- say reform agenda counterproductive
By Ononye VC
Catholic Bishops of Nigeria under the aegis of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) has said that the reform agenda of the present government led by President Bola Tinubu has added to the present economic hardship Nigerians are facing.
The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) and Archbishop of Owerri, Most Rev. Lucius Ugorji, made this known while speaking at the opening session of the 2024 First Plenary Assembly of the CBCN in Abuja on Sunday.
Ugorji said that with the withdrawal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market, there has been a sharp increase in the pump price of petroleum products and a steep decline in the value of the Naira.
He said that indeed, there is a free fall of the national currency, and that high spiralling inflation has made it difficult for the average Nigerian to access basic commodities, including food items and medication.
“As a result of the government’s reform agenda, millions of Nigerians have been reduced to a life of grinding poverty, wanton suffering, and untold hardship as never before in our national history. In a bid to survive, an increasing number of the poor have resorted to begging.
“With more than 80 million Nigerians living under the poverty line of less than two dollars a day, our country, according to the recent disclosure of the World Bank, is the world’s second-largest poor population after India.
“While many impoverished Nigerians continue to suffer and die as a result of the hardship caused by the government’s economic reforms, the president has continued to urge the populace to make even more and more sacrifices with the assurance that brighter days lay ahead,” he said.
The CBCN president further said that as the government demands additional sacrifice from the struggling masses, one would expect to see a drastic cut in the cost of running the government at all levels.
“On the contrary, it is worrisome to watch top government functionaries living by the sweat, toil and tears of the poor. They continue spending huge public funds on ostentatious and luxurious lifestyles and seem incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor.
“It is no less worrisome to note that corruption among many public servants has gone beyond scale and measure. Corruption is a complex reality involving moral rottenness, defilement and loss of integrity.
“In Nigeria, it spans a wide spectrum, ranging from book-cooking, foreign exchange (FX) arbitrage, over-pricing, and over-invoicing to embezzlement, money laundering, forgery, and all sorts of manipulation.
“Every day, outrageous and spine-chilling stories are told in the media about different public servants who have stolen staggering amounts of money from public coffers in a country where millions of citizens live in deep and debilitating poverty.
“We cannot easily overlook the sordid roles of many fraudulent politicians and bank executives in fleecing the whole nation and destroying our national economy through the dirty game of corruption, causing untold hardship and untimely deaths across the nation,” he stated.
According to Ugorji, the situation is worsened by the high unemployment rate in the country and many Nigerian youths are deeply wounded and degraded by unemployment and poverty, which make them feel rejected by the very society into which they were born.
“Consequently, thousands of them seek relief from drugs and alcohol and eventually end up in violent crimes. In search of greener pastures, many others try to migrate to foreign lands, where hard times often await them.
“Regrettably, an extensive brain drain continues in this way in our nation, where manpower is needed to revamp the ailing economy and foster national development.
“In the midst of the frenzy to ‘japa’ abroad for better job opportunities, many young Nigerians fall easy prey to human traffickers, who traffic them abroad for sexual exploitation, cheap labour or organ harvesting.
“No doubt, the government is trying its very best to fix our battered economy and security outfits. If we have to be very frank with ourselves and not wallow in self-delusion, we must admit that we are faced with a case where therapy is worse than the disease.
“The government’s reform agenda is turning out to be counterproductive. Despite the efforts of the government to boost our economy, our nation has continued to sink economically deeper and deeper into a bottomless pit,” he said.
He also stated that in withdrawing the fuel subsidy, the government assured Nigerians it would save a lot of money to be injected into other national development sectors,all in vain.
