The fire is kindled one more time and the combat is revived. They are back to their familiar terrain – the battlefield. That is where they are comfortably and perfectly at home.
As war-tested Generals, they never at any time left the trenches. It was one feigned and uneasy retreat. Obviously that is over.
And effortlessly, former President Olusegun Obasanjo resumed hostilities with President Muhammadu Buhari. He went straight for his jugular. He never missed it before, neither did he miss it now. The subsequent dirty exchanges between the two camps were a big relief from these our unlimited woes. We enjoy every bit of the mess whent it lasts.
But before Obasanjo dropped the bombshell, we have these goons, fatheads and apologists. They really deserve pity and knocks of equal measure. They are like a swarm of destructive locusts over us.
They are making life miserable for no just cause. What exactly did we do wrong to merit such treatment? They want to choke us to death with their warped argument. We are convinced they do not mean well for us. Yet, they want to force their will down our chocked throat.
They are stubbornly over whelming, occupying every space. This time around not physical presence as they did in January 2012. But they have taken over the media: traditional, conventional and social.
These negative pundits are not even clever by half. They strive hard to change the narratives. Why? Because they are at the receiving end now. They are resolute to make mess of our genuine grievances and grudges.
This is certainly our season of unlimited but avoidable woes. We are not finding it funny. It is not pleasant either. But these sycophants and do-gooders would not agree with us. They are looking the other way; because they are in extreme comfort. They are sharing our aspirations the other way round.
That is not in our best interest. In a spate of just one week, see what we went through in the hands of those we elected to lessen our plight. They are whipping us with the biblical scorpion.
In the speed of light, we have come face-to-face with: Three hundred per cent increase in electricity tariff, hike in petrol pump price; reduced interest on savings in banks to 1.25 per cent from 3.75 per cent; inflation on the rise and unemployment continues to grow like maize.
We are not done yet. Naira sinks daily against dollar. Our external debts reached an all time high at $27 billion. Worse still, our Excess Crude Account (ECA) plunged to a meagre $72 million.
These All Progressives Congress (APC) governors are particularly laughable. When we cried out, they said we were mischievous. We wondered aloud, how? They responded that those are the albatrosses we must live or die with. We either live it or take it.
Are these characters actually our genuine leaders? Their absurdity is unheard of. They are arrogant and short sighted in their morbid and crude responses to our plight.
We are amazed and amused the way they stuck to their deadly gun. With finality they declared, no going back. They cared less whose ox is gored or brutally bruised. We are scared to the marrows.
The message is not lost on us. We could correctly read their loud mouths and ugly handwriting on the cracked wall. The implication of their attitude is frightening. That more increases are in the pipeline for us on fuel, electricity bills et al.
To demonstrate the hard stuff they are made of, they did the unthinkable. They went far out of their rough way to tell us they meant (un)serious business.
It is their usual and familiar trademark; blame game all the way. And this is their unskilled tactics. It merely exposes their tactlessness. With anguish and despair, they are recklessly sourcing for “facts and figures” outside the country.
A bunch of desperado! Done with the data in Nigeria, they sent their foot soldiers to other lands. It is all in their desperation to justify their wickedness and heartlessness. See what they unleashed on hapless Nigerians:
“The average pump price of petrol in the United States of America (USA) is $2.23 per gallon, which translates to ₦282 per litre at $1 = ₦480; Saudi Arabia, $0.480 per litre or ₦230 per litre and Germany, $1.492 per litre or ₦716 per litre.” Source: globalpetrolprices.com.
They are absolutely right. But they never told the whole story; particularly the bitter truth. That is where they the missed the point. They misfired abinitio. They were malicious in their crude postulations. A sampler:
The impressive indexes in those countries are at variance with Nigeria’s. They are the exact opposite of ours. No sane being would dare a comparison. It won’t make sense. The system works perfectly well in those countries.
Those flaunting these figures are glaringly dishonest. They are even unfair to themselves. These are the same weird characters that “Occupied Nigeria” some years back.
For one week and five days, they vehemently protested fuel price hike by former president Goodluck Jonathan. That was January 2 – 14, 2012. They never saw all these international oil prices then. Now they could see, certainly not beyond their huge noses.
Why are they putting these forward when it is their turn to take the heat? Why didn’t they bring those facts, data, figures and statistics to the public sphere in January 2012?
These rabble-rousers need to think outside the box. This is more than a straightjacket analysis. They ought to think deeper before displaying ostentatiously their jaundiced dissection. Sure, they are pathologically lazy.
Let them go on rampaging, raving and ravaging. They should be bold enough to tell us: How many of these countries are their citizens digging wells, boreholes and running their private water corporations in their homes and offices?
How many of them are their citizens buying transformers, bribing government to install them? Better still, how many of these countries are practically run on generators like Nigeria?
Where in those countries are citizens building their own roads and even paying government before they are allowed? We honestly ask: How many of these countries are experiencing total systemic failure like ours? To bring back OBJ, how many of those countries are failed states?
We can go on and on. It’s limitless! These are what we, real Nigerians, encounter on daily basis. Yet, government and its agents feel practically unconcerned. They still have the uncanny audacity to take us through this rough ride.
They would come through the back door to unloose terror on us, churning out terrible policies. They are carelessly taking us for granted.
Five years down the drain, it’s still this blame-game. The same old story! This out-dated sing-song should be put behind us for good. That is the very reason you came. Yes, to right the perceived wrong.
So? We want to sing a new song. You have been long enough in office. You have done more than five years with less than three years to go. You are long on words. They should walk their talk. It’s embarrassing that they are still giving the same complain and excuse; and for five years. Quite ridiculous!
There was once order in this country. That was before all our refineries were deliberately collapsed and grounded. This was tactically and technically done over time. And it spread through decades of rot, chaos and crises.
We still remember and cherish those good old days of yore; when “there was a country:” apologies to that late literary giant, Prof Chinua Achebe. Fuel price was a mere 5kobo per litre in 1978. That was under the military junta of Obasanjo.
The late former President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari pushed it to 20 kobo amidst protest in 1982. Since then, it has been climbing astronomically. All along, it has been the same excuse; subsidy removal. That is our old cross that refuses to go away.
See where it fatally lands us today. We won’t be surprised if this same government wakes up tomorrow. And without given a damn, as it is usual with it, jerks up pump price again. We are certain the same subsidy will be the scapegoat.
God forbid bad dream! The reason these eerie breed, bizarre species among us deserve all the knocks. For making our avoidable and unlimited woes possible.