In
the backdrop of the sad news that Nigeria has finally landed in recession with
skyrocketing food prices and closure of major Airlines, the appeal by President
Mohammadu Buhari to Nigerians for patience does not seem to hold water. The reason is simple: Nigerians have
exhausted their patience. A report said:
the appeal is patently misplaced and inherently shallow; regarded more as
semantics, a contrived Public Relations Stunt bereft of human face. “For 34 years, that’s what they have been
saying; they struggle for political office and at the end when they get it, go
to sleep”, charged Mr. Afe-Ikaghe, a Lagos based activists. Now with a bag of beans rising from N18,000
to N27,000 and rice hitting N20,000 from N10,000 the time for handshake is
over.
Taking
a hard look at the administrative performance of appointed officials, the
activists became enraged: “The nation has been robbed, raped and forced into
recession; they are never sincere, dishonest and uncaring”, he told the Expose
News.
However,
looking back, the nation has indeed been subjected to raw deals. From 1983 to
present day, it has been a litany of failed promises, abandoned projects,
probes upon probes, from which the nation has never really recovered.
Against
this frightening spectacle, Buhari, the activist’s feel, ought to have dwelt
more on Nigerian Governors who still behave as shylocks with their retinue of
aides and convoys of expensive cars.
“Shouldn’t Buhari have told the Governors the truth to cut down on their
expenses rather than appeal to the masses? Mr. Ikhaghe questioned
Nevertheless,
that appeal is now old story; with the well documented fact that unlike before,
the maxim that a “patient dog eats the fattest bone”, has been rendered
impotent, Nigerians may no longer want to remain hewers of wood and drawers of
water. They now know that it is all
smokescreens when they hear of such vocabulary; that the times they waited only
produced untold hardship, poverty and hunger.
They now know that politicians speak from both sides of their mouth;
that while Rome burns, they Jet out for shopping extravaganza. “So now, without Governors cutting down on
their outrageous life styles, dubious borrowing, Nigerians must brace up for
the worst”, disclosed Mr. Ikhaghe. And
evidently, that is the picture on ground.
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