Yes! This government needs help. It is high time President Tinubu cried out for help, not for loans. A loan will not solve our problem. Already, the country is overwhelmingly indebted. We should shed that toga of giantism and face reality. The status of “Giant of Africa,” which Nigeria claimed, is now historical. Note that I said “claimed,” not “claims.” It will be wrong for Nigeria to claim to be the giant of Africa at the moment, except if the claim is about its size and population. But if it is about clout, influence, power, and prestige, I think it is a historical claim. We can reclaim our status, though, with some commitments.
Lamenting the state of anomie that Nigeria best typifies in my column last week, I asked, Is it not shaming, shameful, shameless, and shameworthy that a country at war feels the moral obligation to send grains to dying Nigerians?I made reference to Ukraine. I thanked the country for the nice gesture. Now I will answer the question. It is not shameful. Nigeria, under President Tinubu, should not pretend to have any prestige.
As it is now, no one, no body, and no organization should protest against the Tinubu government. I doubt it has anything to offer. Any peaceful protest, if at all, should be geared towards calling the attention of the outside world to our predicament. I am not even referring to the Western world. Let’s call on the Niger Republic, Chad, Cameroon, Ghana, Togo, and other nearby countries to come to our aid. Help from Somalia and South Sudan will be highly appreciated.
Our condition has deteriorated beyond imagination. It may truly be shameful that a once “giant of Africa is being advised to seek help from the countries mentioned above. If being shameless in this manner is what will assuage our pain, quench our thirst, and fight this menace called hunger, please let’s be shameless in the meantime.
People are dying of hunger. Many are committing suicide. Going to the hospital is unthinkable for many due to the prohibitive price of drugs and hospital charges. Mild ailments send people to their graves. Kidnappers are wielding influence more than ever. They have no regard whatsoever for the government. It is as if the latter does not exist or exists for them (kidnappers) to flourish.
It seems kidnappers are done with Nigerians. They seem to have become so powerful that ransoms are not to be paid by victims’ families anymore. It has to be paid by the government. Or how should we interpret kidnappers asking for trillions of naira as ransom for their prey? They definitely do not expect this money to be sourced through crowdfunding. They expect the government to pay. Yet they are not demanding what the government can pay. Instead, they are indirectly asking the government to hand over the state to them.
Or what sense could anyone make from kidnappers allegedly demanding N40 trillion, 11 Hilux vans, and 150 bikes as ransom? This is more than Nigeria’s annual budget (padded or unpadded), which it does not even have money to fund. These kidnappers may start to demand private jets and armor tanks as ransom if care is not taken.We should ordinarily dismiss these kidnappers and their requests as ridiculous. That is, if this government proves it is governing. The government itself is topsy-turvy. If the bickering is not about how billions or trillions of naira were spent (or will be spent) in the executive arm of government, it will be in the legislative arm.
The most recent one is budget padding in the legislative arm of government by N3 trillion. Who knows if these kidnappers are jealous of our lawmakers? Perhaps they reason, “If lawmakers who could not hold their legislative activities due to power outages can pad budgets by trillions of naira, why can’t they (kidnappers) who live in the bush demand trillions of naira as ransom?” From the manner in which the budget was presented by the executive to the legislature and how the latter passed it, keen observers would know that there is something fishy about it. Though Sen. Abdul Ningi was said to have gotten his figures wrong, observers are watching.
What is disturbing is that this allegation is from a high-ranking member of the National Assembly who cannot be accused of naivety. If Ningi is not the oldest serving lawmaker, no serving lawmaker is older than him (in service year) in the National Assembly. He has been there since 1999. Anyway, he was suspended for “lying.” I expected Ningi to be questioned. Rather, he was suspended like a nonentity for saying the unsayable. It is time to speak. As Ningi rightly emphasized, “Let’s speak. Have they ever asked me, since the beginning of this so-called crisis, where are your findings? Where are the documents? I am not using my head to come up with figures. Nobody has asked me about evidence.”
President Tinubu needs help. He should cry out. If he gets his budget wrong, and if the budget’s mathematics is anything but mathematical, no one will take his government seriously—even his admirers. Ningi went further: “I have opened this can of worm. Neither they nor I will be able to control it.” Until Ningi is proven wrong through factual and empirical evidence that his padding allegation is false, it behoves all Nigerians, in my humble opinion, to queue behind him.
One continues to wonder what these “elected” rulers think about the masses. What do they think about the country? Do they think they have any escape route when they set the country on fire with their actions and inactions? Can’t they, for once, pretend to feel the pains of the masses?
Dear President Tinubu, I advise you to cry out for help once again. Though you claimed during your inauguration speech that you can do it and no one should pity you,. It is very glaring that you need pity even if you do not deserve it. What was handed over to you is a wreckage, not a country. But because your party—under which you served as national leader—pulverized the country into its present state, we thought you could rebuild the country from its wreckage. We thought you had the secret. To be honest, things are getting out of hand.
Dear President Tinubu, the Muslims are fasting in the most difficult situation. Don’t forget your ticket bears Muslim-Muslim. I thought you would use the Muslim-Muslimness to cry out to Qatar when you visited the country where Muslims under Your Excellency need food to eat during fasting.You should have seized that opportunity (to kill many birds with one stone) to reach out to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries for dabino (date) and grains. I believe they will help you if you paint the true picture of Nigeria under your stewardship.
But when you say you are looking for investors, they will think you have put the necessary things in place. They will think the kidnappers’ wings have been clipped. They will think the power outage has become history. They will think farmers, who are the major source of the needed raw materials, now go to farms unthreatened. They will think our road network has been upgraded (motorable). Didn’t they ask you why so many companies are winding up in Nigeria?
Dear President Tinubu, this is not the time to look for investors; there is nothing on the ground to woo them. It is time to beg for food. Nigerians are dying of hunger. The Muslims fast—they lack what to eat—and break their fast with what is available but not necessarily desirable. As if this hunger has affected our thinking, the non-Muslims were even told not to exercise their democratic right to eat in public—even when many of them have little or nothing to eat—because Muslims are fasting!
I wish my Muslim brothers and sisters a happy Ramadan. I urge them to pray for President Tinubu’s success—if they still have the strength to play despite this grinding hunger.He is the pilot, assisted by his crew. We are the hungry passengers. Any missteps on his part might cause a crash landing, and this landing might be more catastrophic than the general hunger. May Allah guide our rulers.
Ebin pa wa o!
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
