YOU AND THE POVERTY IN THE LAND

Jesus son of David have mercy on me-Mark 10:47, Luke18:38. These were the words that came to my mind not up to an hour before this write up.

There had been a discussion in a public vehicle I had entered in the morning of the day. The weather had been far from friendly, it rained intermittently and here was a multitude of children of varying ages numbering in thousands all queued up to far distances that I could only see a section of them.

As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest-Nelson Mandela. Here I wonder how many of us have gone to rest.

I could not but ask what this whole thing was all about. No sooner had I finished asking than I got multiples of answers flying in from different directions. This had initiated a discourse.

This children had queued up to be given free items like school materials and food items by Daystar Christian Centre Oregun, Ikeja shepherd by Pastor Sam Adeyemi and I learnt that so many children were seen coming all the way from Lagos Island in buses and different means of road transport to the venue.

For those of us that are familiar with Lagos terrain, you could imagine a far stretch from the Centre to down Christ Embassy LCA, Billings Way.

Hmm! To think about it that many will get back home shivering from cold but that still does not underscore this act of love and kindness. The centre can in subsequent times plan to arrange the programme to be better, putting many factors into consideration but for now, it is very much welcomed especially in this period of recession that the country has found herself in.

Many wondered why parents could allow their children and wards go such far distances and experience these harsh conditions. The answers were springing up from me as I would say that many would not have known of the great number they were going to face because the hope of having ones needs met could on its own interfere with some sense of reasoning. So one family leaves as the other and thus the number grows to what it becomes.

While many blamed their parents, all I could see was the ravaging effect of poverty. Poverty gets one’s mind knackered to the point of disillusionment were almost every sense of being human is lost.

The mind is the field of creation and resourcefulness, when this centre itself loses its purpose what becomes of the life it’s supposed to make and control? The life only becomes a container of emptiness were anything goes.

I saw a woman get in the vehicle, and no one could reason why because there was no reason to. I had mentioned that it was a public vehicle. It was conveying people to their destinations with stoppages at different bus stops. She sat down and almost immediately started with the challenges she was facing. She was in her 60’s and has been a widow with two children that came in late in her marriage, jobs had not been there amongst other prevailing factors she emphasized.

She sounded as one that was educated, as the English she spoke was very constructive and good. The woman ended the story of her predicament asked for help saying she only needed help to start up a business even if it was biro, pencil or recharge card business. Her manner of appeal caused me to reach out to her and so did many others.

What struck me was the glee on her face, she was so happy like she never thought people would respond as they did. I like to believe that the act of giving we had earlier seen had unconsciously played out in that collective magnanimity. Imagine what a single spark of love had caused!

THE PERISCOPE: DEMOCRATIC MISNOMER

Time they say waits for no man. It is just like yesterday and the chorus, jingles and chants of ‘’CHANGE” was sung to the high heavens. Sai baba! Jonathan to Otuoke!

It was quite a heated up campaign and there we saw the true and actual meaning of the cliché that Nigeria is of many divides. The North went their way and the South theirs with only the South-west of the Southern protectorate to decide who eventually emerges as the President.

It was not a shock to me to have seen the South-west go the side of the North because a well respected personality from the Northern extraction, General Mohammadu Buhari had emerged from the alignment of Northern parties like CPC, ANPP with the APC of the South-western region and the break-away New PDP.

The elections are gone and the winner has long been declared and no head rolled nor were there spilling of blood as predicted. Violence was minimal. All thanks to the Ex-president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

This is April, the eleventh month of this new administration but in actual sense, can it be called new? This question is occasioned by the fact that the life span of any administration is four years except in the case of a sack or re-election.

Several failed promises and denials are now staring us right in our faces. Remember the N5000 promised to unemployed youths and feeding of school pupils amongst many others. All these were lofty promises to seize power.

I told my friends, some days back that no true government would intentionally come to power to impoverish its citizens but that hardship can result from failed policies and laxities on different angles.

True as people might point out the mismanagement of previous administrations especially the most recent but I strongly believe that that was why the masses chanted “CHANGE” and the wind swept through the land to bring down the largest party in Africa, the PDP and unseat a sitting President.

Here is the misnomer that causes me to rage; it is with the administration not taking responsibility for what they do and what happens but rather they quickly resort to blaming previous government(s). If previous governments had dwelt on blame games on the Military regimes of the past, I wonder if Nigeria would even have survived till now. I beg to ask if we didn’t know something was wrong before we voted. Gosh! We voted for correction, sanitization and better management. If there were to be a way of seeing into the future and questions were asked the APC party and its Presidential aspirant back then about what to do to avert forthcoming untold hardship on Nigerians, I believe they would come up with quick-fix answers all just to win the election. So they should stop being wailing wailers and get fully to work.

In view of this, I utterly believe that the Party was just all after seizing power but not prepared for governance. What they seem to be doing is “learning on the job” but it is delicate to do so with a country as ours.

They say “We must fight corruption and root it out from our land”. Boys well done but is that just what we need to do? Every day, it was now a culture to come out on paper stands and see in bold letters, painted in the most captivating ways the names of those being paraded and tried for graft and the most topping one was Sambo Dasuki, the former NSA. I am not an Advocate for folks who may have amassed the wealth of the masses. I never had links with them nor had a share of their loots and I pray they pay for this evil if found guilty but my pain remained in the diversion of attention of the masses tactically played in connivance with the Media. People were and are still more tried on pages of newspapers than the supposed courts.

Sooner or later the fuel scarcity began to gradually set in and now what seemed like a little storm in a tea cup has snow-balled into an economic flood. Fuel scarcity was the song of the whole of the first quarter now we are in the second quarter. Electricity distribution jamboree that had greeted the entrance of the new government has plummeted, the naira began to nose-dive as against the dollar, water distribution pipes and taps for areas with government provision have gone dry.

Baba na wetin dey happen? Blame PDP the President and his party chorused and are still chorusing. Media corruption stunts stopped working because as they say, “Na person wey chop dey fit read”.

I am critical about what I am writing not that I hate any party, I do not have business with party affiliations so long the system works.

What Nigerians have faced in the last nine months is enough to cause an uprising if it were to be in other climes. An average Nigerian has gotten poorer than he was nine months ago. True! If an average Nigerian that cannot change a job for a better one or that has been laid off due to the harsh economic situation or that cannot source well for his business due to hyper-inflation compares what he spends to what he spent nine months ago with a fixed or declining income, what we come up with is increase in poverty. Simple economics!

Nigerians are not patient, Nigerians should give this government a chance to work, it is easier to destroy than to build-These are the common words you’d hear from Buhari Apologists.

My friend, you must not be in the opposition to criticize and criticism is not wishing a government bad.

Before I forget why is President Buhari busy globetrotting? No wonder the budget he presented to the National House of Assembly was padded with all sorts of mischievous figures, unwanted and un-matching Ministry allocations that even serving Ministers were miffed with what they saw.

My friend would ask me a question;Chris, why not you leave Nigeria alone? Some Nigerians are living in splendor in the midst of all these hardship and I would answer that we don’t have to be poor to speak for the downtrodden. Collective voices could actually help us actualize the change we wanted.

Now is the twist, every true critic must advise on what he thinks can work.

I.                    Mr President, sit more at home even as you continue with PMS Price modulation, sustained subsidy removal and a possible privatization of the oil sector with government just monitoring it. I know you and the then opposition marched against this when former President Jonathan proposed the idea of Privatization but do not worry; we will not nickname you a hypocrite by doing it. Do not be too blind and sentimental to throw away some of the policies of previous government like the oil provision ratio between NPMC a subsidiary of NNPC and the IPMAN that used to be 40:60 that you have now reverted to.

Let’s keep to that ratio and gradually change it with increase in domestic refining till we attain self-sufficiency.

II.                  Stop spending huge sums in search of oil in Chad basin. That investment does not seem right.

III.                The enormous profile of three compressed Ministries given to Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) should be readdressed. First among many reasons is that though he is a born worker, the portfolio is too big and he is not an expert in any of these comprised critical Ministries.

IV.                We have vast arable lands of 80million hectares accounting for 23% of total sum in West Africa. The Minister of Agriculture should double his effort to increase produce both for domestic and export purposes to help boost back the GDP.

V.                  Let this low pricing of crude oil per barrel be a blessing to the Ministry of Solid Minerals. That Ministry should be given quarterly production benchmarks to help revert back the relapse on the Naira through increased exports.

VI.                CBN to help formulate better financial policies 

VII.              Education sector should be fine tuned with a total overhaul to meet our demands. Graduates to be taught to proffer solutions to meet our demands unlike what is obtainable now though there are skills acquisition centres but that to me seems to be medicine for just survival. We need adequate academic fortification to revamp every ailing sector of our economy.

These and many advices I have to share in future writings but at the mean time, I do hope and pray we get it right as a nation.

I am Obaze Chris, a concerned socio and political commentator.