Our Country’s Epidemic of Suffering By Sanusi Muhammad
Nigeria we hail thee! My country is a country placed on auto-piloting by those mistakenly voted to lead the country out of underdevelopment and artificially created hardship. The country has been so unfortunate in leadership. We always waste time voting our undertakers into power. We most times trust our leadership into the hands the most wretched on planet earth that venture immediately into illicit wealth accumulation on accessing power for change of class status. We are so carried by parochial sentiments to voting the wrong ones into leadership positions. We are dearly paying the price of our ‘foolishness’ today.
A visit to some federal constituencies sends shivers to the marrows as most inserted constituency projects in national budgets are diverted or monetized and the expected benefitting communities denied the benefit of the projects by their thieving and gluttonous representatives that can best be described as heartless, more deadly than the rampaging bandits. In place of the stolen constituency projects, the peasants are offered periodic stipends to keep their mouth shut. In some cases, those deprived out of ignorance, even shout praises of their thieving representatives for providing what rightly belongs to them. The situation calls for revolution to have the best!
As the economy of our country nosedives as a plane that has lost control and about to crash, unprecedented economic hardship and suffering has befallen our country. Sadly, at the receiving end of all that happens or does not happen to Nigeria is the average Nigerian. Life in Nigeria has become all is about survival of the fittest for the average Nigerian, who has to face the good, the bad and the ugly including challenges from bad governance.
It has become a tough job to be a Nigerian as life in Nigeria is strongly shaped by many challenges including poor representation by the lawmakers and their well positioned thieving cohorts that shamelessly display ill-gotten wealth during elections and occasions. Most of the wealth displayed by national lawmakers is sourced from dubious means as is well known.
There is an increase in inflation and unemployment. The national currency (Naira) keeps on falling like a weak kneed aged creature. There is power outage amidst teething fuel scarcity. Insecurity has become too rife and being harvested on hourly basis. Being a Nigerian has never been harder than it is at the moment. Little wonder Nigerians are seeking salvation in other countries.
If anything has changed in Nigeria since 2015 when Muhammadu Buhari was voted as president, with due respect to the person of the President and his party members (APC), it has been from bad to worse. It has been a change from better life to suffering spree for Nigerians with the exception of the thieves in power and their collaborators in the hard drugs business and money laundering. Nigerians have never had it this bad with the majority going to bed on empty stomach to the admiration of their tormentors on the corridor of power that are pauperizing the innocent: the security architecture of the country is in sorry state; health sector is in shambles; education is dwindling and the economy is sinking beneath us all.
The standard of living of most Nigerians, continue to drop daily while the cost of living is at an all high. The depreciation in the value of the naira has resulted in an alarming hike in prices of many consumer goods, pushing more people into abject poverty and starvation. As a result, most families can no longer afford a meal a day.
The health care sector is nothing to write home about. The frail health care system makes it difficult for people to receive the required medical care and it is no longer a secret that thieving Nigerian elites prefer to travel abroad for treatment rather than fix the ailing system. Accessing government hospitals implies facing long, winding queues and an upfront payment before receiving treatment. Though there are a number of private hospitals with fully equipped facilities, the cost is exorbitant for an average Nigerian that survives on legitimate source of income.
Insecurity has peaked at an all time high. Recent activities by money ritualists, kidnappers and bandits have made the country unsafe for everyone except sponsors of the crimes. Internet fraudsters, a.k.a Yahoo boys, are on the prowl, with their new trend being money rituals, subtly termed yahoo plus. More so, travelling on Nigerian roads has become a nightmare, as the rate of robbery, kidnapping and killing has geometrically increased. Even boarding government commercial vehicles at their designated terminus is no longer a guarantee of security, as hypnotism and diversion can take place, leading to sales of human beings or their parts by driver-kidnappers.
The reality of education in Nigeria, too, is less rosy. Due to underfunding and incessant strike actions by pressure groups, the state of many schools and the general quality of education are rather poor.
Sadly the brunt of this falls on the poor whereas the thieving elites and their collaborators send their children overseas to study, in a bid to make sure they receive quality education rather than address the challenges at home.
Indeed, nothing is permanent in Nigeria, except suffering, economic hardship and a state of hopelessness.
Under Buhari’s watch, Nigeria has been subjected to agonizing fuel scarcity, increase in security challenges, frightening food inflation and scarcity, hikes in the price of diesel, the free fall of the naira and power outages, and he seems unperturbed.
Funny enough, amidst these economic challenges, he advised Nigerians to venture into agriculture and to leverage the opportunity that it offers in order to find a lasting solution to the current economic crisis — an indication that his government lacks ideas on how to solve the problems brought upon the nation.
And shamelessly, the same APC that came to power through a well coordinated campaign strategy against the then ruling PDP, is deep in plans to retain power at the centre beyond 2023. Are Nigerians the fools we are rated to be? Can we be fooled again to vote cluelessness and ineptitude combined? Are we ready for massive burial from those undertakers that messed-up our country from 2015-2023? To have a firsthand glance of how poverty has taken its toll on hitherto happy and progressing people, pay a visit to Wase Federal Constituency in Plateau State to see things for yourself. People share stagnant ponds with animals for water. There is no functional health facility in the entire federal constituency despite the erroneous rating of an APC stronghold. In place of functional medical facilities in the only surviving cottage hospital, refurbished ambulances were provided to the hospital. Instead of a functional health facility in Kadarko, a town hall was provided for the impoverished people. Instead of a standard market in the headquarters of the federal constituency to boost economic activities for steady revenue generation, a Guest House was provided as the priority.
The zonal intervention programme of the federal government is cornered by selected APC goons while members of other parties are denied the benefit. Portable water is gold in the federal constituency as steady development is on hold. The federal constituency is littered with uncompleted projects suspected to have been paid.
Funny enough, as elections are fast approaching, a brand new trick of roads rehabilitation and construction has been introduced by the deceivers to deceive the unsuspecting electorates for cheap votes and return to business as usual. A request for the location of past constituency projects in the federal constituency, attracts insults and abuses from morally bankrupt children and children from the breadlines on recruitment for dirty jobs including the destruction of their ancestral homes.
When those in opposition throw challenges to the system, poorly fed attack dogs and children from the breadlines bark from the ghettos in defence of their masters while anticipating crumbs. The list of absurdities in that federal constituency is glaring, mind boggling and endless.
No single project worth N50million standing anywhere within the entire federal constituency other than those provided by the Jonah Jang PDP administration. The people are dying in droves due to malnutrition, squalor and disease. Poverty has become their bed partner while insecurity is chasing them away from their ancestral abodes. Yet, the people are told to maintain status quo ante.
What a wicked world! Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
