Mr President, don’t let us down
By Rasheed Ojikutu
Tuesday, 11 Oct 2011

I was not born rich, and in my
youth, I never imagined that I
would be where I am today, In
my early days in school, I had
no shoes, no school bag… My
dear good people of Nigeria, I want all of you to know that I
am one of you and I will never
let you down. I want you to
know that I will keep hope
alive, ” With these emotion laden
words, President Goodluck
Jonathan declared his
candidacy for the Peoples
Democratic Party primary on
September 18, 2010. By April 2011, Nigerians from all walks
of life queued behind him at
the polling stations to give him
the mandate that he so
desperately needed
considering the exigencies of the moment. The rest, as they
say, is now history. Placed on the plinth of his own
words as shown above, one
would want to ask “Is Mr
President keeping hopes
alive?” Certainly NO. Is he
letting Nigerians down? He would, if he follows the
economic blueprint of his
Finance Minister, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, to remove
subsidy from petroleum
products and increase tariff on a number of essential items of
daily consumption which will
further worsen the already
precarious existence of the
masses. Okonjo-Iweala is no doubt an
economist of no mean
achievement and her position
at the World Bank is a
testimony to her expertise in
finance. However, the country, particularly, President
Jonathan should tarry a bit
before taking her economic
arithmetic hook, line and
sinker because textbook
economics most times come with idealism rather than
realism. This is coupled with
the fact that the minister who
had lived outside the shores of
Nigeria for so many years may
not be in tune with the actual situation on ground, hence, she
could innocently burn the
finger of the Jonathan’s
administration through some
inchoate policy initiatives. The intention of the Jonathan
administration to raise the
tariff on electricity and hike
fuel prices may tally with the
principles of Adam Smith, Karl
Marx or Milton Friedman. The model of economy being
introduced by Okonjo-Iweala
may not differ markedly from
the theories propounded by
Martín de Azpilcueta of the
School of Salamanca, but what are the empirical evidences
that these principles would
translate into the much desired
benefits, when replicated in
the lives of the masses of
Nigeria. For a people that are already overtaxed,
undernourished, overworked
and under-remunerated by the
economic misguidance and
misjudgment of yesteryears,
there could be no other inauspicious time than now to
introduce such livelihood
demeaning policies that would
further pauperise the poor
while further oiling the silky
skin of the rich. The history of fuel price
increase in Nigeria dates back
to the military era. Between
1978 and 1999 when the
civilian administration
assumed office, the price of petrol was increased from
15kobo per litre in 1978 to
60kobo in 1990, 70kobo in
1992, N3.25kobo in 1993,
N11.00 in the same year and
by 1998 it was N20. The civilian administration of
Olusegun Obasanjo took the
baton and completed the
insensitive marathonic
increase from N22.00 in 2002
to N26.00 in 2003. Today, the pump price of petrol is N65.00
per litre. Other products like
diesel and kerosene do not
differ in price treatment as
they are equally astronomical
and outside the purview of the common man. The Nigerian who is regularly
made to pay more at the gas
station has a couple of
questions to ask. Let it be clear
first and foremost that the
government in this case has no power beyond that bestowed
on it by the people of Nigeria
through the instrument of the
constitution. The government
as the custodian of our
national purse sells the product, collects the revenue
and disburses the money on
behalf of the people of Nigeria.
Therefore, it may not be out of
reason to demand explanation
on why, despite unparalleled price increase, public facilities
are still dysfunctional. The problem was certainly not
caused by Jonathan, but for a
man who made promises to
keep hope alive, the heart
palpates at the insensitivity of
his finance minister to the plight of Nigerians. Okonjo-
Iweala should know that we
have passed through this road
before and that her reasons for
wanting to increase the pump
price of fuel is not new. The same story justified the price
and tariff adjustments of
yesteryears but the fact is that
after every such price increase,
there are no compensating
effect on public facilities and the livelihood of Nigerians.
Rather, on each occasion, the
life of the common man
nosedived far below what it
was before the pump
adjustment. Thanks to leakages in the pocket of the
nation as a result of official
corruption. Today, most Nigerians pay the
Power Holding Company of
Nigeria for services not
rendered. After all, Nigerians
generate their own electricity
because there is hardly a home, no matter how poor,
where there is no generator
and yet, the same Nigerians
pay more for diesel and petrol
to fuel the engine. They pay
more for kerosene to light their lantern. Same for education as most
Nigerians today provide
education for their children by
sending them to private
schools and other institutions
outside the country because of the deplorable conditions of
government-owned schools. Today, most Nigerians either
purchase their water from
water vendors, or get them
from other improvised sources.
There is hardly a home in
Nigeria today where there is no well or borehole. This is
because most public taps are
dry. Yet, this is a country with
abundant water. Roads have become death trap.
In most cities, area boys repair
roads with broken bricks while
forcing motorists to part with
money. Nigerians now provide more
security for themselves
through private security outfits
than through the myriads of
official security forces in the
country. It stands to reason to argue
that if all these are happening
in the life of a man, then he
wouldn’t be expected to live
long. No wonder the life
expectancy of a Nigerian is just 46 years. Recently a friend forwarded a
text to me on my BlackBerry
phone. The content reads: “Between 1450s and 1850s,
over 400,000 Africans were
forcibly carried away as
slaves. Today, if a slave ship of
one million capacity berths at
Apapa port and calls for those who want to go voluntarily to
the US or UK on slavery, the
ship will not take one hour to
be filled” I forwarded this text to my
daughter on her Blackberry and
her reply was “That’s true
Dad>I don’t think it will take
one hour to fill up the ship and
there would be casualties because of rush”. There couldn’t be a better way
of describing the current state
of affairs in Nigeria than the
words of these two people. The question is “what exactly
is the essence of government
and governance if it fails
abysmally in the duties
enumerated above?” Whither
the hope! Now that a man who claims to know where the
shoe pinches, because of his
antecedent that was devoid of
riches and affluence, is in
charge, one would expect him
to understand the plight of the pauperised and famished
people of Nigeria and alleviate
their sufferings rather than
add to the problems. However,
with a finance minister who
professes to know it all while advocating additional heavy
burden on the common
Nigerian, there is no way
Jonathan will not let Nigerians
down. There is certainly no
way the door of opportunities that lifted the President from a
shoeless school boy to the first
citizen of Nigeria would be
open to the children of the
poor. Dr. Ojikutu, wrote in from
Faculty of Business
Administration, University of
Lagos, vide
ladiojikutu@yahoo.com http://www.punchng.com/
Articl.aspx?
theartic=Art20111011053170