Abba Dukawa
It is clear this is not the country our founding fathers dreamt of this is not the country any Nigerian can proud of. We have witnessed a systematic decline in everything we once held dear and took for granted. You will agree with me we are not where we should be as a nation.
Then General Muhammadu Buhari on the decay of infrastructure and social value in Nigeria made the statement in 2012.
Who Can Tell Mr. President the cost of living in the country is unbearable that more than 2/3 Nigerians are below the poverty line in the past 71 months. The corrective Administration” came to power through change mantra on May 29, 2015. Nigerians welcome the change mantra administration with unprecedented enthusiasm hoping for progressive change for the better. In spite of the slow pace action of the administration on the matters affecting the country’s well-being, but no administrations in the country enjoyed citizens’ goodwill like the present administration believing the successor administrations bastardize all available opportunities to make the country great.
Six years down the line the administration is still characterized by insecurity, banditry, kidnapping, economic challenges, and other untold hardships. It has become clear that the change is not forthcoming to the expectations of Nigerians. Instead of progressive transformation still, daily survival has become an uphill challenge as the people are languishing in extreme hardship. What people are going through in the country is reaching the highest apogee since the late 80s. All these were happening under a “Corrective Administration”
So to speak always history repeats itself, but Prof Barbara Tuchmann of Harvard University, USA argues that history does not repeat itself; man does. Considering the way things happen in the country this clearly resonated with Barbara’s view that History has already recorded that In 1984, faces similar challenges with inflation reached unprecedented heights.
There are varied views on the cost of living in the country experienced by citizens other blaming government for doing nothing to control the damage caused by the heartless action of good sellers in hiking commodities’ prices at their will because the administration officials do not know where the shoe pinches since they live in comfort zone despite the costs of goods are expensive for the common man to afford.
I wonder why in the 21st Century till Nigerians are talking about daily survival, which in normal circumstances there is no reason for Nigerians to talk about food considering the country’s arable land which suits any type of farming. Nowadays Ghanaians, Nigeriens, Togolese, Ivorians, Burkinabe, and Beninese have passed the level of hunger and can afford three meals per day. Nobody has yet told the President, and then he must hear this still Nigerians are crying about food prices beyond their affordability.
Who can tell the truth to authority that even those opportune ones (workers) things are very tough considering the meager nature of the minimum wage talks less of millions of people outwork their common food staples like Garri, beans are now beyond their reach. Feeding in Nigeria today is not easy as food, which is a basic need, has become a luxury. Prices of foodstuffs are now triple the prices they were before and they increase daily without control.
To be fair the problems are two ways round contributes to this catastrophic stage. Government officials are, not seeing the danger or intentionally distorts the reality either on self-survival or just to be sweet mouths to the number one, but in simple terms deceiving number one and heartless action of commodities’ sellers at hiking prices by at their will.
Commodities sellers are the architects of these artificial essential commodities price increments on daily basis disproportionately and it seems current commodities hike cause by their selfish interest. They have not considered almost 2/3 of the population are in serious financial turmoil as a result of their unfortunate behaviors by creating artificial inflation, which reached unprecedented heights; in spite of citizens, purchasing power declined precipitously.
Recently, I had a bitter experience with the reality that these commodity sellers are really monsters behind all these hardships people are going through. Why the inflation is raising disproportionate in the country and it is a result of essential commodity sellers blindly lusting for wealth without the recourse of what their actions might cause to the generality of Nigerians. This lust for wealth portrays them as real monsters. Why they are nothing but monsters because they enjoy causing hunger to millions of homes across the country and those that are opportune to afford the goods at exorbitant prices feel the pains. In spite of rising inflation taking its toll on families, but Nigeria’s inflation rate contradicts the global trend of inflations from Europe, the US, Asia, and Africans proved contradiction to the global trend of inflation.
Who can tell the President truth, the whole truth, there are no signs that the problems Nigerians are facing will abate very soon. There is so much confusion in the mind of citizens. There is no clear policy on how to tackle the forex crisis, rising unemployment, epileptic power supply, sliding economy, poverty, and hunger ravaging the nation. Just as some critics put it, this administration has no economic direction. Even the so-called diversification programme is just by word of mouth. There is a need for the administration to reduce the level of poverty in the country and it should mitigate the effects of inflation. However, With worsening insecurity, alarming unemployment, with the absence of proven economic drivers, many Nigerians, though with vast and varied opinions, seem to agree that getting on with their daily lives has been pretty difficult, and indeed the country is teetering dangerously on the edge of the abyss.
On the part of the administration had a genuine intention to restructure the nation’s agricultural sector, but It seems the policies were not being implemented with a human face because the administration did not feel for Nigerians in this kind of abject unfold hardship. There is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned that Nigeria is in a looming acute food crisis.
As a matter of urgency, Nigeria should revisit the policy of reducing the importation of food, especially now. There is no prescription that every nation has to meet its food self-sufficiency needs of domestic production. What nations must not fail to do is to identify their competitive advantages in terms of agricultural production for domestic consumption and export.
Lest We Forget, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expert suggests that demand for deposits in Nigerian commercial banks may reduce due to the introduction of eNaira. The currency’s heavy reliance on digital technology warrants the need to adequately manage cyber security and operational risks associated with the digital currency. IMF report further explained that eNaira wallets might effectively function, as a deposit at the central bank, resulting in a decline in the demand for deposits in commercial banks. There is a need for the administration to thoroughly scrutinize the national monetary implementation, in order to rejuvenate the economy and save it from total collapse.
Dukawa wrote in from Kano
