Honest Truth About Nigeria At 63 -By Eze Onyekpere

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is celebrating her 63 years of independent nationhood and President Bola Tinubu has just made a national broadcast. The broadcast is a rehash of the same old message. Nigerians should be patient in hardship whilst the leaders revel in mismanagement of resources. There is the old appeal of unity in diversity which even those in the corridors of power do not believe in. This discourse reviews Nigeria at 63 using the parameters of recent events vis, the elections, judicial decisions and management of the polity and economy by the Tinubu administration. It is the conclusion that the task of nation-building is yet to begin and our 63rd independence anniversary offers the opportunity for a start.

Let me start by recalling that speeches that ask the poor, the deprived and the oppressed to exercise patience and continue suffering so that tomorrow will be better did not start today. I recall listening to military President Ibrahim Babaginda’s speech who asked Nigerians in 1986 to give our today (1986) for a better tomorrow which should include 2023. That request was made over 36 years ago and by the calculation of Babangida and Tinubu, tomorrow is yet to come. Such speeches ring hollow in my ears and facilitate a sense of revulsion and anger because Nigerians have been taken for a very long ride by successive leaders. President Tinubu, who is asking Nigerians for sacrifice, started with the distribution of money to the legislature and the judiciary beyond what has been budgeted for them and as their own share of palliatives. This was to alleviate the hardship of persons and institutions that were already overfed while ignoring the poorest of the poor. Tinubu did not make promises to the legislature and the judiciary. He approved and disbursed their money while what is meant for the poor are still promises so many months after the promises were made. He still maintains a bloated cabinet and refuses to reduce the perks and cost of governance while making appeals for sacrifice from persons who have nothing again to sacrifice, except their lives.

Today, the United States Dollar exchanges for more than N1000, from not more than N700 at the time of the swearing-in of the president. What has been the response of the president and the legislature? Cluelessness and out of ideas. They are still in a party mood, celebrating their conquest of the Nigerian people. The oil subsidy that was purportedly removed is now back in full fervour and the associated corruption is bound to continue. Inflation is at an all-time high and there is nothing concrete to tackle the challenge. Those appointed to run the economy are at a loss on interventions despite their postulations that they are all knowing. The organised labour is about to commence a nationwide strike and their major grouse is the refusal of the administration to engage them in dialogue that will lead to humane policies to guarantee livelihood rights. Instead of the dialogue, the government is announcing an arbitrary N25,000 award for low-level workers for the next six months. This is the height of arbitrariness and as such, an imposition that is not sustainable.

Political developments, epitomised by the last election, show that Nigeria is moving away from unity. We are also moving away from the rule of law, to rule by law and our democracy is floundering. We had a presidential election where the fault lines of Nigeria were exploited to the full by politicians. The starting point was when the ruling All Progressives Congress decided to go against the grain of rational thinking provided in the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy acknowledging our religious diversity. A person and a party are expected to anticipate the natural consequences of their act. That decisive action attracted repulsion from others who felt excluded.

Furthermore, power has been rotating among the constituent parts of Nigeria, from the North to the South and sub-parts of the North and South. But this unwritten and gentlemanly agreement which was made to ensure that every group had a sense of belonging was upset. Pray, what is the sense of unity of persons who think others should be excluded and have no right to aspire to the presidency? In forming the cabinet, the President allotted five ministerial slots out of about 48 to the South-East region simply because they did not vote for his party. Some sub-regions got ten, others nine and eight. And the same appointor champions a speech on unity which he evidently does not believe in. At best, his sense of unity is about subjugation and denial of the rights of others. It is the unity that results when a predator devours his prey. The elections and the current governance approach have left Nigeria more divided than they were before the elections.

The sanctity of the ballot box has been desecrated and persons who manipulate elections have been rewarded with very high positions, national appointments and celebrated at the taxpayers’ expense. Justice, self-evident legal principles and morality have been abandoned by the courts in favour of diabolical prudence. On two occasions, persons who claimed and produced certificates that were repudiated by the issuing authorities were left off the hook and the court’s notion of legalism was some abstruse meaningless resort to empty jargon devoid of common sense. In essence, certificate forgers were canonised as fit and proper to hold high-level elective office. When the purported issuer of a certificate comes forward to unambiguously state that it did not issue the certificate, what more evidence should a court require? The words, “the petitioner failed to prove,” became the recourse in judicial mischief. Unfortunately, these words are empty and ring hollow and only affirm the rule by law and manipulation of judicialism. The judiciary has turned itself into a bazaar of contradictory decisions. These absurd decisions are antithetical to reason, common sense and have no foundation in the law.

We have a president who is vigorously opposing the release of his academic records to political opponents. According to media reports, he claims the release of the documents will cause him severe and irreparable damage. At what point will academic records embarrass a man who has nothing to hide? Nigeria’s reputation has hit bottom zero and we have become the butt of all sick jokes in the international community. Do we believe we can live in denial of obvious truths? We only do that at our own peril because the world has left us behind and will leave us further behind if we continue in denial. In security, almost every part of Nigeria is facing organised criminal syndicates emboldened by the vast areas of ungoverned territories and a security architecture that refuses to live up to national challenges.

In conclusion, Nigeria is at its lowest ebb since independence; the economy, polity, education, security, health, etc., are at ground zero awaiting a lift-off by a leader with the requisite moral, humane, knowledge and rule of law commitment. It is possible with honesty of purpose. For now, we await.