budget that one streetlight would cost 182 million Naira and the government would install thousands of them in one State in the South-South. How many people would that amount feed for years? One person is about to pocket it in the name of a constituency project in the national House of Assembly.
Imagine the number of cuts being inflicted on the people of that zone that, by the time the government finishes the budget implementation, you can count how many people would die because of lack of health care, bad roads, no clean water to drink, no good schools, no electricity, and of course no farmland. Once I wondered how these people in the House of Assembly both upper and lower sleep at night.
Maybe they have killed their conscience and sold their soul to the other guy. Who can convince me that they are blind and deaf to the cry of the common Nigerians? The income of the working class has not been increased and the government has the audacity to cancel the salary increment in the budget proposal and allow the passing of 182 million naira for an electric solar light.
Who can convince me that the minimum wage of 50 thousand Naira was denied, and yet 500 million Naira taken home for each ranking senator approved? I wondered and questioned the rationale behind the budget if not just to cut deeper into the skin of the common masses and allow them to die slowly and squeeze the last drop of blood from their body.
The bucket goes into the well every day and comes up with water for the owner. A day will come, maybe not tomorrow but not too long, when the bucket will go down into the well and the bottom will not come up with the rest of the body. The people sitting in the Senate making the blind laws and padding the budget should know that it will not be like that forever because the human spirit is dynamic which means it can change anytime from good to bad.
The people driving around in SUVs should not think that the bad roads are not for them too. The people buying the big power generator should not think that the epileptic power supply is not for them too. The people sending their children overseas to study should not think that the failed Nigerian school system is not for them either. The people going abroad for medical treatment should not think that the collapsed hospital system in Nigeria is none of their business.
The people who have siphoned the money mapped out to equip the police and the military should not think that the terrorists and the bandits are not for them and their families. The people who are making it impossible for the refinery to work so that they can rip off the government in the name of petroleum subsidy should not think that the hardship upon the masses has nothing to do with the rich, they should remember that the rich also cry.
I could go on and on and on, but I would like to stop here in order to conclude my thoughts. When the government failed, the people would rise, and when the people rose, the government would dissipate, and when the government dissipated the mob would take over, and when the mob took over the reverse would be the case because the cuts on the people would go back to the source.
The government should rise and do the needful while the sun is still shining because when the sun goes down it would become darkness, and everyone would become a victim.
A stitch in time saves nine. We must look for the black goat when it is still daylight because the night is fast approaching. Government of Tinubu and Akpabio be on notice because we want you to succeed.
