The rain of corruption, inept leadership and political acrimony did not start to beat us in Nigeria today. In fact, it started long time ago when some people who knew next to nothing about how to grow the economy of a country embarked on IMF loan and an uncoordinated Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP without understanding the concept.
Our free fall from an Olympian height as a nation, destined for greatness, started with those who got Nigeria involved in the internecine civil wars in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, acting as big brother, committing over Ten billion dollars and wasted the lives of Nigerians soldiers. Today, some of our soldiers are permanently disabled.
What was Nigeria’s gain from ECOMOG? Nothing, except sorrow, tears and gnashing of teeth. And regret.
Those who embarked on endless transitions with huge amount of money committed and went ahead to annual the elections destroyed the economy and previous integration of Nigeria.
Those who could not refurbish our refineries for 22 years despite huge resources deployed and quickly invested 20% public money into a private Refinery are the enemies of this country.
Those who spent huge sum of money on power even when Nigeria is still in darkness are the enemies of Nigeria.
Those who failed to invest in strategic infrastructure during oil windfall in the 90’s and between 2007 and 2014 destroyed Nigeria.
Then the question: Who is even a leader? Is it one who fails to make deliberate efforts to stimulate domestic growth of the economy? Rather than build the economy along domestic consumption, from food to energy , machinery, petroleum etc, poor leadership have continued to destroy our economy.
How do we talk about the maritime potentials of the country when foreigners are the beneficiaries despite the Carbotage Law since 2003? CVFF (Carbotage Vessels Financing Fund ) has been politicized with ministers upon ministers sabotaging interventions . Almost 19 years after, no fund has been released to Ship owners.
Those who are responsible for unemployment are those criminal leaders that refused to promote domestic trade but encourage importation of toothpicks to Nigeria.
We can go on and on but now is the time for Nigeria and Nigerians to right all the wrongs of the past. The 2023 elections present a golden opportunity for the country to choose leaders who have all the qualities of Moses ( in the Bible) and liberate us from the jackboots of the so-called leaders without conscience and vision.
We, as a nation, have suffered pains and underdevelopment for so long. But we need not lick our wounds any more. Let us get our PVC ready and deny the cabal any opportunity to further compound our problems by our refusal to vote for them.
Any politicians whose fingers are dripping with oil of corruption or their character has been stained and dented must be shown the way out of Nigeria’s politics.
This is the only way out of our political and economic quagmire in Nigeria. So help us God!
. Otunba Sola Olatunji , Chairman of the Socio-cultural group, Ikale Heritage Development Association, writes from Lagos.
