By Alex Abutu
In the next 10 days, Nigerians will be going to the polls to elect a new President from a list of politicians who have been campaigning round the country.
In this column today, we are focusing on series of events unfolding in the country as the presidential election draws closer. One of such events was the recent announcement by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, that the Federal Government was about to increase salaries of civil servants. The last time government raised the salaries of civil servant was almost 20 years ago when a United States Dollar was about N87 and a 50kg of rice was N2,500.
Today the dollar is available at N745 and a bag of the same 50kg of rice is now sold for N50,000 but that is not the issue.
The current APC-led government ruled for almost eight years and did not deem it fit to raise wages and the question remains why now that they are almost gone, the minister went before a gathering of workers to announce government`s plans to raise the wages with effect from second quarter of 2024. Who is fooling who?
Less than three months to election, government in its wisdom implemented a currency redesign policy, same policy was implemented in Kenya, the East African heavy weight two years ago and it was seamless without any disruption to economic activities but ours ended up becoming a nightmare for the poor and less privileged.
While the government may not be entirely blamed for the horrific nature of how currency redesign has turned out, it is important to point out that we Nigerians are our worst enemies.
The bank managers who sold the new currency to politicians and business men are not foreigners, they are not Europeans but full blooded Nigerians who have sold their consciences and decided to inflict sufferings on poor Nigerians who saved or took their daily feeding money to the banks to get the new notes.
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Maybe because the bank managers are always in full air-conditioned offices, they may pretend not to be aware of the sufferings of the average Nigerian but can the same be said of the POS operator who lives with the people, attend the same prayer houses with them and buy food from the same mama put. They have overnight become celebrities who now take advantage of the poor and vulnerable by inflicting more pains on them. How on earth and what could possibly justify the charge of N3000 for collecting N10,000?
Election is 10 days away and citizens cannot drive into a petrol station and fill their tanks. Endless queues that have defiled all measures yet every day we get assurance from government that things will be well. Having endured all the hardship of staying on the queue all day, you then arrive at the dispensing pump, and you are told ATM cards are not acceptable for payment, you must bring cash. Haba!
It is very common for us to blame politicians or government officials when things go wrong. This group of Nigerians have studied the citizens so well that most of their actions are meant to inflict pains on vulnerable Nigerians who seat back and accept whatever society throws at them. Otherwise, how can the whole country remain calm for good eight months when ASUU was on strike with our ogas celebrating the graduation of their children in foreign universities?
How do we even talk about the continuous increase in telephone, data, and electricity tariff? What about the hike in transport fare and flight, food items, building materials, school fees and even fuel yet we have remained cool.
But how long can our cool resolve be taken for granted? Like people are saying, it can only be in Nigeria where dogs have suddenly started eating dogs. In some other climes, some of the political parties shouldn’t be campaigning.
Finally, I think we are coming to terms with the realities of our time. If contents of social media making the rounds are anything to pay attention to, then some people have started testing the wrath of angry Nigerians.
As we match towards the elections, the desire to elect a peoples’ president for Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. We are hopeful that for the first time in a long while, our PVC will help us in electing a Nigerian President by Nigerians and for Nigerians.
Remember with your PVC, you can change how that bank manager treated you and your colleagues. With your PVC you can over-ride that POS operator and tell him that we are a country of law and order must be obeyed and that people’s lives matter.
