By
Rahman Owokoniran
There is no doubt that the sitting President of this country is a CAPITALIST at heart, a hardcore one at that. Advocates of capitalism will see no wrong here. But what use is capitalism that doesn’t benefit the people?
He has further compounded the problems of Nigerian people with his policies and actions that have further impoverished them and their communities. His policies are aimed at making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Again the idea of investing in palliatives to give relief to segments of the population is not a good one. It will only be used to create more jobless people in this country. As of the time of writing, we are currently the fifth largest economy in Africa, a far cry from when we were the first back in the PDP days.
While capitalism is not an entirely bad thing, the question one must ask is: Is Nigeria ripe for the unmitigated species of capitalism given the challenges we as a country are facing from a largely heterogeneous population?
His policies have been strong on capitalism. He continues to reduce equity, social security and other benefits that are needed for a sustainable economy to thrive. The economic growth of this nation has been driven by increased savings from a combination of interest rates and interest payments in a single currency that has been linked to a rise in inflation. This has led to an increase in the value added to the dollar and the cost of goods and commodities such as energy, food, fuel etc.
The wrongs are not just about money, but also about how much it affects our economy and our ability to afford goods and services.
Let’s look at Mr. President’s fuel subsidy removal policies and how it impacts our economy. Imagine its impact on the economy. Imagine the effect of the spontaneous hike in the price of energy. Imagine the effect of the devaluation of the naira. Think of the tax reform package that this President intends to shove down our throats in his whether-you-like-it-or-not manner, even though we are still struggling to get over inflation and skyrocketing unemployment rates in this economy.
This is the most mercilessly inhuman change since the Great Depression. How else can we explain an increase of 300 percent in the price of fuel within a few months?
All the propaganda mechanisms deployed by this administration have failed to work in addressing the real issues facing us as a nation. Rather than focusing on the real problems facing us in this country, government officials are solving their problems by creating solutions that will benefit them. The fuel subsidy removal was created to benefit the government by raising money for the public sector and to reduce fuel consumption by increasing fuel prices. The government’s inability and lack of transparency and accountability to handle the situation at hand has led to a series of scandals involving the government, its officials and agencies.
There are opportunities for investigation into whether or not the government has violated its own rules and regulations amongst other things. That way the government can decide to normalize its system and develop an effective procedure that would allow for a reasonable expectation of compliance and accountability. No, this administration would rather continue with business as usual to continue patching up the mess instead of blocking obvious leakages.
This is another excuse for non-performing, dead-on-arrival suggestions from this administration. And it is unacceptable!
RAHMAN OWOKONIRAN WROTE FROM LAGOS
