Our leaders are quite a bunch of unserious people. You cannot be crying there is recession, but still continue to carry on with a lavish lifestyle as if there is a boom. One of the enduring troubles with one dear country is that there is too much talking with little or no action.
President Muhammadu Buhari should stop weeping about recession. Let Nigerians know that there is one through his actions, omissions and body language. Rightly so, a coalition of civil society organisations, under the aegis of Say No Campaign Nigeria, on Friday called on the president to sell off his fleet of presidential jets. It has cost taxpayers billions of Naira in only fifteen months of his presidency. What does a president of a poor African country need 10 planes for when the British Prime Minister does not even have one? It sickens! Yet they cry there is recession.
Let Buhari sack some ministers, cut the cost of feeding him, his family and guests. Let him travel less and get his party members who are principal officers in the National Assembly to trim down on their criminal waste. Yes, it is criminality, supported by law made by the legislators who benefit from it, for them to be aloof in obscene opulence when the people they claim they are representing are starving to death in the midst of plenty.
I also support the organisation’s call on the Federal Government to immediately constitute an independent panel of inquiry to undertake a comprehensive review and audit of constituency projects between 2004 and 2016.
Speaking with journalists ,Chairman of the coalition, Mr. Ezenwa Nwagwu, said that given the economic hardship in the country, the President should make some urgent adjustments.
He said, “We are greatly concerned about the unprecedented level of economic hardship bedevilling the nation which has resulted in hunger, deprivation, unemployment, rising cost of essential commodities, unmitigated corruption in public and private institutions, worsening security situation, flagrant abuse of democratic processes and the accompanying failure or refusal by government to effectively address these issues.
“The situation in Nigeria is grim and therefore requires urgent response. While we hold that Buhari’s administration deserves commendation for its social intervention initiative aimed at reducing unemployment, we maintain that a lot more needs to be done, and urgently too to avert the looming economic disaster.
“We demand practical solutions to ameliorating the economic hardship including sale of the presidential jets, which the President promised to do and 50 per cent slash in salaries of public officers. The government should make essential commodities available to vulnerable Nigerians at reduced prices and probe pet projects of First Ladies, which act as conduit.”
One of Buhari’s ministers, the minister of state for education, Prof. Anwukah, speaking at Imo State University within the week, blamed the “bloated” lifestyle of Nigerians for the recession. Very funny coming from a man who is part of a government that squanders over 80% of the budget on recurrent expenditure. I had expected him to tell his audience how superfluous and wasteful it is having a minister of state for education.
I was also amused by Buhari’s new slogan, “change starts with you” in his desperate attempt to shift the blame for the sorry state of the nation to Nigerians. Truth glitters and nobody has succeeded in suppressing the truth. The curse of Nigeria remains bad leadership. Nigeria, blessed with enormous resources and an intelligent and enterprising people, would have been the shinning nation on the west coast. But our leaders let us down. This is why we are where we are today.
I had expected Buhari to bring about a new Nigeria, unfortunately, it is still business as usual. So things can only get worse. This is the truth!
In a democracy, you cannot change things without laws. When Buhari was preaching change, what I understood was that he would work with the National Assembly to ram through legal and constitutional changes necessary to put the country on the right path – let dreamers talk about the path to greatness.
When your party is in control of both houses of legislature, a president should be able to push through some needed bills. So let Buhari stand up and for a start get the house to stop the security votes the state governors are allowed to toy with, with no accountability. Where else in the world does such happen?
No serious leader sings about recession. Drastic actions are always urgently needed to combat economic depression. Sadly, up till now, Buhari is yet to show to Nigerians that there is recession. He still has 10 planes at his disposal, public officials and civil servants continue to fly first class and sleep in suites in five-star hotels as they junket unnecessarily around the world.
cpcnews.org 