The Nigerian poverty, the Man-made Problem and the need to end it
By Richard Inoyo
- Poverty is dealing with the Nigerian poor at a scale that the Nigerian government is yet to understand or at the very least, does not care to appreciate nor comprehend.
- Within 30days, we have seen a government that clams that they don’t feel that life should be easy for the Nigerian people, in fact, like the Vice President once put it, “The first few months will be hard and tough for the Nigerian citizens”.
- Those words of his were backed up the very day the Tinubu-led government took over the dysfunctional mantle of disconnected leadership and declared the removal of fuel subsidy _ something that never existed in the first place but a pretext to hike the price of fuel to above N485, with some States like Akwa-Ibom, an oil producing State paying as high as N530 and N560 for a litre of Premium Motor Spirit.
- Today, most Nigerians can’t afford basic foodstuffs nor the gas or kerosene needed to cook them, courtesy of this man-made problem created by the political leaders and not by any devil.
- As if that isn’t enough, the coordinated deception to pretend that the recent unification policy of the dollar rate is the solution to our falling naira value is now biting hard as dollar hits over N802. As a fact, all ethical and functional economists know that, that was just a gallery approach, a window dressing and cosmetic misrepresentation of the solution to the problem, when we all know that the solution is to increase our capacity to produce and export what we eat and what the world needs respectively from us _ a prospect which the twin missensical policies of pushing energy cost high (fuel and energy tariffs) and falling naira value, automatically put at almost irreversible jeopardy.
- Today, some 233Million Nigerians are paying a very high Price for just being Nigerian, a jacked up cost of living that isn’t commensurate to their combined daily incomes__for those who had two.
- But as if that isn’t enough for a government that claims can no longer support the welfare of its citizens, recently proposed a 114% pay rise for politicians and political office holders who put us all in this difficult situation, where we now pay more for less fuel and less goods, and pay high for living, just to feed the opulent greed of the political and leadership class that are actively working to get us all to contribute to feeding their imposed high wages for themselves against meagre minimum wages for civil servants. Sad to say the least.
- That in itself isn’t what has left people like myself shocked, it is the silent acceptance of this destruction of the national and commercial economy, just to meet the irrational wants of the political leaders that has left me thinking if Nigerians ain’t under some sedative spell knowing that, without access to affordable energy, low tariffs, strong national currency and reduced inflation, our economy will be on a nosedive to a crash.
- From all of us at Citizens’ Solution Network, we just want to say that, the time to wake up is now to dismantle the huge rise in cost of living and jacked up public transport cost and the lack of access to food_ all manmade problems created by callous and irresponsible political leaders across political parties_ including the newly elected leaders who haven’t condemned this evil policy introduction and environment of hike in fuel price for Nigerians and pay rise for elected representative to bribe them into silence.
- Nigerians, please do all you can to rise and confront the government on all sides.
- And for a start, demand that your political representatives speak up against the latest hike in price of fuel, the energy tariffs and the needless inflation and the recent proposal to rise the salaries of elected officials by 114% in a country where minimum wage is still not above N30,000.
- And that said, all Nigerians and political parties should demand the reversal of all enacted and established toxic policy on item 11, knowing that, it is senseless to believe the argument of the government that was put forward that the best way to reduce fuel price is to increase it or the best way to strengthen the naira is to support policy that weakens the naira. The way to go is to decentralize oil refining and ask that state build their refineries and refine daily from oil quota send to them, while demanding hike reversal in the short term. Hence, civil societies should come together and unite to speak against all the toxic policies of government killing Nigerians and destroying the economy. And to do this, create a WhatsApp group and add all NGOs and mobilise for a national shutdown till the government back down.
Richard Inoyo,Country Director, Citizens’ Solution Network. For: National Population Council.
