Dr Uche Diala
From ‘Renewed Hope’ to ‘Nigerian First’ in under 2 years. What’s next?
Do not get me wrong. ‘Nigeria First’ is a good thing and we have always preached it – buy Nigeria, eat Nigeria, etc., but that is not the point here. This submission is looking at a bigger and more disturbing issue and trend.
You had a good policy on ground, crafted and gazetted by your predecessor and inherited from him. Need I add of the same political party?You did not rescind that policy.
You did not also push it forward, implement, build on or improve on it for the whole of almost two years, within which time, the nation literally went to the dogs.
Suddenly, you wake up and re-baptize literally the very same policy, almost copying the same verbiage. If conscientious Nigerians were not alert enough, many Nigerians would have thought that it was a brand new idea from the new smart alecs in town.
The irony and further deceit of it is that that policy via Executive Order 5 (2018) was there and you knew, yet you removed restrictions placed on the importation of certain items, including rice, which in turn made a mess of our giant strides in rice production and almost immediately threw the nation into a food insecurity situation, which we did not have even during the COVID-19 pandemic when the entire world and supply chains were shut down.
That Order 5 was equally there when you imported massive numbers of foreign branded vehicles for government officials at all levels, while ignoring domestically assembled brands.
That same policy was also there when you authorised massive importation of rice and other foods while neglecting our domestic farmers.
Who exactly are you deceiving? Yourself, Nigerians or God?
They abandoned that policy or pretended that it did not exist, much the same way they ignored agreements reached between the federal government via the NNPCL and Dangote Refinery in 2022 on right of first refusal in crude oil supply and sale of crude in Naira, just to frustrate the refinery and to favor their cronies while subjecting Nigerians to untold hardship.
What manner of wickedness is that? After the deliberate deed had been done, they turned around to dust up the very same long signed agreement, acting like it was a genius idea they just thought up and like they were doing Nigerians a favor. Precious time lost and needless hardship.
Do I talk about the novel Social Investment Programs (SIPs) introduced by the last administration that were helping underprivileged Nigerians get by and which helped to keep the polity stabilised, preventing the poorest of the poor from slipping through the poverty safety net into abject penury.
The Home-grown Free School Feeding Program, Conditional Cash Transfer, N-power, etc. Most or all of them were either suspended or stopped with flimsy excuses, only to reintroduce them after baptising some of them with ‘Renewed Hope’. Yet many of them are still not working.
What exactly was or is the actual reason for all these? In the midst of the ego trip, confusion, incompetence and deliberate mischief of trying to discredit the honest efforts of your predecessor, you threw millions of Nigerians under the bus while millions of nano, small and medium scale businesses have folded and are folding up and many Nigerians have died and are dying daily.
Yet, they strut around like peacocks, parroting balablu about how Nigeria has become an Eldorado which only them and their cronies can see in their dreams.
Tomorrow, they will do another funfair and jamboree of high flying grammar, and sloganeering laced with empty promises simply with an eye on the 2027 election.
If you doubt me, go and check the promises the President made in his nationwide broadcast on Monday, 31st July 2023 and see how many were fulfilled, including the 10,000 CNG powered buses.
Well, my task is to speak the glaring and hidden truths and try to point fellow Nigerians to the gimmicks, in a bid to help them equally realise that there is no road with these folks.
I am sorry that I am the one to say this, because I was one of those who helped to bring them to power. However, after trying to assist, when I realised, after nearly 2 years, that it turned out to be and remains a monumental and historic error, I honourably walked away. This is part of my restitution – to tell the truths with verified facts.
It is up to Nigerians in our majority to see what I have seen and indeed, what Barrister Daniel Bwala saw long ago and unequivocally declared that “even if you give it 30 years, it will not work”. Troll, tag, abuse and or threaten me. It does not matter. At least I am at peace with my conscience. Are you?