The year 2023 has come and gone, heralding the year 2024. A retrospective look into 2023 showed a Nigerian nation with no joy but rather humongous suffering with gloomy look, extreme pain, hopelessness and mourning. Nigerians in 2023 made giant strides to survive despite a harsh and excruciating rough economy. The truth is, the Nigerian masses were pushed to the wall and extreme in 2023. The burden on the Nigerian people in 2023 was unimaginable and alarming.
With the coming of democracy several years ago, Nigerians had hope of a better country but sadly the reverse is the case. Our roads are a disaster and death trap, the education sector is in bad shape and dilemma, the health sector is more of a death centre, the civil service/public service is corruption personified. Corruption and Criminality has remained the bane to a prosperous and bright nation. Those in Government and positions of authority remain guilty of corruption and criminality and the Nigeria nation is suffering the consequences of give and take. Today security agencies collect bribes on our roads. These agencies include the father of road bribe corruption, the Police, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), the Army and even the vigilantes’ etc. The Country is in a mess. When you visit our Government Reservation Areas (GRA), you see many unoccupied gigantic edifices majorly owned by former and current public office holders’ all as a result of corruption, fraud and criminality. Contracts are awarded and inflated. Worst still, these contracts are never carried out or they are sub-standard.
Cost of living today is astronomically high, too expensive, unbearable and unsustainable. The Nigerian people gives so much, expects so much but gets little or nothing from the government and those in positions of authority across all sectors. Going round the country, you see poverty, hopelessness, suffering and anguish in the midst of plenty and vast national resources. The cost of living today in Nigeria is beyond human comprehension. I pity low grade civil servants, I pity jobless Nigerians. I pity pensioners with no support from their struggling children. When you see top government officials, top politicians, those in positions of authority and their lifestyle, it’s like we are in the country of El Dorado. They live flamboyantly in the best of houses, drive exotic cars and their children in schools beyond what their monthly earnings or loans can afford. Despite the poor living standard of Nigerians, there is no Governor with less than 700m naira monthly security vote. Sadly the insecurity around the citizen can never be overemphasized.
In the years past, so much was budgeted for, annually by Federal, State, Local Government and even corporate organizations but little gets to the Nigerian masses. Look around the states; you see the consequences of a corrupt and criminalized nation. No good roads, no good and quality schools, our hospitals are death centers, basic amenities are conspicuously absent. I pity the children in our rural communities. What goes around comes around. I foresee a future where the neglected become torn in the flesh of the elites who have stolen our common patrimony.
People are elevated or appointed into offices and they are only after what they can quickly grab because of the saying that no man knows tomorrow. They jettison morality and quality and get possessed by the evil spirit of hypocrisy, criminality and corruption. Truth has remained scarce in our nation while hypocrisy, corruption and criminality continue to bedevil all sectors in the country. The people pay taxes but still have to provide their own security, maintain their streets, communities and roads, train their kids in private schools, provide private health care for their kids, provide their own power supply (acquiring solar supply, generators and even buying transformers) etc. So much has been said about investment in power supply since the coming of democracy but still power supply remains epileptic and unavailable and it has badly grounded the Nigerian economy as many companies and enterprises have packed up due to inability to sustain expenses on diesel and fuel.
Life expectancy today in Nigeria is 52years in a nation that is supposed to be flowing with longevity and good health. Fake/substandard drugs and other consumable products abound all over Nigeria. Across the country, you hear and see fake water, fake malt, fake wine, fake juice, fake cream, unhealthy bread and foods etc. Virtually every product in the Nigerian market has its fake counterpart. What a disaster the future holds for the health of the Nigerian people. NAFDAC and Consumer Protection Council (CPC) have disappointed the nation. Food security and safety is zero in Nigeria. The current high rate of organ diseases rampaging Nigerians today is the consequence of past food insecurity and safety. A bleak future of sickness looms in the country if urgent measures are not put in place to rip the nook and crannies of Nigeria of all fake, counterfeit food and health products.
The lamentation currently in Nigeria is beyond human comprehension. Imagine a litre of fuel sells for #660 and still salaries remain as it was over 5years ago. No human feelings from those in government and positions of authority. Where are the palliatives or is it even palliatives that ought to be provided? Palliatives never really get to the people if it is available or at most it gets to less than 1% of the people as we only get to read such provisions on televisions, radios and newspapers. The Nigerian people are massively under pressure to survive but for how long shall we persevere and pretend that it will be well someday. There are families that depend on #30,000, #50,000, #70,000, #100,000, #150,000 monthly to survive despite the harsh and inhumane economic policies of government and those in positions of authority. Even the few Nigerians who earn between #300,000 and #500,000 are struggling to survive. Today the cost of transportation is high, the cost of market consumables is astronomically high, and the cost of education and healthcare is massive. Depression and poor mental state of the majority of Nigerians is alarming.
The universities continue to churn out millions of graduates and postgraduates but no job, no employment. Many of these graduates have tried private businesses but the poor and weak economy and harsh government policies coupled with non-availability of financial support has crippled such businesses. In most Nigerian states, there are hardly any private establishments that can pay a monthly salary of N80,000 let alone N100,000 or N150,000 and above. The entire Nigerian nation needs to be declared a State of Emergency. The wasteful, flamboyant expenditure and extravagant lifestyle of government officials and those in positions of authority in a nation bleeding of poverty, hunger, starvation and criminality need to urgently be stopped and those wasteful funds channeled into critical infrastructures..
Can the dry bones of Nigeria rise again? What future does the nation hold for the next generation of children? If the country is divided into four parts, is it possible that things will get better for the four divided parts? Today, the Nigeria nation is in a state of quagmire and in a sorry state with no peace and no security. Suffering and hunger abound everywhere. The naira today has no value. How long can the people persevere and be patient? The masses seem to have given up. When will our Messiah come? Hope seems to have forgotten the Nigerian masses. Fear of what tomorrow holds continues to send the masses to their early grave through high blood pressure, hypertension and sicknesses. In fact, life expectancy of Nigerians keeps coming down on a daily basis.
Good or bad, posterity shall one day pay us for what we used the position given to us to offer. Today, where are the Babangidas, the Abachas, the Obasanjos, the Jonathans, the Buharis, the Dariyes, the Kalus, the Ikpiazus, the Oshiomholes, the Iboris, the Igbinedions, the Obis, the Akpabios, the Okorochas, the El-rufais, the Akeredolus, the Alamieyelsias, the Odilis, the Fayemis, the Akalas, the Fayoses, the Gbenga Daniels, the Fasholas, the Yahaya Bellos etc. Where are those who served as Governors, Ministers, National and State Houses of Assembly members, council chairmen, commissioners, public servants etc. since 1979? Many are now in oblivion and never to be remembered. Only a few of them can be remembered and associated with good deeds. Only few can beat their chest and feel proud of their services to the Nigerian nation. Nothing lasts forever. Many of our past leaders milked the nation dry and only gave the Nigerian people the crumbs that fall from their tables. Many of them used the people’s resources to acquire private wealth and private investments all over the world. Time of reckoning awaits us all if not here, then in the life after.
Positions of authority are for quality service delivery and not personal aggrandizement. In the year 2024, the television/radio/newspaper and other social media platforms must continue to expose the ills in the society and the sufferings’ of the Nigerian people. The religious institutions especially the churches and mosques must choose to speak truth privately and publicly to all their gatherings and to those who are in government and positions of authority without fear or favor. Our religious and traditional institutions must in 2024 use their platforms to continuously remind the government and those in positions of authority of the bad state of the nation. Nigeria is currently not habitable to humans for living.
As we begin 2024, the Nigerian people must wake up and fight for their rights and future. The nightmare in the Nigerian nation in 2023 was at its crescendo. We don’t pray for anarchy. In 2024, we need friendly policies. In 2024 we need leaders who will spend less time in their place of comfort and palaces but will genuinely spend more time with the people in the streets, communities, markets, farms, schools, shops etc. proffering solutions’ and delivering dividends of democracy. We need leaders who will genuinely spend more time to hear directly from the people through media chats, symposiums, market gatherings, school gatherings, telephone chats/whatsApp. One commendable leader of 2023 was Engr. David Umahi, the Minister of Works, for his tour of roads across Nigeria to have a feel of the stress and struggles of the Nigerian people on our roads. In 2024, the Nigerian people expects implementation of salary increment, massive road rehabilitation and construction, improvement in electricity generation and supply, hospitals with doctors and nurses in the rural communities, genuine fight against corruption and criminality, reduction in fuel price, quality and better Education, boost in employment by private and public companies, genuine empowerment of the less privileged etc. In 2024, the Nigerian people appeal to the government and those in positions of authority to avoid all forms of wasteful expenditure but rather invest in critical infrastructures that are of short and long term benefits to the Nigerian people. The Nigerian people in 2024 demand for good leadership, quality services and accountability.
May God bless and favor Nigeria and Nigerians in 2024 and beyond.
*Usunomena, a Professor of Biochemistry, is the Lead Consultant, Freedom Educational Consultants Limited, Benin City, Edo State.
