The Total Cost of Dis-Obi-dience -By Tony Osakpamwan Agbons

Any savvy entrepreneur would tell you that the success or failure of a venture lies in effectively managing the core parameters of its fixed and variable costs. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, total cost is the sum of all costs incurred by a firm in producing a certain level of output. It is typically expressed as the combination of all fixed costs, for example the costs of a building lease and of heavy machinery, which do not change with the quantity of output produced, and all variable costs for example the costs of labour and of raw materials, which do change with the level of output. Total costs are an essential value a company must track to ensure the business remains fiscally solvent and thrives over the long term.

To simplify things, permit me my dear readers, to draw a parallel from the above paragraph and posit that there is a company called Nigeria. The viability of the enterprise called Nigeria is on the verge of an implosion. As a going concern, it has been run underground by a lack of vision, purpose, and direction by successive governments. The level of impudence and impunity has however assumed alarming proportions in the last seven years. The current administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on the wave of popular mass support in 2015 by Nigerians across the North, South, as well as ethnic and religious divide. This was a government that promised so much but sadly has delivered little or nothing. Truth be said. The current All Progressives Congress, APC led government rode the crest to power on the tripod mantra of tackling insecurity, fixing the economy, and fighting corruption. Can any Nigerian hit the gong today in 2022, to declare that our country is better off than it was in 2015? You be the judge.

It is against this backdrop that majority of Nigerians see the 2023 Presidential elections as a make-or-mar moment. Unlike the past when apathy and gross indifference to the political process was the norm, events of the past few months have shown an `awokeness` by the people of the enterprise called Nigeria. From the North to the South, East and West, there is a dynamic rebirth of political consciousness which is being midwifed and parental rights also being taken by the mass of our people. The frontiers of our democratic evolution have taken a new dimension. Thanks to the emergence of Mr Peter Obi, a new spirit of Nigerianess has arisen and the foundation of our collective aspiration is witnessing a new alignment. The vast majority of Nigerians who have been `hard-done-by` by a small ruling political class are saying enough is enough.  The word on the street is `we are tired of been tired`.

As Managers of the rebirth process and destiny of project Nigeria, the people have risen up to demand that which truly belongs to them. For the first time in three decades, empirical evidence shows the mass of the people of Nigeria gravitating towards a New Nigeria where happiness in the land will not just be for a few political elites, jokers, lackeys, and hangers-on but for majority of the citizenry. The people of Nigeria are resolved to ensure that the status quo is discontinued. They are zealous that this new pregnancy of the people is birthed by the people for the people. The huge fixed and variable costs enterprise Nigeria would suffer post-2023 if the current arrangement is allowed to persist and we chose to be ‘dis-obi-dient’ to the call of the people led citizenry-midwifery team will be unimaginable because the critical sectors of Nigerian society are at a breaking limit already.

The first cost of dis-obi-dience is Security. No society can develop in an atmosphere of rancour. The primary objective of any government is the security of lives and property. Unfortunately, the problem of insecurity has become a hydra-headed monster in Nigeria. Kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, and money ritual killings have remained unabated. Things are falling apart. The safety of lives and property can no longer be guaranteed. The Police, Military and other security agencies are burdened and overstretched. States, local governments, and communities are engaging vigilante groups to secure the people. The Federal security apparatus and architecture are overwhelmed. The security problems bedevilling Nigeria cannot be fully resolved using brute force alone. The time-tested principle of `cause and effect` must be applied. If the underlying cause of criminalities in our country is not addressed from the root, all that is been done currently would be an effort in futility. The high rate of unemployment must be tackled as `the idle hands` they say, `is the devil’s tools`. The moronic stubbornness and reluctance of successive federal governments to the creation of State Police needs to give way. The government needs to quickly set the legislative motion in place to allow state governments to run their own police forces. Security is local. Only the people in a locality know those in the locality.

Another cost of dis-obi-dience that Nigeria will suffer post-2023 is Education. The damage to young lives and families occasioned by the poor handling of public tertiary education by the Federal government is palpable. The deliberate inaction and high-handedness by the present administration (even in a near election year) is a clear indication of disdain, and Machiavellian insensitivity to the future of our young people. The strangulation (by the Federal government) of the livelihoods of academic and non-academic staff of Nigerian Universities who are fighting for good education and standards in our country is a complete show of shame. Weaponizing the industrial action by holding on to their wages and salaries for several months under the guise of no-work-no-pay is inhuman. Truth is if all parents in Nigeria could afford sending their children and wards abroad or to private universities in Nigeria, they would gladly do so.

To rub salt on injury, Nigerian parents are inundated every summer on social media with photos of our political elites and their children graduating from Universities in Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, and other destinations around the world. It is with heavy hearts, that Nigerian students and their parents watch these fanfare graduation ceremonies by the ruling class and their children while our own educational system lies strangulated and nearing exsanguination at all levels.  All the successful countries in the world put Education as a priority. For those climes, education is the key to unlocking latent potential of citizens, bridging strata gaps, and achieving national greatness. To think that the current ruling party (APC) in their campaign in 2015 promised Nigerian Youths that four years would be four years to study in the University and student loans will be given to them is the highest depth of satanic deception. In a recent post on this subject matter, a member of my secondary school set WhatsApp group summed it up succinctly; “the root cause of this whole matter is the action of the vacuous set of lunatics, who rule this country with their conscience long amputated”.  Do your own calculus!

If Nigerians do not take the reasonable obi-dient option been offered to us, the next cost of dis-obi-dience that will be the `al continuum` post-2023 is the Power sector. Epileptic electricity supply is the major cause of poverty in Nigeria. No ifs, no buts. For a country with a population of over 200 million, it is disgraceful that successive governments have been unable to crack the electricity conundrum. In the current democratic dispensation, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP (16 years) and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC (7 years plus) have failed woefully in tackling the problem of electricity. The latter (APC) even campaigned vigorously in 2014/2015 that unstable and uninterrupted electricity supply will be tackled within six months. The APC has been in the saddle for 88 months and counting, yet the problem of electricity supply has gone from bad to worse. Our over-hyped Minister of Works, Power, and Housing and the Imperial Mallam Sheriff were the choral leaders of that campaign. The videos have been resurrected and are currently trending in the public domain of how these two led the choir, singing of the many ways this current government would become the anti-epileptic treatment for Nigeria’s chronic power seizures. The internet is unforgiving. Both the Minister and the Kaduna Governor owe Nigerians more than an apology. They should be hiding their faces in shame. Talk indeed is cheap!

Another cost of dis-obi-dience we are going to continue to suffer from if we don`t change the status quo in the 2023 election is the Economy. Fixing the economy was the final mantra of the tripod the APC used to cajole Nigerians in 2015. Fast forward to 2023, the APC probably thinks Nigerians are suffering from selective amnesia. Inflation, manufacturing costs, exchange rate, level of unemployment has skyrocketed. Life has become so unbearable for the average Nigerian and the question on the lips of keen observers and analysts is; are Nigerians better off now (2022) than they were in 2015? The cost of living is at an all-time high, and quality of life has deteriorated with no end in sight. People are disillusioned and with it, an animal-farm type survival of the fittest tangle amongst the populace. All the bleak scenario outlined have come with high levels of criminality, all sorts of vices and security challenges the nation is grappling with at the moment. This is not to justify crime and criminal tendencies, but certainly it is a major causative factor for the lack of value for human life our country is now grappling with.

For a political party that lambasted its predecessors in office, the PDP government (led by ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan), over fuel subsidy payments, it is ludicrous that under their watch the APC federal government (led by President Muhammadu Buhari) has fared worse. That this APC government promised to revitalise our moribund four refineries during their 2014/2015 campaigns and done nothing seven years after, smacks of deceit and taking Nigerians for a ride. We are still importing refined petroleum products. In 2021, petrol subsidy payments gulped 1.43 trillion naira and this year 2022, a whopping sum of  4 trillion naira was earmarked for same. The Nigerian economy is in shambles. Our currency keeps losing value with the dollar and pounds sterling spiralling. While other oil producing nations are raking in huge revenues from the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, our dear Nigeria is reeling and gnashing her teeth to the vagaries of oil thefts right under the noise of our security agencies. Some analysts pontificate that the ocean vessels sifting our oil are probably using magic! Kudos to the magicians. How else can one explain why the theft are not visible to Nigerian security forces, but same vessels were seen and apprehended by the security forces of Equatorial Guinea. Nigeria, we hail thee! What We Cannot Do Certainly Does Not Exist.

Another cost of dis-obi-dience we will suffer is Healthcare. Along with Education, Healthcare is a major index of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs and the more current Sustainable Development Goals SDGs of the United Nations. Nigerians will keep bearing the brunt of dis-obi-dience of this index post-2023 election if we don`t do the needful. Our Healthcare system can never be fixed so long as politicians, their families, other politically exposed individuals, and their lackeys are able to take the next available flight to healthcare facilities in the UK, Europe, Canada, USA, India, Dubai et al. Just like they do in Education, the Nigerian political class will junket to foreign shores for treatment when bitten by a tiny anopheles mosquito. They run abroad for medical checks after a slight headache or even a backache after a randy session with one of their numerous ‘side chicks’ or ‘side cocks’. President Buhari who was a stern critic of medical tourism prior to getting into office has unfortunately not been able to lead from the front on this issue. He has travelled on many occasions to the UK for medical care thus losing his moral authority on that count.

The final total cost of dis-obi-dience that Nigeria will face post-2023 is Restructuring. It is clear that an unrestructured Nigeria cannot work, will not work, and will never work. You cash out ipso facto on this. Pure currency! A truly federal, restructured Nigeria is the only ticket to our Eldorado. Under our current system, laziness and a handout sharing culture has been the norm. Innovation and creativity have been slaughtered. State Governors who shriek from their responsibilities and pass the buck of their ineffectiveness to the Federal government will have no hiding place in a restructured Nigeria. They will be exposed for who they really are – tin gods who do little or nothing for so much they receive from the Federation account.  Where on earth would Nigerians have run to if our choices for the 2023 Presidential election was limited to the geriatric duo of ‘the man from Adamawa’ or ‘the man awaiting his turn’? The Goodnews is that Mr Obi-dient, Peter Gregory Obi and his Deputy, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed are offering Nigerians a fresh platform for their aspirations to be met. Obi-Datti have also promised to provide a disciplined, prudent, stingy but compassionate governance and turn the country from a consumption to a production economy. They certainly will cut the colossal waste and leakages in our public expenditure system. The Obi-Datti combo will provide cerebral leadership that will trickle down to followership. Fellow Nigerians, we cannot afford another government by proxy, cabal or the old brigade that put us in the mess we are in. The total cost of ‘Dis-obi-dience’  for such enterprise will be catastrophic for Nigeria come 29^th May 2023. This is the time for ‘Obi-dience’. Let us vote wisely and take back our country.

Dr Agbons is founder of the Institute of Good Governance @www.twin2.org