We are in the season of write-ups on social media, many of which are laced with scary tales for that matter. And quite a good number of radio phone-in programmes bombarding our airwaves are centered on just one topical issue, the hardship in the country. Everywhere you go, you hear lamentation, condemnation and expression of anger. All of these are the reflections of the state of the nation, with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu being made the scapegoat. The buck stops at his table, and for that singular reason, the people are simply calling for his head.
In my entire life, I have never experienced any president or head of state in Nigeria that is being this much tongue lashed, lampooned and maligned within a short period of time in office for an offence he didn’t directly commit. You dare not attempt to defend him except you are prepared to receive embarrassing comments and attack from the Social Media Mob. It is that bad!
The most terrible of this attack is coming from those that are respectfully referred to as the fourth estate of the realm. The Press. I mean the professionals that hold the power of the pen, which they claim is mightier than the sword. They have been so critical of PBAT and his administration. From their end, the attacks have been so massive, unceasing and daring.
I remember Lasisi Olagunju in one of his recent articles titled, “Tinubu, matter don pass becareful” (Published in Nigeria Tribune on Monday, 12 February, 2024). The entire article did not accord any breathing space for PBAT. I read the epistle from a-z. No mention was made of the root cause of the current economic predicaments. No reference as to where we are coming from. Every single blame is heaped on PBAT. The theory of cause and effect was completely ignored in the piece. To people like us, it is unfair to be silent on the cause of an action, but only to be critical and aggressive on the effect.
The writer did agree that there is food in the market, but the food in the market is priced beyond the earnings of the people. And the only solution according to him is for Tinubu to shrink the price of foodstuffs using the magic wands. Just like that! I don’t know anywhere in the world where economic problems are solved overnight.
Several other prolific writers like Farooq Kperogi of Saturday Tribune, Abimbola Adelakun of the Punch, Festus Adedayo of the Sunday Tribune in the past couple of weeks have been pushing out scary stories of possible catastrophe befalling the country to the public if the trend is not immediately arrested. Yes, they are doing their job one would say, but the innuendoes being hulled at this administration are too much for a government that is less than one year in office.
However, there are few Nigerians that are worthy of being listened to. They know the problems inside out and and have not failed in lending out their voices to the public discourse. They have seen it all, and at no point in time are they bereft of ideas as to what must be done in order to save the situation.
The governor of Anambra State who had previously served as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Charles Soludo recently shared his own perspectives on this matter to the public. He was very frank as to where the problems emanated from while granting a no hold barred interview with Seun Akinbaloye of the Channels Television.
In a similar vein, another loud voice in Nigeria national discourse, an economic guru who was equally a former governor of the CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi openly identified the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari as the one to blame. He did not mince words in his analysis as to where we got it wrong. The fraudulent way and manner in which the past leadership of the CBN managed the economy was a key factor.
I equally listened to Mr Daniel Bwala, the spokesperson of the opposition Presidential candidate of PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar exonerating PBAT as the architect of the current economic woes. He did so from the standpoint of an opposition that would say it as seen without mixing politics with primordial allegiance or petty personal feud.
Reno Omokiri, the table shaker of our time has always insisted that people have not been fair to PBAT as far as this economic imbroglio is concerned. The ground for the hardship manifesting today according to him was prepared years back. May I enjoin Nigerians to keep listening to these realists and not the propagandists whose stock in trade is only to politicize serious economic problems.
Instead of giving pillars of support to the president to change the narratives by laying a strong economic foundation for the country, the cacophony of abuse, condemnation and sometimes curses have become the rage of the moment. They call people like us “mumu” for preaching patience and understanding so that things would eventually work better for all. Where we see hope, they see hopelessness. Where we see light, they see darkness. And where we see success, they see failure. Then, who is to blame?
They think it is the noise and name-calling that will change our plights. They pretend not to know that pulling down the country will definitely spare no one of discomfort. Problems are integral part of humanity. The hardship we are now facing is not peculiar to Nigeria. But in a situation like this, people of good conscience must proffer solutions to the challenges. “Ori bibe ko ni ogun ori fifo”
Anyway, the solutions are not exclusively in the hand of PBAT. As a people, we all have a role to play. While the issue of insecurity must be addressed frontally by the government as well as providing necessary infrastructure and conducive environment for businesses to thrive, saboteurs among our people should be identified and brought to book.
Fighting corruption to a standstill is a task that must be done without further delay. Hoarding of the naira, dollars, food items and our insatiable love for imported products and services must be discouraged. Finally, arbitrary pricing of commodities is not only unpatriotic but satanic. It must be nipped in the bud.
People are not writing to call for patience because they are insulated from the terrible events of the moment. Far from it. But it is imperative to make people to see reasons as to why we are where we are as at today. “To ba ti ja e je ka so, ko le ka mo”. And to even fix it back is a process that will take some time.
As I used to say, this phase will not end Nigeria. PBAT carries the grace and the gut to turn things around. But writing scary tales, passing innuendoes and insulting the president will not solve our economic problems. The solution lies in our hands!
B. Aderemi Ogundele
(Jagunmolu)
