All Hope Lost?
I was having a conversation with friends’ a few nights ago and I suddenly realised that I may have been living in denial or false hope for a long time. Everyone who knows me knows I’m really passionate about Nigeria’s political situation and preservation of our history. I’ve always dreamt of having a career along the lines of human rights activism and fighting corruption. I’ve found myself constantly asking the question, “How do I begin?” but I’ve somehow managed to convince myself that where there’s a will, there’s a way. I’ve thus, always looked forth with optimism.
My friend’s and I started off talking about over-priced contracts being shared amongst people in public office then we went on to discuss the electricity situation, privatisation of every single sector in our economy and generally, what our future holds.
“Forget it! We’ll probably never have stable electricity in Nigeria. Owners of petrol stations and distributors of generator sets will never allow it” I’ve never fully understood how in a developing nation with a majority of the citizenry surviving on less than $1 a day, are able to pay PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria) bills when they barely have power and also buy fuel to run their generators. Note that Nigeria is an Oil producing Nation yet we have to import most of our fuel. Comparing the pump price of fuel in Nigeria to that of other oil-producing nations with similar economies to ours such as Algeria and Libya, we have fuel pretty expensive. I will discuss the fuel subsidy removal topic on a later date.
So I asked my friends, how exactly can the electricity situation in Nigeria be bettered? Of course, we need to get rid of all firms exploiting our under-development for profit purposes, but with all their ties to government, how is that going to be possible? Our older generation politicians refusing to retire are worsening our predicament. How can an 80 year old man be appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nigeria’s Ports Authority? Are there no vibrant young men in the country?
The plight of the common Nigerian man is not meagre. Imagine a married man with 4 children living in a one bedroom apartment, surviving on our minute minimum wage, N18000 (Roughly £72) a month. Note that this man has to pay rent, PHCN bills, children's school fees and every other cost that family life incurs. This man probably has a hard labour job, working very long hours to make ends meet. On the other end of the living scale, there's the National Assembly member who lives in a Mansion, rarely attends/ is vocal in the law making sittings but has a salary of about N2,000,000 a month (roughly £8000) and if you include all the frivolous allowances he gets, he earns about N150,000,000 quarterly (roughly £600,000). Nigeria, we hail thee.
The main aim of my article today is to implore us, the youth to be more aware of the plight of our fellow country-men. We need to use every medium we have to raise awareness and bring about the change we so desperately NEED. I've had conversations with people that want to go into politics, and some of them have joked, saying things like "Ah, I can't wait to enter into politics, and get my own share of the oil money" Joke or not, we must not repeat the mistakes of our past leaders. All Hope is not lost! We may not have the answers to all our questions now, we may not have the solutions to all our problems but a keen interest in the affairs of our country and dedication to the CHANGE course would provide us with solutions in due course.
Quoting from Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's V.I.P ( Vagabond's In Power) "I say, everybody get him power (Everywhere!) Everybody get him power (Everywhere!)" Our voices united, are powerful. The change we seek, we shall get!
Love,Onyi.
No comments:
Post a Comment