Where do I start from?
I was asked by a friend, a brother; “where is your bile?” Honestly, I feel numbed but the ultimate question is “where do I start from?”
Towards the end of last year I was really looking forward to a good start for the New Year. This I certainly do not usually do. I went hard on having fun at the New Year’s Eve, church and carnival alike, as hoped and was moving to jagger in the morning before the string snapped and the subsidy was thereof removed. It would have been a joke but the April children couldn’t be fooled; it’s January 1st for Christ’s sake! And I thought I’m a sad person but who announces such policy on a New Year’s day? A bomb on the first day of the year is a great way for the gods to tell us the future. NO? Soon the year started in a long sad drag; too sad for the songs of “God dey” to console Nigerians.
It is super amazing for me to see that people are even arguing if the policy was good or not. Before I can really sit to argue it with anyone, why don’t we go back to basics like the essence of government; governance especially in a democratic system and accurate figures in terms of the subsidy allocation? Simple questions like how many barrels we use per year? How did the subsidy money suddenly increase at an alarming rate? The ministers in charge wouldn’t answer any of these coherently and you still think we have something to debate? No I don’t think so.
I salute the desperation of the government to make this policy work and that begs loads of questions. A simple man like me would have thought the government is in place solely for the citizens. I would have thought the people have a say in how they are governed; something that reminded me of the word “referendum”. I might be wrong about that word though, let the dictionary judge me for starters. So I heard the government needs our trust as it’s partly trust issue that is causing the problem. They brought in a “palliative” and the soundtrack echoes an epic scene from nollywood where the gods heard the suffering of the people and decided to bring them rain. Oh our beloved government has come to quell our pain! How these buses are to achieve that eludes me and yes, how many days have gone by, I still haven’t seen the buses that taught all of us a new word. A president launching the supply of buses must be good quality nollywood movie; I wouldn’t know though (nollywood movies are mostly distasteful to me).
The minister of finance was speaking about the government creating around 350000 jobs! Oh really? It is a shame that I still don’t believe that after all the education of these people and the high positions they have occupied all these while, they cannot come up with another way of handling this economic issue. Again it makes one wonder what the situation is; after all, the minister herself said they are only trying to prevent the “Greece situation” as we are not broke and it would take five years for that situation to come on us. Hence, the rush right? The comparisons appal me at times; those countries provided for their people health care, electricity, good road, etc. Yes Greece got broke in the process but we are going to get broke through the government’s corruption.
Removing subsidy would stop the corrupt practices of the “Cabal” blah blah blah oh throwing away the buckets of water would stop the child’s restlessness. Such logic explains it all! Well it’s all said and done. Thankfully, more people are becoming aware of the corruption in government. The strike had taught us many things, one of which is that this is not a democratic government! Or how do you explain the presence of soldiers on the streets of Lagos? And if anyone was in doubt that Boko Haram goons were being sponsored, noticed no bombings during the strike? The shutdown of the economy got to them too; I leave the maths to you.
Strike is over (at least so it seems), bombings everywhere; irritating broadcasts in the air. The government has come to say 7 people died when more than 200 have been recorded. Even if it was 7, they are citizens of this country; they are human beings, part of the people who elected the government. Isn’t it the duty of the government to protect the citizens anymore? How did we degenerate this much?
I want to rant please tell me where do I start from?