Nigerians Please, let’s get real -By Ikechukwu Nnaemeka

President Muhammadu Buhari in UK

Let’s face the real issues. Every now and then, we are eager to lose focus and direct our attention away from the real issues. We are now rubbing our hands in glee, expectedly awaiting the next howler that will emanate from the president’s reply to his wife’s utterances. We are losing focus. We are concentrating on the side issues.

The real is issue is not what President Buhari will say in response to his wife’s statements, the real issue is what President Buhari will do concerning the scandalous proportion of unemployed youths in Nigeria. According to figures provided by the National Bureau of Statistics, as at June, 2016, 49% of Nigerian youths are either unemployed or underemployed. This means that about half of the Nigerian youth population is either unemployed or underemployed. The National Youth Service Corps mobilizes 300,000 to 350,000 Corps members yearly. By November 4, 2016, when the 2015/2016 Batch B, Stream 2, would pass out of the scheme, at least half of that number, 150,000, would join the unemployment or underemployment statistics. Our focus should be on what President Buhari and his team would do or are doing about that.

The Naira, within a space of about 8 months, has crashed against the Dollar, and 1 dollar now exchanges for above N400. The federal government has told us that the Nigerian economy is in a recession, which is a euphemism for the reality that the Nigerian economy is in the doldrums. Again statistics provided by the NBS pegs the inflation rate at about 17%. But you and I know that the real inflation rate which affects the masses is somewhere above 100%. Just look at the cost of a bag of rice as at January, 2016, and what it costs now, and then do the math. Now what is President Buhari doing about that? What will he do about that? What is he not doing about that? That should be our focus. Our focus should be on the real issues.

The real issues are the chibok girls, corruption, insecurity, unemployment, the ludicrous remuneration of the legislators, the soaring price of kerosene, the state of our economy, the bad roads, etc. These are the real issues.

The National Issues are the real issues. The domestic issues are the side issues. The real issues are on the front burner. They have been there for so long, they have cooked up so hard, and now they are burning. The side issues are not even on the oven. The side issues should not be the priority of our focus. The side issues are used as red herring, smokescreen and are diversionary. If we look too long at them, we will neglect the real issues already burning and we might have to deal with an inferno very soon. That certainly will get everybody’s attention.

If the government has developed the habit of looking away from the real issues, we do not have to jump on the band wagon that they have procured. Let’s do what we can do by at least talking or writing about the real issues and their unwillingness or inability to deal with them.

Please, let’s get real.

Ikechukwu Nnaemeka, residing in Ibadan, is a legal practitioner.