A lot have happened since 2022 when I wrote an editorial at www.khmediaministry.com.ng. The said editorial was titled NOW THAT NIGERIA IS 62 and it was written to mark the country’s Independence Day that year. Since then, the 2023 elections had been won and lost and a new government put in place. This year, as we mark the 64th year of our independence, I still want to echo some point made in 2022: we need to reappraise our marriage of different ethnicities. Since this marriage was forced on the country by the British, we must, as a matter of urgency, sit down to discuss our permanent fellowship. Trying to avoid this unavoidable assignment is not a wise decision at all. All the arms of governments at all levels must work hard to legitimize our co-habitation in the country called Nigeria and come out with the best relationship that will suit all the ethnic nationalities that exist in the country. For us to move forward, the citizens must not be forced, cajoled or brainwashed to believe in the country and her programmes.
As we are marking this 64th Anniversary, Nigerians are going through a lot of economic hardships and difficulties occassioned by some of the economic policies of this current Federal Government. To be honest, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu warned us during his campaigns that these policies are what the nation needs to avoid economic and political collapse permanently. But since these policies, especially the removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the Naira, have been introduced, Nigerians, especially the masses, have been wallowing in extreme poverty and sufferings which the government says it is a momentary pain which will soon go. These pains have made the citizens to criticize the government and ask for reversal of these painful surgeries. In fact, as we celebrate this day, some youths and others are out protesting against what they call bad governance. The opposition parties and partisan fellows have even used it to campaign in the off-cycle elections of Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo, Edo and Ondo States.
It should be noted that the International community had praised these “bold” decisions. Most remarkable of these praises come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). They believe that these policies are good for our economic and political recoveries. It is also noted that the major political parties and their candidates in the 2023 elections promised to embark on these policies especially the removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the Naira even though, they unlike the present president, did not tell us of the pains we might likely go through.
The Federal Government should do everything in their power to quickly and urgently reduce the pains of the citizens. Asking the people to endure these pains without reasonable and visible actions to help ameliorate the sufferings can be interpreted as wickedness, confusion, incapability and insensitivity. The governments must be seen as cutting away excesses from their spendings. Asking the citizens to braze up for these sufferings when those in governments live as if we are in prosperity galore will alway make the people to see those in government as enemies and these can even make them to be misdirected and used against the country. Some spendings of the Federal and State governments at this time of pains even make those who are supporters of the governments to be confused! Those in government must be humble to accept the failure of their policies if they discover their mistakes and inabilities.
The citizens must also give the government some time to nourish these policies to a logical conclusion. We must all agree that the country had been badly governed in the past and that successive administrations had been running away from what would prosper the country because of the fear that their actions would inconvinient the citizens. Politicians only look for how to win elections without a serious plan for the future of the ordinary citizens. We must not allow them to use us for their selfish ambitions. We must not be looking for ways to destroy the country because if we do, we suffer for it. Happy 64th Indelendence Day Celebrations. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
