Security or the lack of it is a very serious issue. In Nigeria, neither the government nor the people are doing anything about the bourgeoning insecurity beyond the usual condemnation.
The National Assembly is making permutations for the next round of elections in 2023. Remi Tinubu for instance, is already seeing herself in the seat of the first lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Her desperate ambition would make her dismiss anyone who dares speak against the chaos in the land as a wailing opposition member. Her husband is no better either.
Tinubu of the ‘where are the cows’ fame sees the presidency as his legal right, and whatever hurdle in his way must be removed, even if it is the entire south west. If he has to rule over the ashes of a burned down Nigeria, so be it.
Muhammadu Buhari, the president of Nigeria is laid back. He watches as the conflagration continues to consume the country. One cannot tell whether he is incapable or unwilling to arrest the situation. He is just there, managed by abusive, ambitious and arrogant sycophants such as Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu. These two unprofessionally dish out statements that ought to be heard at peppersoup joints as ‘presidential’ position on sensitive issues of security.
The People’s Democratic Party, Nigeria’s main opposition party is still trying to reconcile itself to the fact that it is not a non-government organisation but a political party whose major concern ought to be putting the monstrously chaotic APC on its toes. The PDP is still weeping from behind its secretary’s keypad, typing absolutely boring press statements that ordinary Nigerians are too hungry to read.
The people are more likely to be worse that all the political stakeholders mentioned above. They sit in the market, in the buses, in beer parlours, church fellowships, jumaat services and their village meetings talking in hushed tones about the unfolding carnage but none has the balls to join Sowore, Adeyanju and Aisha Yesufu in protesting.
So, we allow the marauders to go on rampage unabated. They kill, maim, rape, close down schools, destroy economies, scare people from the farms and do as they please. To make matters worse, the fear of the kidnappers and killers has caused schools to close down.
Recently, we heard that the horde of killers are converging on Abuja. And the army had taken steps to form a ring around the Villa, NNPC and the barracks. This sends only one signal to the vulnerable people: you are on your own. Veritas University and other schools around Abuja hurriedly closed down and students sent home.
No one is taking time to analyse the implications of these now until we appear in other countries after ten years from now and being to act like people from the stone age. The implications are too far reaching to be over emphasized. One of the results of this enchanted complacency and docility is that we are going to have to triple our efforts to catch up, if we ever will, with other countries in terms of technology and development, after Buhari’s reign of anachronism. Forget the joke about a certain Digital Economy. We know that we are opposite of being digital.
Microsoft and the Federal Government have decided to partner in the interest of the masses. According to reports, the partnership is to create thousands of direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of downline jobs. This is a very good initiative. It is quite commendable that the government is this thoughtful. But would Microsoft set up their office in a country where the president begs terrorists to release their victims? Would they endanger the lives of their staff to send them here only to be kidnapped? Would they take the most unreasonable risk of setting up an office with multimillion dollar equipment only to be bombed to ashes by a bad of pampered terrorists who would be arrested and rewarded?
Already, we have a very archaic educational system that churns out misfits for the evolving manpower demand. Then we are closing schools. In a decade from now, there would be a yawning human resources gap in Nigeria. We would have to import expertise and even mid level know how to man sensitive positions, leading to huge financial haemorrhage from an already pauperised economy.
Unless the next administration is manned by a learned, committed, patriotic and technocratic leader, the country is going to be so broke that citizens would migrate to hitherto poorer countries.
Another major consequence would be the already glaring famine. Given that bandits, herdsmen and Boko Haram have combined to kill farmers and farming in Nigeria, food supply has declined internally. Then the government has decided to block food importation. The only option left is to scramble for the little that’s within the country at very exorbitant prices. This is inflation. Now, the government is pronouncing itself broke. It is going to cut salaries but not that of the legislature and executive. Theirs is sacrosanct. The masses who form the bulk of everyday transactions are being rendered powerless. It can only mean one thing. Increased prices and inadequate purchasing power. A trader can’t sell below his cost price, and the buyer cannot buy at his new price. That’s a dilemma.
Another foreseeable problem is brain drain. We must not kid ourselves, many people are running out of this country daily. Forget Lai Mohammed’s tantrums. The country is emptying its best into other countries. Doctors, engineers and other professionals are all running away from a collapsing Nigeria. After spending decades studying in Nigeria’s excruciating education climate, no one would wait for an unlettered member of a rag tag army of Boko Haram to waste him. The best is to run away.
The next president of Nigeria has a lot of work on his hands in an attempt to lift Nigeria out of the current abyss it has found itself in. And we all have a job on our hands before we begin to look up to Benin republic for regional leadership.
The time to salvage our country is now. We must all stand up to be counted.
To be continued.
Alex Agbo,
Writer, researcher and public policy analyst writes from Lagos.