Politicians are generally known for giving out their manifestoes, in which they state in clear terms some of the prospects the citizenry should expect if they are voted into power.

The case wasn’t entirely different with our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who in the pre-election period gave an eighty-page long manifesto, which contains ten key promises to be fulfilled when elected into office.

Summarily, in his manifesto, Tinubu promised to make of Nigeria a haven, where businesses will thrive; jobs, be supra-abundant; lifes and properties, be secured; basic amenities, be guaranteed; reverting from a consuming nation to a producing one and some other scintillating promises.

However, with current realities of palpable hardship and great economic setback, it is beginning to seem that those promises made before the election that brought our president into power were mere demagogry. All we experience daily is the direct opposite of the campaign promises that ‘lured’ many to vote the current dispensation into power!

Should we talk of the mass exodus of manufacturing companies of global standard or the ever-soaring prices of basic commodities needed for survival, especially as the Naira continues to wane in strength against the Dollar?

Amid all these abysmal realities, attempts are made to blur the citizens’ vision through unnecessary propaganda. The 40, 000 naira per bag of rice promised to be sold to civil servants is yet to materialize.

The 100,000 metric tonnes of grain ordered to be released sometime in February has passed unnoticed; the CNG buses promised to ease commuting are not yet plying visible on many of our Nigerian roads; the sales of crude to Dangote and other local refineries in Naira continue to experience postponement and many of us are made to live in a fool’s paradise. 

Recently, the Vice President, KashimShettima was quoted to have said that eight thousand naira can change the lives of a youth who knows what he is doing.

How feasible is this in an economy where a dollar is One thousand, Five hundred and Ninety naira? Or if Eight thousand naira is so significant and life-changing as the Vice President asserted, why should a whooping some of 21billion Naira be spent to complete his residence; why should a Nigerian Senator be parting away with millions of Naira monthly; why does the President have to spend billions of Naira in procuring a Presidential jet?

Nigeria is a nation with great potential and prospects. Nothing stops us from competing with those other so-called developed nations of the world if not for devastating tsunamis of corruption and injustice championed by our many greedy and clueless political leaders.

It is high time the President and his cabinet took responsibility for the many upheavals experienced in this nation under their watch. 8,000 Naira can indeed be life-changing, but not until the current dispensation makes good on their campaign promises to make Nigeria great again!