Hunger-Induced Amnesia In Nigeria -By Peter Claver Oparah

Something seems to be fatally flawed with most Nigerians, especially those who are orchestrating a politically-induced mass hysteria about hunger presently. Something seems to be out of place with their orchestra, even in the face of the obvious reality that Nigeria has been vandalized and hunger and want have been unleashed by those that deliberately mismanaged our good fortune. Make no mistake about it. Nigeria is in recession. Growth has slowed down, but this is a global experience that targets those countries that depend on crude oil sales for funding their economies. Terrible cases like Nigeria, where caches of corruption and unfeeling past leaders employed corruption and cluelessness to loot the good fortunes of their countries at the peak of the global oil harvest, stand out. Their cases are pathetic as they speak of the curse of oil, even when oil is supposed to be a blessing.

Nigerians are feeling the pangs of recession. Oil, which is the sole mainstay of Nigerian economy, has stopped yielding the golden egg. Added to this is that sponsored political warfare has been levied on this mainstay by those that are still hurting from their loss of access to steal state resources. As there are no fallbacks, it is only legitimate that the country will plunge into recession as it did. In countries that managed their resources well, this would not have been the case. The huge savings and huge investments in regenerative infrastructures would have bailed such a country out, as it is bailing many countries today. The savings for the rainy day would have bailed such countries from gliding into recession and would have steadied their economies against the vagaries of global oil prices. But Nigerian past leaders, especially the immediate past Jonathan era where Nigeria made its richest harvest, adamantly refused to save. It did not invest in critical infrastructures either. It built no social investment and was rather consumed in gluttonous free loading of vital state resources for its mandarins and cahoots. At a time Nigeria should draw heavily from its huge investment and savings, it had nothing to fall back on when oil prices plunged. That is why we are in recession today. That is why there is hunger and hardship in the country.

Nigerians are not hungry because Buhari stopped the stealing of state resources by a few remorseless individuals. Nigerians are not hungry because Buhari rolled out measures to safeguard the little foreign reserve we had. Nigerians are not hungry because Buhari decided to stop the wasteful importation of food and other freebies which would have, by now, emptied our little foreign reserves. Nigerians are not hungry today because Buhari decided to plug the many rat holes through which minions of the previous regime stole the country dry. Nigerians are not hungry today because Buhari decided to invest in critical regenerative infrastructures the previous governments adamantly neglected to rot away. Nigerians are not hungry today because Buhari is insisting on probity and accountability in the application of public resources. Contrary to what those that are indulged in rigorous mischief trading today are saying, the aforementioned measures are all geared towards rectifying our mistakes and placing the country on sure and certain paths of greatness.

That Nigerians are hungry today needs no genius to explain. As actions carry consequences, the deliberate acts of corrupt public officials to loot the treasury can only result in one consequence; hunger and privation as we have in Nigeria today. When and how we got to the present is decipherable from the sordid recent history of our nation where prodigal mercenary governments presided over the ruinous plundering of national wealth by choice lickspittles, leaving the country for dead. With the benefit of hindsight and with stark statistics that predate the present Buhari regime, it is easy to know why and how a richly blessed country found itself in the present economic quagmire. It is not just about the downscaling of global oil prices but more about the irresponsible attitude of past governments to feed the tongs of corruption and allow it to sail unhindered in the conduct of public affairs in Nigeria. The failure to save and invest in regenerative capital projects and the desire to plunder everything in sight led Nigeria into the economic mess it is wallowing in today. It is the reason why Nigerians are hungry, as those who were directly complicit in bankrupting the country desperately whelp today.

So Nigerians are hungry. Thank God we have a regime that has boldly plunged into a very bold project of redirecting the country on the paths of probity and accountability. It could have been disastrous were we to continue with the past purblind regime that deified only corrupt consumerism because there would have been nothing to steal today were the nation cursed to continue with the past regime. Nigerians, despite the short term mischief being employed to confuse and further take advantage of them, must feel grateful that we have a regime that has foregone greed and rapacious self-fending to rescue the country from this quagmire; a regime that has boldly decided to plug corruption, recover whatever it can of the dwindling state resources and invest them in the critical sectors that were abandoned when the country was swimming in abundant petro dollars. We must, in the ambience of our national life, thank God that a regime that is minded to tame our irascible craze to live far above our means, has started practical application of the much-talked diversification of our economy and ensure that conduct of statecraft confirms to maximum standards of financial rectitude. Deep in our collective hearts, we know that there was no other way left for us to rescue a hugely mismanaged country as Nigeria. There was no alternative to reinvent a sinking behemoth. There was no other way the Nigerian Titanic could have been steered from the rocks!

But then, what beats me is the Janus-faced attitude of some Nigerians, especially those who deliberately plunged the country into the present mess and their hirelings who are busy recruiting hapless victims of their vile acts to join them to bleat ceaselessly about hunger and hardship in the country at present. How come those who are making a song of hunger are the same people carrying placards urging the EFCC not to investigate Patience Jonathan for her ‘hard earned’ millions of dollars? How come those whose voices have cracked for relentless beating of hunger are the same persons saying that prosecuting Sambo Dasuki and his coterie of beneficiaries in the $2.1 billion arms scandal is a ‘political witch hunt’? How come those who are chorusing about hunger and hardship are the same people sponsoring and indulging in politically-sponsored vandalism of oil pipelines in a bid to cripple the Nigerian economy in their vengeful political causes? How come the same crooners of hunger and hardship are the same people mounting shameful street parades and shows of support for the Metuhs, the Fani-Kayodes, the Tompolos, the Akpobukelemes, the Amosus, the Sarakis, and other sundry genres of alleged plunderers of our treasury? I am really lost here!

How come those who are mounting a national orchestra of hunger and hardship today are ready and mobilizable pawns who unseemly cannibalized our national treasury just the other day easily recruit to mount street protests for them? How come those who bleat about being hungry shamelessly defend the vandals that set upon our treasury and cleansed it in such a reckless manner just yesterday? How come those who mouth hunger and hardship readily engage in fisticuffs in defense of rouges and plunderers just because they come from their neck of the woods and adhere to their own religions? How come those that yak of hunger and hardship today are the ones that offer themselves as body shields to those who have been implicated in gargantuan acts of corruption, especially in the immediate part regime? How come those who make the loudest noise about being hungry are the same people that seek every means to offer defense to the shameless vermin that raided Nigeria’s resources the other day? My confusion builds up still.

How come those that have formed a political sing song of hunger and hardship struggle desperately to tell us to stop talking of the recent past when oil, our mono economy, sold for over $140 a barrel and the country sold over 2.8 million barrels a day but to talk of the present when oil hovers between $27 and $45 barrels a day with output going down to as low as 1.2 million barrels a day? How come those that are stomping all over the place seeking to hew political capital of hunger and hardship grow silent on how their masters looted several trillions of Naira that would have been employed to build a real economy that does not depend on the fluctuations of oil prices? How come those that cry their eyes out of how hungry they are form themselves into fighting mobs for the very robbers that levied mass hunger and destitution on Nigerians through uncurbed stealing? My bewilderment gathers momentum.

How come the same people that are shouting on rooftops that Nigerians are hungry are the same people that have employed several means to hide the billions of dollars and trillions of Naira they stole from the Nigerian state? How come those who are frantically yelping of hunger and hardship employ the last strength of their lives to defend the most banal treasury looter and threaten thunder and brimstone should any harm befall such looters? How come our eminent citizens have found it fashionable sermonizing about hunger in the land but have grown conspiratorially silent on the detestable acts of a few predators that looted the country dry and levied hunger and untold hardship on Nigerians? How come those that have found a campaign mantra on hunger and hardship are the ones that issue moratorium and carry placards when any of the moths that ate our lives out is questioned? I am getting more confused.

How come some Nigerians seem to be under a blanket amnesia in locating where the rains started beating them? How come some Nigerians are playing the ostrich in locating where their problems started with a view to solving such problems in an enduring way? Does hunger induce amnesia? Does hunger provoke a loss of sense? Does hunger also obliterate the memory? Does hunger erode human capacity to think? Does hunger imbue irrationality? Does hunger vitiate the human capacity to decipher? Does hunger make humans senseless? The answer may depend on which side of the aisle one is looking at the issue. True, Nigerians are hungry because the economy has been viscerally ravaged since independence. The down spiral in the price of oil only provided a trigger to what eminent Nigerians, policy analysts and economists have been warning us of for many years now. The exaggeration to our hunger and hardship is purely political. It is purely a campaign slogan for those that were displaced from power last year because they mismanaged our affairs. They merely kick-started another campaign when the last election was hardly completed. They are beguiled and mischievous sons of Lucifer that still deign no end to manipulating the minds of Nigerians for their perpetually selfish ends.

But I know our hunger, as a people that were robbed silly for several decades by political marauders, is different from the noisome hunger and hardship being parroted by those that seek to roll back the present effort to tame corruption and its ancillary effects. Our hunger is different from those of the displaced predators who warehouse our national patrimony in coded bank accounts spread all over the world, choice assets and treasuries as well as in tank farms, underground wells, latrines, storage tanks, etc. They are crooning of hunger and hardship as mockery to us. Our own hunger stems from the fact that our national resources were plundered and we are left high and dry as the resources stopped flowing in. Ours is real and the hope for its mitigation lies squarely in the many bold efforts the Buhari regime is making today. Ours does not induce amnesia. Their own hunger is artificial. It is a phantom. It is fake. It can only work when it lures all of us to amnesia and makes us blind to the real facts why Nigerians are hungry today as well as the ignominious roles of these merchants of vices in landing us where we are today. Their hunger can only be satiated by returning our resources to them to continue the ruination the present regime wants to arrest. In due season, those who are unaware of the mischievous intent in the orchestrated ‘we are hungry’ mantra being promoted today will shake off their temporary amnesia and further safeguard the country from their nefarious interests.

Peter Claver Oparah writes from Ikeja, Lagos. You can reach him at peterclaver2000@yahoo.com.