By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
If the first son did not walk, is it the second son that would run (Obulu na nwa mbu ejero ije onabuzi nke abuo ga-agba oso)? This is the Igbo saying that would guide this discussion. The APC government gave us Buhari in the first era, when they promised heaven and earth. In the Buhari era, Nigeria went from bad to worst. And after 8 years of Buhari, they gave Nigeria Tinubu. Buhari operated from the APC textbook, and we saw the result card where it was proved that 133 million Nigerians have been plunged into multidimensional poverty. Those are not speculative data but well-documented and aggregated. The level of banditry and kidnapping increased to the level that the bandits and the kidnappers were threatening the state and the federal government. The price of food and other essential commodities was increasing in arithmetical progression in 8 years of Buhari. I did mathematics to an A-level. I am still searching for the progression on which to assign the Tinubu era. I wanted to say geometrical or astronomical progression but those two could not succeed because when you are buying a loaf of bread for 400 Naira and when you give the seller 500 Naira to give you back the balance of 100 Naira and he comes back telling you that the price has changed in a space of 30 seconds. Meanwhile, you thought it was a joke and the seller was handing you back the 500 naira you gave him. Now because you were hungry, and you wanted the bread. You ask the seller to proceed with the transaction no matter how much. The seller simply said that they have not fixed the price yet because the dollar just moves from 1000 naira to $1 to 1500 naira. The buyer started pleading with the seller to give him the bread first because he was very hungry and would be ready to pay any amount. This is what we are dealing with in this era. No certainty.
On the day President Tinubu was sworn into office he threw the Nigerian economy into confusion that is still raging in the country. Tinubu told us that his advisers told him not to remove the subsidy but for whatever reason he announced it by saying that the subsidy is gone without any concrete plan. The following day the PMS (petrol) moved from 300 naira to 650 naira. There was chaos and anarchy in the land. Tinubu himself did not know what to do because there was no cabinet yet and the new assembly had not been inaugurated in both lower house and the upper house. So I asked myself what kind of courage was Tinubu operating on, maybe the Dutch courage that made someone jump into fire hoping that it would not burn; or no courage at all. Today the fuel has no regular price. The subsidy is a big issue today because in one quarter the government is saying the subsidy is still on and in another quarter the government is saying that the subsidy is gone. Now we are more confused than we were in the Buhari era. If the owners of a dog decided to call the dog simultaneously, they said that the dog would hit the brick wall (akpo nkita oku uzo na abou okua isi na mpio). Why is the same government telling us two different things at the same time? Which one are we to believe? I am one of those who believe that nothing good will come of this government because the process by which they grabbed power was totally flawed. The means justifies the end not vice versa. Look at the time Yakubu announced the result and all the mago mago and the glitches in the electoral process and you think that an orange tree can produce apples? I doubt it. The era of Tinubu started with the inaugural confusion speech which has metamorphosed into daily lies from the government about many things, and the subsequent deleting of Twitter (X) messages when they are caught. Should we look at the bell he rang on Wall Street? (deleted). Emirate airline returning to Nigeria? (Deleted). Is a Dutch company investing 600 million dollars in Nigeria? (Deleted). Aga agu one aghara ibe ya? (How many shall we count?)
My take would be to tell our people to prepare for the worst. This era will be the worst in living memory because the people in power now are not governing with the human mind. Looking at the trajectory of things in recent times you will know that there is nothing like governance in the textbook of APC. How can you tell people to pay cyber tax? How can you knock down buildings of your political opponents in the name of drainage systems and coastal highway construction when hunger and homelessness are ravaging the people? Where are compassion and love in governance? I heard the government gave 90 billion naira for the Muslims to go to Mecca. How many schools in Nigeria today will be renovated or constructed with 90 billion naira? Maybe tens or hundreds depending on the location. Why should we spend such a humongous amount of money on pilgrimage? A clear lack of direction is facing the Nigerian people. It is a pity that the Dangote refinery will import American crude oil into Nigeria for refining. What happened to the agreement the government had with Dangote before and after the refinery was completed? APC government told us that Dangote would get the crude from Nigeria, and it would be sold to them in Naira to help stabilize the price in Naira and therefore make it available to the common man. The government of Tinubu has not kept one promise to the populace from the first day in office. Now I will ask the same question that I asked earlier. How do we know that politicians are lying to us? The answer was so simple that I was shocked. “When you observe the lips, and they are moving.” This means whenever a politician is talking, he or she is making a non-factual statement and should not be taken seriously.
