2015 was a year of antics, anxieties, fears, high expectations, disappointments, terrorism and above all a looming cloud of a breakup, as predicted by a US think tank, for Nigeria. But thankfully Nigeria has remained an indivisible entity.
How one can forgets in a hurry that 2015 was one of the most tensed year in the history of Nigerian politics? The drama, the betrayal, the hates, the smiles in some quarters, the tears in some. It was a year that some friends turned enemies because of party, ideologies and beliefs lines, while others made new friends for the same reasons.
The 2015 election season has come and gone. The epicentre of it was the phone call made by President Goodluck Jonathan congratulating General Muhammadu Buhari even before the presidential election was concluded. He did this to the disappointment and sheer astonishment of members of his own party but at the end, he kept his promise that his ‘political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian'.
Though Some misguided minds downplayed this rare act of statesmanship by former President Jonathan, they forgot easily the bloodshed that followed Buhari's electoral loss in 2011. What if Buhari has risen above pettiness and self-centredness and made the same kind of phone call to Jonathan in 2011? Eight hundred (800) lives would have been spared, including the destinies of 9 youth corps members who were brutally murdered by Buhari's supporters in Northern Nigeria following his loss at the polls.
Another interesting day in 2015 was 29th May, when former president Goodluck Jonathan handed over the rulership of the country to the then president-elect Buhari. It was colourful as expected, excitement in APC camp, tears in PDP camp; yes it has to be, after holding power for over a decade who wouldn’t feel that way to hand it over? The reality was here, especially that moment that the amiable president Goodluck walked out of Eagle Square while the event was still on. His time to stay was over, it was Buhari’s time to continue, he was now fully the president Federal Republic of Nigeria while Dr.Goodluck became former president.Reality.com as my sister will call it.
We all accepted and said yes the change promised is here, let’s all have it as Nigeria is bigger than us all. The biggest reality was that the opposition was now in power and the one that has been in power previously reverted to opposition. Change they say is constant. All must adjust to their new position and focus on how to be the very best at their new found positions.
Eight months have gone by since the power shift but unfortunately the government in power: APC are still playing the role of opposition forgetting that they are actually in power. We cannot feign ignorant to the fact that APC are conscious of the blame game they are playing, instead of formulating policies and programmes to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians at this critical moment, the party is busy blaming past governments for their ineptitude in governance. This tactical blame game gives them the excuse to continue in their lies, propaganda and inefficiency. But one thing is sure, no matter how long lies travel, truth will definitely catch up with it.
Permit me at this point to outline most outstanding APC hypocrisies in case you are not aware. If you can remember, APC celebrated every bomb that went off during the last administration but are keeping mute now. Why? Is it that they were patriotic at the time or they were only playing politics with issue of Boko Haram? That’s hypocrisy and it is heart-breaking to know such sensitive topics like Boko Haram and the general insecurity in the country were celebrated by the then opposition figures just to score cheap political points.
It is also hypocrisy for APC to deny the fact that the last administration invested so much in the railway sector despite the physical improvements in that sector that even a blind can see.
Just recently, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Ameachi, the current minister of transport commissioned one of the railways in Port Harcourt. Do you know he even said the Federal Government will create 250,000 jobs from it? He also said in 2016 petroleum products will be transported by rail. These are testaments of the huge investments in rail transportation as championed by the government of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan GCFR.
Furthermore, for months (late 2015/2016) fuel queues have returned to our filling stations with petrol prices selling between N200 and N400 depending on where you buy it from. Though the official price is now N86.50k per litre, the situation is getting worse by the day and the people are merely suffering and smiling.
The question that begs answer therefore is: Where are the change chanters? Those people who supported Buhari as the saviour of the new world? People have suddenly forgotten that all through the tenure of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, a litre of petrol never sells above N100 and yet people branded him clueless. One then wonders what name the same people will call Buahri.
In Nigeria today, the expected change has become illusion and a mirage, the suffering is all over people’s faces no matter how we want to pretend, there is no positive change anywhere. Kerosene which is consumed by the poor now sales #83 a litre unlike the #50 sold by the last regime. The economy is stagnant and no hopes in sight because the government is chasing people around in the name of fighting corruption at the expense of the economy. The economy which was said to be one of the fast growing in 2015 by CNN is lost in the air within 8 months of APC led Federal Government. You can take this to the bank.
It is also hypocrisy that recently former governor of Lagos State and current minister of works Barr. Babatunde Fashola said former president Jonathan’s road rehabilitation projects created over 10,000 jobs for the youth and promised to continue from where Jonathan stopped. He also said he will adopt Youwin program also in his own word "We Will Continue With Jonathan’s Electricity Projects". This is the same Fashola who once said Jonathan did not do anything in the last 5years. When hypocrisy and propaganda meet.
In early 2015 there was press release by APC then as opposition party condemning Jonathan/PDP led Federal Government for their agricultural revolution programme but it will interest you to know that today and indeed just recently, President Buhari/APC led Federal Government has adopted same agricultural master plan that Ex President Jonathan introduced. I don’t know what you would call this but to me it is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Hypocrisy is when all media houses in the country including online media are no longer making Boko Haram news their FrontPage headlines. What has changed? Where has our patriotic spirit gone to? Or is it because Boko Haram is " technically" defeated according to the information minister? To cap it up the APC government is even on the path of banning social media which they rode on to power, what kind of hypocrisy can be bigger than this?
It is hypocritical for this government to believe that the only corrupt people are in PDP, meanwhile 90 percent of those in APC are PDP alumni. The worse scenario is that even those with corrupt allegations against them in APC are still seen as saints and appointed into lucrative positions in and out of Buhari government.
Nigerian soldiers were once labelled Jonathanian genocidal soldiers when El-Zakzaky sons were killed but recently the followers of El-Zakzaky were killed in thousands in Zaria because they block road against Gen. Burutai. Even after the shoot out the soldiers went back in the night to commit more atrocities against the Shiite leader and his followers but the praises that came out from the same people that condemned the last administration were alarming. How did we get here.
If you were in this country when former president Jonathan budgeted N1b for feeding in the presidency, you will bear me witness with the kind of drama that went down on social media, mainstream media and how the APC made issues out of it to the high heavens but today the same presidency is budgeting N1.7b for feeding in 2016 and the camp of the APC is as calm as a dead lion. Nobody sees anything wrong in it, the same people that said even if it were to be designers food it won’t be that expensive are celebrating this new increase in feeding in the presidency even when the oil price has gone down drastically in the past one year and without any sign of recovery in sight.
Do you know in the 2013 budget, feeding in presidency was N717.3m and in 2014 it reduces to N542.8m? If in 2015 it increases to N1.1b and the APC did all the drama to condemn it, why are they not condemning it now that Buhari has increased it to N1.7 rather than reducing it? But the APC in their usual hypocritical ways are celebrating the astronomical increment in food budget for Buhari rather than condemn it. Where is the change?
APC is very good at propaganda but trust reality.com, 2016 will be an interesting year, no matter how we will continue in this blame game, propaganda and lies the truth will soon dawn on us. In no distant time, even the most ardent sympathiser of APC will come to the point of realizing that this is not the kind of change they all yearned for.
The 2016budget which is mostly referred to as budget of yam represents corruption at it best. Its only those who tries to defend their votes that will not condemn the budget where a president and his vice will cut their hair in a year with N97m. President Buhari can't present 'corruption' as a budget and deceive Nigerians he's fighting corruption. Hypocrisy once again. The worse is even the poor masses will be taxed massively to fund the budget, the case of the poor getting poorer and the rich getting richer.
Another hypocrisy I can’t stop laughing is when one of the conveners of #BringBackOurGirls campaign Dr.Oby Ezekwesili announced last December her possible retirement from social media in 2016. Who does stuff like this? How could she of all people reasoned like this? How could she suddenly abandoned her pet project in the middle of the game? What would then happen to her dream of rescuing the Chibok girls alive or dead?
It will be hypocrisy if Dr. Oby retires from social media when Chibok girls are not yet found. Yes, she was blaming the last administration and Jonathan for the kidnapping and she did all the drama mostly on social media. So it will be morally right for aunty Oby to stay on social media and demand the rescue of the girls from President Buhari led Federal Government. It is only when the girls are returned that she can leave the stage. Dr Oby, please don’t leave, the girls are still missing.
In as much as APC and their followers have lived hypocritical life since May 29th, 2015 playing blame games to cover up their inabilities to govern, 2016 will be a year of realities because nothing lasts forever. In 2016, there will be a lot of realities to ignore.
According to 2016 budget, one of the realities will be that President Buhari will be feeding with N4,657,500 per day in a country where 60% of its citizens live below a dollar a day.
Another reality will be that hardship will be the order of the day. Don’t stone me on this, the president and minister of finance warned us last year that 2016 will be as hard as anything and as such Nigerians should prepare for hard times. We are already seeing it. As an economist and seeing all the indicators and wrong policies of this government, it would be foolhardy to doubt her prediction since this government is not ready to even do the needful. Don't forget the naira is on a steady fall as its now $1 equals N305.
In 2016, Nigeria will be borrowing N6.66 billion daily to service the #2016Budget of N2.22 trillion if passed by the NASS. The implication of this is that our debt profile will increase dramatically. The interest rate for servicing our debt alone will increase astronomically, while the cost of living will go up as well and infact the rest as they say will be history. #Change.
The reality in the area of unemployment can better be imagined than experienced. As we all know since May 2015 over 10,000 Nigerians has lost their jobs. It will be massive in 2016 reason being that, some companies will not be able to cope with the hardship hence folding up. Some companies too will retrench while others relocate even to the nearby countries where their economic conditions are favourable to their operations. Already Virgin Atlantic has pull-out of Nigeria and sacked all their cabin crew members. Other business outfits are taking their turns, this will be worse this year, it’s sad but true.
No matter how hypocritical we will want to be in 2016, the reality will be there staring at our faces. One of the biggest reality in 2016 is the fact that fuel subsidy was removed on the 1st January 2016, the implication of this is that the price of importing refined petroleum products into Nigeria would be controlled by importers rather than the government. The effect of allowing market forces to dictate petrol prices is that each marketer would sell to make profit at the detriment of ordinary Nigerians even with the reduced prices of the crude oil in international markets. Its a matter of time.
In a bid to sustain their hypocrisy and propaganda machines and apparatuses, the Federal Government budgeted a whopping N39, 172,778.886 compared to the ministry of agriculture where it budgeted a paltry N29,752,546.639. This is not an indication of a government who is ready to diversify the economy under current climate. They are ready to sustain the ministry of propaganda for more lies.
Whether we want to believe it or not, in 2016, war against corruption will be lost in the middle because a lot of #CorruptionGates will surface. As it is today, the #DasukiGate is not as serious as it was months ago since the emergence of #BuhariGate. Nobody will actually be jailled apart from being jailed in the pages of newspapers. Could this be the 'Minds game' to kill the opposition? Your guess is good as mine.
In conclusion, let me quote the #Commonsense Senator, Ben Murray Bruce as he tweeted months ago, “We must realize that our nation is dearest to us than a party, even if we present our PDP/APC membership card, we will still buy dollars at N280”. This is it, the reality is faced by us all irrespective of our party lines. So invariably, the right thing to do is stop the hypocrisy and speak out where necessary because at the end of the day, truth will help put the government of the day in check and on their toes for the good of our country, after all we all have a stake to building a better country for us all. At the end, patriotism wins it not which party one is affiliated to.
Benny Umoren Is a Creative writer/blogger by passion. Economist, Risk Manager and Counseling psychologist by training. A political/social critic. She tweets via @BennyUmoren
Contacts:- +2348124810830, bennyumoren12@gmail.com
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