BURNING POT BY PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON
Things 'Ngozi Won't Understand About Nigeria
pcdbooks@gmail.com
Last week, I was privy to a little note written by Coordinating
Minister of the Economy and Minister for Finance, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, in which she summarized that recent setbacks will not
undo Nigeria’s progress.
While I am not in the habit of just attacking government officials,
I will not just disagree with the Minister but draw her to some
realities, not just her but our 'leaders and dealers'.
In her note, she spoke of "Allegations of unremitted oil revenues,
and leadership changes at the central bank, having attracted a great
deal of the wrong kind of attention to Nigeria."
The fact is loads of issues are attracting the wrong kind of
attention, and really there's little being done by leadership
because they are insulated and for a fact the populace are stuck in
their docile train.
I will spare us the agony of detailing most of the issues. Kindly
follow me...
On Sanusi, she said though there was consternation in the markets
following the suspension of Lamido Sanusi, governor of the country’s
central bank, a sense of normality is gradually returning. At the
Nigerian Stock Exchange, the All Share Index dropped by about 3 per
cent in the days following Mr Sanusi’s suspension but has since
recovered."
"The exchange rate is stabilising. Although foreign exchange
reserves have dropped slightly to $39bn, this still provides a
healthy level of import cover by International Monetary Fund
measures."
She added, "The fundamentals remain strong. Inflation is at 8 per
cent, down from 12 per cent at the start of 2012. The fiscal deficit
is 1.9 per cent of gross domestic product and government debt is
under control at 21 per cent of GDP. The IMF expects the economy to
grow by 7.3 per cent in 2014, up from 6.2 per cent a year earlier."
The Prime Minister further explained, "The government has pledged to
put aside a portion of oil revenues to help insulate the economy
from external shocks. We will be vigilant against the risk of the
economy overheating. I will ensure that fiscal policy remains
tight..."
She said, "In the meantime, we must not forget how far we have come
in Nigeria. The economic reforms we fought hard to achieve are
having positive effects. I have argued previously that, while we
must pursue and punish those engaged in corrupt acts, building
strong institutions is the most enduring way to tackle corruption in
a systemic way."
As I tried to make sense of that really short explanation of hope to
over a hundred million Nigerians, the Minister for Interior, Mr.
Abba Moro, speaking on the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment
tragedy said 520,000 applicants participated in the NIS recruitment
exercise across the country.
The minister truthfully, acknowledged that only 4,556 would be
recruited at the end of the exercise, based on the available space.
I will take the Minister's figures, not one more, not one less. How
sad, how shameful, my maths is bad, but for a N1,000 per candidate
sum it up.
Seven people lost their lives at the National Stadium, Abuja. There
was a stampede in Rivers, one died in Niger; two pregnant women were
reported dead in Benin, others were injured.
According to Mr. Minister “The applicants lost their lives due to
impatience; they did not follow the laid down procedures spelt out
to them before the exercise. Many of them jumped through the fences
of affected centres and did not conduct themselves in an orderly
manner to make the exercise a smooth one. This caused stampede and
made the environment unsecured.”
I watched graduates sit on the floor; beat, harassed and treated
like 'goats'. I listened as a large number of these graduates on
camera 'murdered' English..."I knows government doesn't caring", "we
are a graduate" and more such suicidal phrases.
I bled because half of the numbers in each center where above 35 and
even when less were least qualified to be immigration personnel, but
who cares Ngozi says we are making progress, Moro says lives were
lost due to impatience and that's all, we are indeed making
progress.
What Ngozi fails to understand and we don't understand as a people,
is that we are only victims of ourselves as a nation.
These crop of followers, don't know there's peoples' power. If only
all those young folks in the Abuja stadium, and in Minna simply
marched towards the Villa, or National Assembly or to their various
governors, the story would have been better.
How many times I have said we are just naïve, in today's Nigeria, no
Minister's kid is looking for a job, no governor's brother was
looking for an immigration job. No local government chairman has
issue with getting his sister a job.
The political class, don't know that there's no electricity, because
rimi road, adeoye crescent, and Mbakwe close all have houses powered
by generators.
Ngozi doesn't understand the pain of a family whose substantially
monthly income goes to purchasing cooking oil (kerosene).
For those that have lost someone, if you really understand that all
is not well with Nigeria, let's join hands in giving our leaders a
wake-up call. If not, they will continue to deceive us, for how
long--only time will tell.
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