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Take a stand to end slavery
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Slavery In Wealth - Nigeria We Mourn Thee - Part 2
I will go straight to your Democracy Day speech. As expected, it could not boast of any visible achievement other than economic indices and statistics that were quite divorced from the stark realities on ground. You showed an amazing excitement when you announced your administration’s empowerment of 1200 youths who benefitted from your Youth Enterprise with Innovative Programme, YouWin. I was surprised that such was considered an achievement by you, Sir, let alone being included in your anniversary speech. Mr President, may I humbly inform you that 70 per cent of the Nigerian population is comprised of people who are thirty five years and below. Each year, Sir, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) churns out at least 100 thousand young Nigerians who throng into the labour market in search of nonexistent jobs. This is in spite of the fact that a larger percent of those who passed out before them may not have gotten jobs.
So why should we be excited about 1200 people in a population of 160 million? Is it a deliberate celebration of mediocrity or just an attempt to appear serious with the job we elected you to do?
In reference to electricity supply, you said, “By mid-2010, the national power output was about 2,800 MW. By the end of 2011, we reached a peak of more than 4, 000 MW. A National Gas Emergency Plan has also been launched to redress the problem of gas supply which are essentially due to poor planning.” Curiously, you didn’t tell us where we were by end of May, or mid-May, the period you were reeling out the achievements. So I ask now, Mr President, where are we on power generation? How many megawatts have we achieved between 2011 and mid-May, 2012? Where we are on electricity generation, Mr President, is on the region of total darkness. The wattage is negligible. Nauseating sound of generators still buzz in my neighbourhood daily, and darkness is the light in the villages where poverty even bites harder. That must be why you jumped it.
The efforts you put in advertising your cassava bread, if not tragic, would have been funny. You cannot re-write history, Sir. Cassava bread is not novel. Your constant efforts to lay claim to it as your achievement in office is worrisome. For the records, on 1st July, 2005, Obasanjo’s government made it mandatory for bakers to include 10% of cassava flour in the production of bread. I followed that administration closely. Yet even at that ,you cannot force people to eat what they do not want. Telling us you eat it makes no difference in our lives. Our billions are stolen by the day, anyway; and you watch without taking any punitive action against the criminals.
Your penchant for majoring in minor, if not entirely irrelevant issues, should worry every sound mind. Your change of Unilag to MKO Abiola University just by a presidential fiat betrayed your love for vanity; your lack of appreciation for substance. And as expected, it stirred up eruptions in the school. Yet rather than quickly reconsider your stand, you declared to many who think you made another gaffe; “no going back”. I know political expediency informed that decision. But unfortunately, that was politically incorrect. It has boomeranged, and will not shield you from the harsh verdict of your critics, which is that your first year in office as president was a total failure.
It was a shock to me that you ended your speech without making any mention of the fuel subsidy scam – the biggest in Nigeria’s history. You said nothing about your plans to prosecute the offenders. In case you don’t know, Mr President, the amount involved in that fraud is N2.6trillion, more than half of our annual budget. If that is not weighty enough to cause you to act, I wonder what will. I have a hunch some 19th century folks have been giving you lessons on how to rule Nigeria in 2012. They may have presented the IBB model and you bought it hook line and sinker. But that will be risky for you, Sir.
To Be Continued..
So why should we be excited about 1200 people in a population of 160 million? Is it a deliberate celebration of mediocrity or just an attempt to appear serious with the job we elected you to do?
In reference to electricity supply, you said, “By mid-2010, the national power output was about 2,800 MW. By the end of 2011, we reached a peak of more than 4, 000 MW. A National Gas Emergency Plan has also been launched to redress the problem of gas supply which are essentially due to poor planning.” Curiously, you didn’t tell us where we were by end of May, or mid-May, the period you were reeling out the achievements. So I ask now, Mr President, where are we on power generation? How many megawatts have we achieved between 2011 and mid-May, 2012? Where we are on electricity generation, Mr President, is on the region of total darkness. The wattage is negligible. Nauseating sound of generators still buzz in my neighbourhood daily, and darkness is the light in the villages where poverty even bites harder. That must be why you jumped it.
The efforts you put in advertising your cassava bread, if not tragic, would have been funny. You cannot re-write history, Sir. Cassava bread is not novel. Your constant efforts to lay claim to it as your achievement in office is worrisome. For the records, on 1st July, 2005, Obasanjo’s government made it mandatory for bakers to include 10% of cassava flour in the production of bread. I followed that administration closely. Yet even at that ,you cannot force people to eat what they do not want. Telling us you eat it makes no difference in our lives. Our billions are stolen by the day, anyway; and you watch without taking any punitive action against the criminals.
Your penchant for majoring in minor, if not entirely irrelevant issues, should worry every sound mind. Your change of Unilag to MKO Abiola University just by a presidential fiat betrayed your love for vanity; your lack of appreciation for substance. And as expected, it stirred up eruptions in the school. Yet rather than quickly reconsider your stand, you declared to many who think you made another gaffe; “no going back”. I know political expediency informed that decision. But unfortunately, that was politically incorrect. It has boomeranged, and will not shield you from the harsh verdict of your critics, which is that your first year in office as president was a total failure.
It was a shock to me that you ended your speech without making any mention of the fuel subsidy scam – the biggest in Nigeria’s history. You said nothing about your plans to prosecute the offenders. In case you don’t know, Mr President, the amount involved in that fraud is N2.6trillion, more than half of our annual budget. If that is not weighty enough to cause you to act, I wonder what will. I have a hunch some 19th century folks have been giving you lessons on how to rule Nigeria in 2012. They may have presented the IBB model and you bought it hook line and sinker. But that will be risky for you, Sir.
To Be Continued..
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