Mayday! Mayday! Our Country Is In Trouble

The last of this series was released on the October 1st, 2024 under the subhead ‘What Nigeria Is Not At 64.’, however, the very worrying kamikaze and rudderless drift of the ship of State down the abyss has compelled a return to this series. Folks… It is Mayday!

The Holy Book lucidly admonishes the power of knowledge, learning and information. It says, ‘my people shall know the Truth and the truth shall set them free’. It also says that ‘my people perish for lack of knowledge’. We must rupture the pervasive ignorance that holds us down as a nation. We must interrogate the policies of government, and put to nought the perfidy, mendacity and debauchery that has become the fulcrum of official government pronouncements.

So Much Ado About Reforms.

What REFORMS do you see? Where are the REFORMS?

The present government says that the Removal of Fuel Subsidy, the removal of Electricity Subsidy, and the widening of the Tax net are part of the laudable reforms of government. Nothing in God’s world can be more wrong, more fallacious, more untrue, more demonic, more illogical, more unintelligent, more unresearched, more unpatriotic, more ordinary, more mendacious, more perfidious, more unprofessional, and exclusively within the confines of voodoo economics than that. Your Competitors and those whose profit come from your pain like the IMF, the World Bank and the Bretton Woods Institutions cannot lay the pathway to your redemption, they never have.

Assuming but not conceding that there was in actuality humongous subsidies paid on fuel, how will the ‘shock’ removal of Subsidy grow the economy? How will an economy that depends largely on fuel for life, thrive? How will the masses cope? How will small businesses survive? And to what end would the flaccid and unresearched statement that has gained traction since the so-called removal of Subsidy ditto ‘now the States, the Local Governments and the Federal Government have more money to share’ go into fixing a near lifeless economy? Even the so-called more money pales to less money with inflation unhinged. Or do you not know that the value of the 30,000 naira minimum wage last year is more than the present 70,000/80,000 minimum wage, go to the market, if you doubt me.

Have you considered the harm that the removal of Electricity Subsidy has caused medium scale businesses, do you know the number of businesses that have gone kaput on account of the so-called reforms of the present government? How can an economy grow without flourishing medium scale businesses, start-ups, low income businesses, and industries? Tell the Spokespersons of Government and the minders of the voodoo economics and reforms of the present government to go back to school, and stop expecting miracles.

They chose to float the Naira in a largely consumptive economy without growing the levers of production, without first resuscitating our dying and moribund critical infrastructure, without improving national security and protecting farmers to guarantee food security, and without energy security, and they think that the naira will survive or truly find it its level, it looks logically that sooner rather than later the naira will be in Golgotha having become presently one of, if not the weakest currency in Africa. Thinkers And Fixers Are Needed Urgently… Mayday!

On widening the Tax net, no nation grows through taxing an impoverished people, rather Tax cuts are necessary fillip for the productive sector, businesses and industries to thrive. You can’t tax broke people and you can’t tax an anaemic economy to life, no way. It is evident that the Policy minders of the present government believe that more money in hand is progress, unfortunately it is great fallacy, and the truth is presently before us, our money is losing value everyday because of inflation. And the dangerous fluctuating jingle-over of the Naira against just about every currency in the world has become our collective pain. Nigeria is in trouble. Mayday!

Subjecting the issues to deeper interrogation and forensics, may we ask those who allegedly removed subsidy on Fuel, how many litres of Fuel/PMS does Nigeria consume daily? Who were the recipients of the so-called Subsidy? How many litres of Fuel actually landed in Nigeria over the period of the so-called Subsidy? Who were the Importers? What happened to the Crude Oil for Fuel Swap initiative? And now that Dangote Refinery is producing PMS/Fuel what is the cost of production, and what should be the reasonable market price? How can a government be talking about reforms without an effective Ombudsman, without an active Price Control mechanism? Nigeria and Nigerians are dying and the spin doctors of a spineless regime are lying about Reforms. Mayday!

Tax cuts dominated the debate in the US Presidential campaigns recently. And Tax cuts are the issues presently endearing the Ghanaian legislature to the people. Whereas in Nigeria, the minders of Tinubu’s REFORMS obviously voodoo economists believe that Nigeria can tax her citizens out of poverty to prosperity, how nonsensical. They believe that more money means prosperity, they are taking us obviously to Venezuela, and perhaps the way of Argentina before the present Thinker in Argentina assumed office. Our naira is increasingly hogging the ‘shit paper’ phraseology. Our people are spending more money these days for far little, and they say that their unresearched economic policies and lame reforms will yield results, the results are evident, and getting worse by the day, Nigeria is dying. Mayday!

Two nights ago I posted a challenge on my Twitter, X handle @NwaokobiaJnr, and I am compelled to reproduce it here almost verbatim.

“Oh That We May Think!!!”

There is something about Partisanship that blinds. And there is something untoward about the obfuscating obscurantism that comes with Partisanship.

Over the past two months in deep critical appraisal of the monstrous failure that the Tinubu Government has manifestly become, I hastened to X-ray the Manifestos of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and Alhaji Abubakar Atiku; that of the Labour Party and Mr Peter Obi; and that of the NNPP and Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, sadly none of them presented a well researched roadmap to redemption, none of them was bold enough to admit that Nigeria as presently constituted is dysfunctional, unwieldy, cumbersome and unproductive. None of them was ready to call a spade a spade, they all talked about the removal of Subsidy BUT were unwilling to call out the Big Businesses and the Rogues that orchestrated the Subsidy fraud/scam that raped our nation and economy recklessly and mercilessly.

It was the so-called Big Businesses and their apparatchik in the NNPC that ensured that the Turn-around maintenance of our 4 comatose Refineries became indefinite and endless with over 5 billion US Dollars thrown in the wind in the name of Turnaround Maintenance (TAM). And none of the 4 Gladiators in the 2022/2023 Presidential Campaign season was ready to debate the CORE subject of RESTRUCTURING. How do you fix a dysfunctional system, if I may ask? Thinkers And Fixers Are Needed Urgently… Mayday!

I hereby humbly repudiate PARTISANSHIP as I commit myself forthwith to help rupture the mass ignorance that dominates our socio-political space. My people perish for lack of Knowledge says the Holy Book. To Make Nigeria Great Again Folks, we must begin to interrogate every policy programmatic and pronouncements of government.

To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu I say, Sir, you do not have any worthy REFORMS, if you continue this way Buhari’s failure will be child’s play compared with the massive failure that yours will be if you do not come down your high horse to engage critical Thinkers. Stop the deceit and debauchery, Nigeria is heading down the abyss under your rudderless watch. If you think I am blabbing, please send your ideologues and your ‘REFORMS’ minders to debate me on any available platform. You may just find out that they have lied to you all along.

To Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso et al, I challenge you and your followers to a debate on how your Manifestos are incapable of birthing and berthing the Nigeria of our dreams. Let us engage in a forthright forensics and find the ideal pathway to a NEW and Prosperous Nigeria.

Let us STOP inheriting enemies and building foes, may we be open minded enough to locate the pathway to redemption, for surely a NEW NIGERIA is Possible if we engage Thinkers And Fixers whose commitment to our national well-being is patriotic, altruistic and selfless.”

Compatriots, my apologies for this rather long expose’, but ‘na as e dey pain me, make am’, how do you feel when you hear lies like ‘the economy is picking up’, ‘our worst days are behind us’, ‘our reforms are yielding results’ and their lies and perfidious inveigle continue ad nauseam ad infinitum. It is more bewildering when the indices show otherwise. And even more befuddling when Companies and Businesses are closing shop by the hour. No, we cannot suffer fools gladly, we must rupture the mendacity that calls death, life. When we see workable and altruistic REFORMS we shall hail the government. Until then, Nigeria is at the precipice. Mayday!

Finally, Countrymen and women, I must hasten to inform you that my confidence in the greatness of Nigeria is undying and unshakable, however we must consistently keep the watch, we must not forget that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom, and we MUST always speak the truth to power no matter what side of the political pendulum you devolve, the Truth is that until this defective and dysfunctional enterprise called Nigeria is reworked our search for a New NIGERIA will amount to the proverbial Wait For Godot.

May I close with the words of the Former Commonwealth Secretary General Chief Emeka Anyaoku ditto “With the 1999 Constitution, Even Angel Gabriel Won’t Save Nigeria From Miseries”… Nigeria as presently constituted is like the famous Titanic headed towards the Iceberg whilst the minders engaged in merrymaking, frolicking and cavorting, and such is the case with today’s Nigeria. Folks, Nigeria is in Trouble, Thinkers And Fixers Are Needed Urgently. I’m crying out, if by Jove they will heed this call. It is Mayday!

I’m CHUKWUDUMEBI.

Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr.
Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVT. A Good Governance Advocacy Group.

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