The craze for anything foreign over locally produced ones has become a reality we will have to live with. Elected political office holders, who are supposed to lead the way, are unfortunately the worst culprits. The basis upon which these rejections are made have less to do with the quality of the local products and more on the inordinate desire and preference for foreign goods over locally manufactured ones.
There is an urgent need today more than ever before for this trend to be reversed. It is rather sad and pathetic to think that at a time when the nation is going through an excruciating and debilitating economic experience the same politicians elected to represent the people are the very ones whose lifestyles make mockery of the same people who elected them into office.
Recently, it was reported or was it rumoured, that the Abia State House of Assembly members have rejected Innoson Motors as official vehicles from the Governor Alex Otti-led administration.
According to the report, Governor Otti is planning to buy the Innoson brand of vehicles for the 24 members of the House of Assembly.
Already Governor Otti has bought the INNOSON IVM G6T TURBO SUV for the members of the state executive council of Abia State, which was distributed to them immediately after their swearing-in as official vehicles.
It was gathered that the Labour Party, LP, Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, had made a request that Gov. Otti should patronise Innoson Motors if it is the only thing, he can do for him apart from fulfilling his campaign promises to the people of Abia State in terms of good governance.
According to sources, the Abia lawmakers argued that it would be out of place for the governor to equate them with his political aides, considering the fact that they contested in the same election along with him and actually helped in his election.
Some of these legislators who now see themselves as being too big to use Innoson vehicles only became what they are through the wind of change brought about by the Obi movement. That’s the irony that we face as a people. To these legislators, the abject poverty of the people around them does not mean anything to them. Or do they not know that patronising Innoson would mean creating jobs for Nigerians?
Sadly, the executive is not any different. This is where President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must take the lead and show the people that they are with them in these difficult times. It is not a time to make jest of the suffering masses as Senator Godswill Akpabio and his fellow senators did recently. Whatever their intentions, it was ill-advised. To say they feel for the masses and yet they still find it amusing the need for the government to provide some relief for the suffering people who are at the receiving end of an unbroken chain of failure in governance, is ironic.
It is unacceptable that in these trying times, our politicians would continue to allocate to themselves resources and benefits that do not reflect the reality of the day.
Desirable as the need to end the subsidy regime may be, President Tinubu ought to have put in place necessary buffers to ameliorate the debilitating effect this policy would have on the vulnerable in the society.
Ending petroleum subsidies and punishing the ordinary people while allowing the so-called clique behind this to go Scot-free is not the right thing to do.
Naturally, the effect of this has left several Nigerians going for days without food. It has turned several, otherwise average Nigerians, into beggars. Before now the cost of food items was very high, as a result of the activities of bandits and insurgents. Now, imagine the consequence of the increase in pump price of petrol and the effect on an economy that is road-driven.
That the federal government is now talking of palliatives for the people with Labour is better late than never. Labour must ensure that the people benefit from this. The so-called poorest of the poor beneficiaries of the last administration was a ruse. It was a barefaced scam. The scheme left the poor poorer and the political class richer.
Perhaps, it was on this same opaque record of the President Buhari regime that President Tinubu had relied upon to reach the so-called poorest of the poor with N8000. Buhari’s regime disbursed money and until this day those transactions are not open for public scrutiny.
During his recent broadcast last Monday (July 31), President Tinubu acknowledged the hardship the people are going through on account of the subsidy removal and the elimination of multiple currency exchange rate systems which he said had “became nothing but a highway of currency speculation.”
He said the subsidy had cost the nation trillions of Naira yearly, adding that such a “vast sum of money would have been better spent on public transportation, healthcare, schools, housing and even national security. Instead, it was being funnelled into the deep pockets and lavish bank accounts of a select group of individuals.”
Beyond rhetoric, President Tinubu knows that he was not sounding convincing and believable, not because what he said were wrong in themselves but because these are familiar lines and we have heard these words over and over again. It is not enough. We have not seen in concrete terms any deliberate commitment to matching actions with words.
For an economy that is road-driven, the direct impact and effect of these policies on the masses were instantaneous. The ripple effect was such that everything took an instant hit prompting the cost of goods and services to rise astronomically.
President Tinubu in the broadcast admitted that the economy is going through a rough patch and that people are being hurt. He said with the rise in cost of fuel, food and other prices have followed it.
“Households and businesses struggle. Things seem anxious and uncertain. I understand the hardship you face. I wish there were other ways. But there is not. If there were, I would have taken that route as I came here to help not hurt the people and nation that I love,” the president said.
However, what a lot of Nigerians cannot understand, is how a president who admits that the country is suffering from paucity of funds is in the same vein embarking on a spending spree.
What is the wisdom in throwing money at the legislators and judges in a manner that is at variance with his pronouncements? Why has he not cut down on the very expensive cost of governance? Why has he not so far shown the right example by reducing his ridiculous convoy? When will he begin to patronise locally manufactured vehicles? Is he prepared to cut down on medical tourism in government? Not doing these and more, is mocking the poor.
How can he claim there are no other routes other than to punish the masses yet he is giving billions as palliatives to judges and legislators?
The Senate and House of Representatives, plan to spend N40 billion on 465 bulletproof cars for members and principal officials, and N70 billion as ‘palliatives’ for new members.
It’s in line with this, that SERAP had called on the leadership of the National Assembly to repeal the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act, reduce the budget for the National Assembly by N110 billion, to reflect the current economic realities in the country.
The organisation implored them to request President Bola Tinubu to present a fresh supplementary appropriation bill and redirect the N110 billion to address the problem of over 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.
“It is a grave violation of the public trust and constitutional oath of office for members of the National Assembly to unjustifiably increase their own budget at a time when over 137 million poor Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, exacerbated by removal of fuel subsidy,” the human rights group said.
Living in opulence and calling for more sacrifices by the poor, who are already experiencing the excruciating pang of hunger, is tantamount to mocking them.
