Nobody likes change. It
is often cumbersome, difficult and involves a lot of hard work and untold
suffering and sacrifice. But if it’s for the best then it’s worthwhile.
At the moment the
country is changing – hopefully for the best. Unfortunately it can’t happen
overnight as many people would dearly love. There are no miraculous cures for
the country’s current
ills. Recovery will take time. It’ll be slow – not something that can be achieved in the twelve
months the present administration has been in office as there are a lot of
underlying problems to clear up.
As any doctor knows (-
or anybody for that matter!) if you have an ailment there is most definitely a
cure.
The bane of all our
problems, every conceivable problem in Nigeria, is corruption.
Corruption has robbed
this nation of much needed funds to run the country, finance capital projects
and pay workers on time.
There are those out
there who think mass demonstrations and protests will resort in a Nigeria
spring, something akin to the Arab spring uprisings of 2011. I don’t think this
will be a good idea as this would tantamount to pouring petrol on to an open
fire. If this government goes down what are you going to replace it with? Any
new government coming into power will still face the same problems the current
one is facing with the inability to provide an ‘overnight cure’ due to the lack
of operational resources – money!
Change is not an easy
thing and on most occasions it can happen as fast as people would like.
Instantaneous change is impossible!
Social media is awash
with those venting their anger suggesting things were better – and cheaper –
when corruption was abound. Really? But for how long?
When corruption was
rife under GEJ the price of crude oil was nearly $100 per barrel and there was
enough money coming into the country’s coffers to make the corruption unnoticeable.
What people don’t seem to realize is that had GEJ continued in office in 2015,
with the current price of oil at an all-time-low as it is now, the sufferings
and shortages, currently being experienced, would be the same. What is
happening now was an accident waiting to happen! If a country doesn’t save for
a rainy day there will be nothing to fall back onto when things aren’t working
out.
A further note to those
who think things were better under corruption: how do you feel knowing crooked
politicians made off with billions and billions of Naira of public funds that
were supposed to pay for things like salaries? You don’t because you still hold
these criminals in high esteem, treating them like celebrities. Aren’t there people out
there who can’t wait to fete James Ibori when he gets released from a UK
prison? And being the hypocrites we are we don’t think twice before lynching an
armed robber or kidnapper. So what kind of message is this sending out? It’s
good to be corrupt and bankrupt a country? If there was no corruption in preceding
administrations the country wouldn’t be on its knees now, but hardly surprising
when you have a certain ex-President who doesn’t believe corruption is a crime!
Corruption has to be
eradicated.
The truth is simple,
irregardless of who’s in power if there’s no money to spend there will be
problems.
Money needs to be found
to get things running again. Now there’s no point in the country earning money
if it’s all going to disappear again; that would be the equivalent of trying to
fill a basket with water. The leakages, which in our case is corruption, needs to
be blocked once and for all.
Only when these
leakages are closed up can the serious business of change start to take effect.
Rome wasn’t built in a
day and Nigeria’s problems can’t be solved overnight. For those who are impatient,
I’m sorry, but change takes time and we need to be patient.
The ‘suffer, suffer’ is
not going to go on for ever!
An article by Tony Ogunlowo
Opinion: The State of Affairs in Nigeria - by Tony Ogunlowo
Reviewed by getitrightnigerians
on
06:42:00
Rating:
People won't simply learn...please do the work and shun the constant complain and excuse
ReplyDeleteAnd we should not forget that sometimes a country suffers because of the kind of leaders in place
ReplyDeleteI concur with you Simon.
ReplyDeleteNot bad
ReplyDeleteHope the change is for the best.
ReplyDelete