OPINION
Nigeria is naturally endowed with everything we need to succeed as a nation without solely dependent on other countries but we are bereft of God fearing leaders who care less about the well being of the people they govern.
Our leaders; president, Governors down to local Government chairmen have failed Nigerians, the civic roles of government to it’s citizens have long ago been abdicated, the masses are left alone like lepers to seek cure for themselves. Nigeria Government know the right things to do but choose to be passive, they left programmes that would better the lots of the masses and prioritized the less important. As Yoruba will say” WON FI ETE SILE MA PA LAPALAPA KIRI”
Are our government not aware of hunger, hardship, insecurity, unemployment, dearth infrastructures, absence of functional industrialization, poor health facilities, poor electricity, poor salaries, and host of other maladies? What efforts and policies have they put in place since they assumed office to address these aged long problems? Instead, they spent huge resources on programmes and policies that will only benefit the few rich , thereby neglecting the masses. Most of their basic responsibilities have been privatized
Suddenly, our president woke up to sharing of patry palliatives; rice, maize and fertilizers through state governors and local government chairmen that could hardly reach 25 percent of Nigerians.Yesterday, the federal government hurriedly announced sale of 50kg of rice for #40,000 just for the nation wide protest not to hold. When will our leaders stop deceiving Nigerians?
The only language Nigeria leaders understand is nation wide protest, The Federal government in the last one week has been working tirelessly to halt the protest ; The president, Governors , National/ state Assemblies had engaged notable traditional rulers, stakeholders including religious leaders, top military and paramilitary officers to prevail on the youths not to embark on the planned protest that will commence on ist August.
Also the government has quickly rolled out some measures to put the protest on hold but I doubt if that will work. Nigerians need workable plans, not rhetorics any more!
Nigerians do not need tokenism; they need good governance, adequate security of lives and properties, stable economy, standard infrastructures, refineries , moderate price of petroleum, stable naira to dollar, and all indices of good standard of living.
It’s hoped that the planned protest if allowed to hold will make Nigeria leaders address the multifaceted challenges bedeviling Nigerians. The security agencies are urged to provide adequate security for the youths and they should display high level of professionalism during the protest. May God touch the inner hearts of our leaders to know that one day they will give account of their actions.