Now why did I pick this up specifically? I did because when many of our public affairs analysts discuss issues, they often do so inside a "pipe" and fail to consider the environment that surrounds the pipe. Conclusions or opinions as I have quoted above was ascribed to Moses Ochonu, someone I actually do respect but doubt if he made the statement above. I do not work for this government and therefore not their spokesperson but I am knowledgeable enough to know that as of March 2015, the Nigerian government was so broke it was borrowing to pay civil servant's salaries. I also know that that government left with a trail of debts owed on petro-subsidies and that there was an acute scarcity of petroleum products towards the tail end of the last administration the reason for which many accused it of criminal indifference. So soon after, we witnessed the near collapse of two-thirds of the 36 states in Nigeria who could not pay staff salaries or maintain the institutions of state. Since after that, the nation has been treated to different manifestations of sleaze and different guises of high-treason by those who held sway. Something that was obviously so shocking was the "Abuja Yam Festival". Only a few days ago, the vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo, confirmed that about $15 billion of the nations wealth was looted under the cover of security spending at the federal level alone. If one were to add what was looted under power infrastructure, third term, UBE, monetization, 2011 subsidy scam, un-remitted oil receipts, sovereign wealth fund, Niger River Bridge, NNDC, ecological fund (nonsense), banking and bank consolidations and the debt write-offs and other sources or domains, you can imagine how this nation had been raped by the elites ruling us.
Why have I engaged in all these dogo-turenchi? I have made just these few points because it is only an irresponsible child that will fail to acknowledge his father's (parent's) circumstances. Nigeria is so broke and financially insolvent that it is a miracle we are still standing. We have been prodigal and remain prodigal and it is sad that anyone would canvass that we continue on the path of prodigality. Petro-subsidy has been prodigality for fifteen years and nothing will make it a sane option. Nigeria killed of its refineries to support the corruption of fuel imports from Obasanjo's regime till date. We killed off our telecoms to support the thinking of "telephone is not for the poor" until GSM providers came and showed us that it actually a mass product. We killed off the railways because we thought the corruption of road transport was better, fully knowing it benefits only a few. We killed off our power plants and distributions system to support the corruption of the generator cabal. We are even killing off our educational system while the private universities smile to the bank despite selling pure water as the sparkling variety. If anyone is confused, read Bamidele Ademola-Olateju's treatises on Premium Times and her "How Corruption Fuels Antagonism To Buhari's Candidacy" written on January 6, 2015. Read her recent facebook posting below and know that this matter is beyond populism.
What is important is that beyond removing subsidy we go down to the root of corruption in our society and ensure that their stems, roots and branches are completely severed. Nigeria cannot be weaned of the deleterious effects of her sixteen years of profligacy in eleven months. We must acknowledge, however, that the pain will be borne mostly by those who did not participate in the bazaar. The solution is to make those who went to the party for sixteen years to return what they swallowed. I see no alternative to the pains over the next five years but we can at least bequeath a working nation and a better economy to the next generation. There seems no easy way out when we took small chops from these rouge politicians of not too distant past and handed over to them our national patrimony. Some even gave their lives to these rouge elements and would kill to see their own oppressors continue to rape them. The country is so bad the way it is configured economically and politically. Until we retrace our steps towards internal integration and re-integration, the fiscal and revenue profile of Nigeria and her constituent states will continue to pose additional problems. As four regions we dealt with only four or five centre of corruption. As thirty-six states we have become slave to our thirty-seven centres.
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