The blighted future of a Nation that must stop flogging a weak and debilitating Horse and new agendas for the nation’s future -By Jimi Bickersteth

The Arise TV mockery of a presidential interview that could be likened to a mother miming and wriggling her waist, as her pampered underage was being lulled to sleep and some quiet in stark contrast to the patronisingly forthright channels TV presidential interview with a different mindset and outlook.

Put together, the two interviews have trumped up a new chorus for the 2023 presidential polls and the hopes for a new nation and a new beginning and for whosoever the likely contenders haggling for the soul of the nation might be. The chorus goes like this, Ẹní ma’alu bàtá kò gbọdọ̀ wọ bàtà, bó wọ bàtà, á’tiro, bí ò wọ bàtà á’tiro.

The gothic gloom brought about by the sharp drop in world oil prices and the ensuing global energy crisis for which the nation was a confounded culprit have further compounded its position in the global scheme of things, and with insecurity and deaths upturning its internal dynamics and momentum. The Yorubas would say, Epọ̀n Àgbò nmi ooo!

The nation was losing so many lives to savage terrorist attacks and preventable diseases and also, cannot attract the necessary and much desired Foreign direct investment and opportunities to drive and sustain the growth of Africa’s largest market (population wise), because the investment world know enough of the body language, the dirty underhand dealings, the corruption and the grand disconnect between the government and the people to grasp the general tenor of what the general outlook of the nation was.

A thought flicked in and out of my mind, that in between the solutions to Nigeria’s myriads of problems is a PMB with some subdued eagerness though, staring out sulkily on the world from under a heavy fringe to a helpless people watching with eyes that danced with mischievous mockery.

All those who trumped, foisted and propped up Daddy Zahra would have by now realized the regrettably slow progress and also regretfully realized how difficult it is to get a true estimate of someone from what other people said; just swank, put together by the exclusive club of ‘politicians’ that endorsed him so as to make the people think a bit more of him. PMB sure must have a pleasant simplicity and a supposed integrity about him, simply, not enough CV to wield and wave.

It is all very distressing; I know, but we’ve just got to get the truth clear from the facts presented by PMB at the Channels TV interview, and not just the sheer visceral excitement of a motor-bike ride and the G-force elicited just as his coached responses to the interviewers intended. Let’s be candid not coy.

PMB should be wary of the legacies he’s leaving behind. Maybe, contrary to all one’s ordered expectations of life! Life’s like that! It does not permit us to arrange and order it as you will. It will not permit us to escape emotions, to live by intellect and by reason. One must face facts and awkward truths. Get it all clear. Like what are the nation’s leaders doing about what they are doing.

The looting, budget padding, misappropriation and reappropriation, kidnapping and insecurity. Were the youths protests and those other gestures of defiance and resentment against the nation that denied them the simple necessities of life – care and affection; or was it the nation that stood by and watched unabashedly with vicarious satisfaction and pleasure in a land of magic and damning indictment of values and tradition.

Nigeria is in crisis as its debt stock hits #25 trillion in seven years. Listen! When debts gets that high, high to that level the nation was in now, and with the present fundamentals and inviolate structure on ground, it simply means there is a crisis of immense magnitude, for which the new generation of Nigerians would pay through the nose. Take it, live it or leave it.

Let me make it clear that the problem is not in amassing debt(s) but in having tangible reason(s) to be in debt, because the future not the present matters. But with the present fundamentals, structure, dithering and clueless leadership, coupled with the extant devaluation of the currency coming in tow with no food security, reduced purchasing power, insecurity, poor health care delivery, poor housing, no power, no job, poor balance of trade, poor resilience and independence in the economy, the nation’s survival, growth and development for a sustainable future has become a crunchy matter. Managing the nation’s political economy with zero positives as it were, would be a daunting challenge in 2023. I don’t really envy the next president.

At the nation’s present challenging moments, the sound track swooshing in everyone’s head even before the interviews quoted above was bad. Highway to the Danger zone was the lyrics. Nigeria quakes, our skin turning crisp, on the security front, on the debts circus status, food shortages and astronomical rise in cost of living; and a PMB trying to beat a retreat with his calf supply muscles burning something fierce, as the nation’s boat sink – deeper into this mountain of dry quicksand with every aching steps. It’s like being on a stair climber to hell. Wish we could catch our breath and enjoy a moment of clarity. It appeared the only options left for PMB aside from amassing more debts, is to catch the edge, in the nation’s downward plunge down the hill or cartwheel toward the bottom. You see why 2023 must be a season of a new beginning if we must stop toying with the destiny of the nation and that of generations yet unborn.

One winced with pain at the state of the nation and a PMB that has allowed things to ride for too long. He has disappointed those of us that thought he had the steel and balls. He bungled things further by his hesitations and inability to pursue harsh remedies to the nation’s inverterate disease, like the physician to the patient, if he had done that, he might have prevented desperate diseases that would require major surgery, that had become life threatening or leave a major scar. In the meantime, as the tide rolls and tosses, he should as a matter of urgency:
i. rein in expenditure,
ii. rid every sector of the economy of leakages,
iii.declare a state of emergency on the power sector,
iv.not only interested in increased tariff (that should be expected in view of PMB’s administration’s wild borrowing mentality) but begin to grow Nigeria’s energy capacity which would ultimately boost power and generate employment, even at turnkey levels.

Even with the apparent savoir faire from Aso Rock after the Channels TV interview, the last few days have passed uneventfully to all appearances, yet there is palpable tension, insecurity, hunger and fear in the nation, as the nation wait amidst baited breath for some sense of relief to wipe away the fear and tension, all making PMB and his administration more vague than he need be. Here, just before nightfall, my thoughts stopped and revolved speculatively round the figures of PMB. There is something a little wrong about him. Could it be maladjusted – meal indifferently cooked indifferently served as he is allowing the grass grow under his feet in the ensuing tension and insecurity all over the place.

PMB at the Arise and Channels TV interviews seemed secured, remote at the heart of the whirlpool; so difficult, isn’t it? PMB like a number of our compatriots really find it difficult to be clear about anything. I mean, if you are looking at one thing, you can’t be looking at another. And one so often looks at the wrong things, though whether because one happens to do so or because you’re meant, it’s very hard to say. Misdirection the political conjurers – call it. So clever aren’t they?

Its becoming an uphill task for PMB to get the nation out of its misery. The questions on the magnitude of the nation’s debts and its impact on the nation were met by responses of how much of the nation’s arable land were left uncultivated and with barely a few months to the end of a two-term tenure, he has began to toy with the Idea of an agricultural revolution. Eloo n’kòkò, ara ọmọ́ le.

From PMB, the nation expected an affectionate act of homage and concern, but today, he has forced Nigerians to now see and feel as if they have found some unwanted prop on stage. I think the people don’t really need a cause for feeling what they do – feel. They are just made that way. Whodunit. Now, as 2023 beckons, the people desire a man of great insight, vision, pan-Nigerian in outlook, while expecting the nation would spring back to life and peace again after the present eerie dimness.

It has been a rather hot and exhausting day and an evening with no light. At time like this, enthusiasm in itself can be extremely wearing. Looking at my reflection in the dressing mirror in my study, I saw my lips pursed together and a flushed face. The nation is on a slight eminence, shaky ground, when you look on one side of a thing, you only see one side. I don’t wish to romanticise feelings. But the government have an unconscious vein of cruelty in a cruel world. I’ve seen boys – and girls – with everything against them, bad times, bad homes, bad luck, disadvantage in the Topsy-Turvy hell it has been hard to count on a normal world outside, and on PMB’s administration as they take a dim view of this psychology to achieve their end, and keep growing ridiculous, pompous and at bottom fundamentally unsure of itself. Silly and melodramatic? I supposed I am. Well! Most Nigerians are this days.

If you hear the unseeing throng push through the streets, you will know that patience with persistence failure of leaders and absence of leadership and or leaders that bemoaned themselves in a shaking motion like wayward children ruefully shaking their heads as they reflect on the hardship they have brought to bear on the nation’s fortunes is fast thinning out.

Defining progress is tricky in this era of PMB ( I’d almost forgotten what it looked to see him looking anything other than tortured), in spite of his attempts at road repairs and improved railway services, because there is a belief and philosophy in success to know what it takes to come through adversity for a government toying with a peoples collective destinies, emotions and minds like a kitten with a ball of wool.
Leaders need to be more proactive and circumspect and improve the quality service delivery or the present poor quality of leadership potentially distort the deepening of democracy, ebbing away like a car headlights disappearing over the crest of a hill on a foggy night.

What does the future hold for Nigerians. I know you’ll ask, what are the elders doing? Yes, the old knows how anything may happen – and how little anything really matters that happens in this world. In the nation’s journey to 2023 there shouldn’t be too much room for sentiments. It’s a huge responsibility and huge business and the pressure to succeed must come from all sides and angles.

The situations the nation have found itself, the atmosphere of high conspiracies, deceits and sloppiness that has defied logic, solely, because the present government either could not or would not make hard choices has to be surmounted. Because those situations had left the people
to rue and grapple with a lot of malaise that has highly impacted on social life, work and security. Quite extremely distressing circumstances you’ll say as the people are forced to endure losses of lives, dignities, job, health and self-esteem at its most severe.
All the political class can do is to do the best.

#JimiBickersteth

Jimi Bickersteth is a blogger and writer.
He can be reached on Twitter
@BickerstethJimi
@alabaemanuel
@akannibickerstet