By Engr. Adéṣẹ́gun Ọṣìbánjọ
I was in a conversation with one of my Troika partners in the Lord’s vineyard, Apostle Israel Amao, reviewing and analysing the ongoing nationwide Protests #EndBadGovernance the Trillion-dollar question, “What is the problem with Nigeria?” popped up for the umpteenth time.
I was too quick to respond by saying it’s a Leadership challenge. Apostle Amao disagreed and said it’s the fleecing of our Commonwealth and lodging them in foreign Banks where they will never be of benefit to Nigeria while the Country will be languishing in abject poverty and hardships while the stolen Commonwealth will continue to grow the Economies of those foreign Countries the more. See the folly of the actions of our Political elites
In search of qualified leaders
My Spirit man came alive immediately to ask me why I was not thinking straight to say what was already deposited inside of me. He further reminded me by asking me to answer the question of why we have never had the opportunity to have the Eminently Qualified (EQ) and Competent, Capable & Courageous (3Cs) Aspirants emerge as Presidential Candidates except the ones with the very heavy War chest since the commencement of the Fourth Nigerian Republic. I immediately remembered having shared this perspective widely in the past.
I am sure that if this Question is thrown at us, we would come up with so many different and divergent reasons like my Troika partner and I did, which is fine but you should not be surprised the question is already answered above.
Okay, you want me to hit the Nail on its head, right? Then let’s stay on the Roller coaster ride together.
Our political system
Now, to hit the Nail on the head, we need to answer yet another salient question, “Why have the EQ & 3Cs Aspirants not been able to emerge to run as Presidential candidates on the Platforms of the popular Political parties in Nigeria so far?”
If you drill deep down the latter narratives and the former question well enough, you will find the answer, “The Political Elites have institutionalised a political system that either filters and rejects them out or even kills them outrightly when running through this system”.
Simply put, Nigeria currently has a Systemic fundamental challenge that will keep:
1) Producing Bad Leadership forever
2) Sustaining a Militarised and Unitary constitution with enough Booby traps and Excuses for their return and never allowing the Restructuring of Nigeria to a true Federal Republic.
3) A National Assembly of Senators and Honourable members that will never allow and continue to block every attempt to change the current Status quo.
4) Bad, Wasteful, Reckless, Opulent and Extravagant Governance
5) Fleecing of our Commonwealth and lodging them in foreign Banks.
6) Nigerians will remain Pauperised and placed at the mercy of the Political elites for exploitation and manipulation forever.
We need to let it sink into our Heads that the Nigerian masses and Generations yet unborn are completely trapped by the Political Elites from all the Geopolitical zones of Nigeria and not specific Zones as we have been misled to believe all along!!!
The solution
This treatise will not analyse our challenges without proffering solutions.
The solution lies in the patriotic commitment to a perfect blend of both our National Anthems: “Arise oh Compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey. To serve our Fatherland with love and strength and faith so that the labours of our Heroes past shall never be in vain. And though Tribes and Tongues may differ, in Brotherhood we stand.”
This is the Spirit we all need at this point to march on and group ourselves into the People’s/Citizens Assembly devoid of Political party affiliations from the various Wards across the Country into the Local Government levels, the State levels, and the National level to free ourselves from this trap.
The Vision shall be “Take Nigeria back to Glory!” Our Mission shall be to “Group into the People’s/Citizens Assembly at all levels across Nigeria”. The Vision and Mission statements will be further cascaded in due time and season.
I must say this is a very long and tortuous journey that must be embarked upon if we do not want the option of the Breakup of the Nigerian Project.
Now, we are done with the analysis of the Systemic fundamental challenge that is not visible and relatively unknown to the vast majority of Nigerians. Let’s also analyse the challenges thrown up at Nigerians by the current Administration.
President Bola Ahmed Adekunle Akanbi Tinubu GCFR, Ọmọ Olódó Idẹ has demonstrated Valour never exhibited by any past President in history in his efforts at sincerely solving the challenges of Nigeria and growing the Economy.
But it has become highly imperative for this Administration to gain the confidence of the masses by stopping Profligacy: the colossal reckless extravagance or wastefulness in the use of resources on luxurious and Opulent frivolities to further secure the understanding of the Citizens on the need to endure and continue to make sacrifices for a short while to achieve a better Nigeria. The President can’t claim to inherit a depleted Treasury and be asking Citizens to be understanding and continue to make sacrifices if his Administration continues with this spending culture.
Palliatives should apply to the Elderly, Retirees & Pensioners only while the Youths and the active Population be empowered to create Jobs and Side hustles. Sending Truckloads of rice and money for distribution through Governors is also very wasteful because it will never trickle down anywhere to the masses besides the Mansions and Bank accounts of their cronies.
Not in one breathe
Secondly, you can’t fix Nigeria in one fell swoop. The interval between PMS subsidy removal and Electricity tariff stratification into Bands and Band rate increases is too short to allow the cushioning effect of one before the other. Both are intertwined.
After the Implementation of the Epoch-making Inauguration declaration, Fuel Subsidy is gone, the fightback from the Hawks/Cabals and the harsh reality that followed, and the Presidential assent to Electricity Bill 2023 making it become law, the President in empathy with the Nigerian masses insisted that subsidy must be paid on Electricity consumed nationwide, as revealed by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, at a Press briefing in Abuja.
The Minister explained further that the President issued a directive that the Country must achieve regular and incremental Power supply before considering any increase in Electricity tariffs. This reprieve was however short-lived with the stratification of Electricity tariffs into Bands A, B, C, D & E with their corresponding rate increases as announced by NERC. This however took the entire Country still struggling to come to grasp with the harsh reality of the Fuel subsidy removal by shock and surprise.
Two questions came to mind immediately:
• What changed within the short while to cause a reversal of the Presidential directive???
• What were the Facts presented to the President to convince and secure his approval?
It became more mind-boggling when the Honourable Minister of Power posted on his X – Social media timeline to tell the World that positive feedback was received on the Tariff increase but did not give details at a time when the entire Country is groaning under severe pain and hardship.
I have since suggested ways out of the Nigerian Energy crisis in the two-part series titled Roadmap to Achieving Self-Sufficiency in Nigeria’s Energy Sector: Part 1 – Electric Power – Published by Church Times Nigeria: https://churchtimesnigeria.net/roadmap-to-achieving-self-sufficiency-in-nigerias-energy-sector/ and Roadmap to Achieving Self-Sufficiency in Nigeria’s Energy Sector: Part 2 – Oil & Gas Energy – Published by Church Times https://churchtimesnigeria.net/roadmap-to-achieving-self-sufficiency-in-nigerias-energy-sector-2/amp/.
Both were since forwarded to the President and the Honourable Minister in the early months of the Administration but there was no acknowledgement or response received from both ends.
If the Administration had carefully done this analysis, there would not have been any Protests in the first place. The government has to tread cautiously and end Profligacy immediately because this is just the beginning. #EndProfligacyNow!!!
Let’s also not forget that we have two Augean stables that can make or mar any Government of the day in Nigeria. The first is the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has been cleansed and restructured and is already recording tremendous successes in its operations and activities, while the second is the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) which is yet to be cleansed, let alone restructured.
Nigerians still blame NNPCL wholly for the total collapse of the four Government Refineries, the humongous trillions of dollars sunk into the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the Refineries that never refined even one litre of Petroleum product over the period of collapse, scarcity of products, subsidy scams, the current skyrocketing Pump prices of products and the eventual removal of Subsidy.
The NNPCL shame
NNPCL has remained an Opaque organisation even after transiting from a Government Corporation to a Limited liability Company still wholly owned by Government. There is no transparency and visibility into its operations and activities. NNPCL has bluntly refused to release the Costing template and Commercial invoice for a Vessel load of PMS/AGO to gain visibility into how the Cost per litre Pump price is determined.
The same Management team of the old are still in charge of the new Organisation, save for the injection of a new Board Chairman. We do not even know the arm of NNPCL that manages Oil and neither do we know the one that manages Gas and yet we have the Minister of State for Oil and another for Gas separately.
This Administration may never get the Petroleum sector and Product pricing right if this second Augean stable called NNPCL is not cleansed, #CleanseNNPCLNow!!!
From the analysis of the challenges thrown at us by the current Administration, two salient Action points manifested as follows:
#EndProfligacyNow!!! and #CleanseNNPCLNow!!!
Protests, not solution
Now let me speak to my Compatriots. Given all of the foregoing analysis, I plead that we opt for dialogue and add #EndProfligacyNow and #CleanseNNPCLNow to the list of Agenda demands for the negotiation table, please.
Protests will neither take away nor offer solutions to the challenges enumerated above. If not carefully managed, it may turn to Anarchy at the expense of our Lives and Properties as is already being witnessed in some parts of Nigeria right now. Let’s all be very wise against the counsel of our adversaries and not be led to destroy what we have built since the start of this Fourth Nigerian Republic.
We only know the beginning of Protests but we don’t know how and where it will end up, whether in Anarchy, Civil war, Revolution or total Breakup of the Nigerian Nation into as many fragmented Countries as possible.
Let us sincerely, frankly, and bluntly have these conversations before we deeply plunge into the unknown consequences waiting for us as a Country, please.
God help and bless Nigeria!!!
Engr. Adéṣẹ́gun Olútáyọ Adéolú Ọṣìbánjọ
The Energy & Political Evangelist
2AO- Proudly Nigerian & African