Is it actually true that Nigerians are hungry? Is it true that prices of items are high? Is it true that the removal of fuel subsidy caused the hunger in the land? Are many Nigerians poor due to laziness or is it as a result of bad leadership? Does hunger know the tribe? 

Religion and ethnic bigotry have always been used by our rulers to cover their inadequacies. Ours is a rich land that is bequeathed to us by nature, enough rainfall, sunshine, rich soil, good weather and the like but our rulers who can best be described as “ruiners” have made a mess of the whole thing.

Nigeria is rich naturally going by the mineral resources that God endowed to her but our rulers made the country to be poor by design because those who ruined this country did it for a purpose. Their hold on to power is strengthened by the poverty of the people.  

An unsettled mind cannot query simple questions affecting him in the society. A poor man’s mind, a hungry man’s mind is focused on survival.

He is thinking of means of survival, he is thinking about what to eat, he is thinking about what to drink, he is thinking of various bills to be paid, school bills, electricity, transportation, house rent bills if he has a house, where to lay his head if he is walking the street, he is thinking about his security, and lastly his stomach.

A man who is dependent on the grace of his political master to eat is not likely to query the wisdom of his political master who tells him that his neighbours and his best friend are his enemies.  

So, it thus means that the Nigerian system deliberately weaponized poverty against its people. If you look at the distribution of palliatives to the people it gives you an idea of weaponization of poverty in Nigeria.

You will see that Nigerians fight for items or food items like animals. You see people scooping rice with sand and we are not at war yet but the people have been reduced drastically to the level of animals in a country where people are flying private jets all over the place.

You see young men and women reduced to beggars. It is the problem of the “ruiners” and not rulers because a ruler will see a destination even with his two eyes closed and he will lead rightly; leading the people in the direction of his vision.

But “ruiners” have no vision. Most of the concepts they are planning for the people are already outdated. What is the vision governing anyone in Nigeria? None!!! “Ruiners” develop and build concepts that are only fit for the 60s in 2020s. What a vision.

A “ruiner” is clueless!!! Rulers and leaders will consider what is good for the future and generations yet unborn will enjoy and make use of. 

Ninety-nine percent of Nigerian politicians do not get into politics because they have something to offer the people but to butter their bread; for their own selfish interest.

The unfortunate situation in Nigeria today is that in politics people come to power in order to enrich themselves, not to develop the country. This is our problem. The excessive personalization of the commonwealth of the country by a few individuals has made Nigeria emerge as the country with the highest number of poor people.

It is regretable that nothing can be bought outside this country that is made in Nigeria because crude happened to be the only commodity exported by the country. 

Nigeria needs a functional democracy to keep people accountable; more people need to show leadership commitment in the country. Why can’t our business leaders use their power and influence to effect the implementation of a growth and development template, these are central to changing the narrative.

The policy blueprints are highly faulted, which is really bad but we should not subscribe to the notion that the economic managers do not know what to do. When people consistently make bad choices, they know exactly what they are doing.

The best time to have fixed the macroeconomic instability currently facing the country was, at best, six or seven years ago. With Nigeria currently trapped in the crossfire of cooling inflation, stabilizing the foreign exchange rate market and sustaining growth, there are no easy choices but to regret that the country threw a party during the boom only to begin to panic when the economy nosedived. This situation is becoming very unbearable. 

There is no country in the world like Nigeria (a major producer of oil) where the citizens are groaning in pain over an insensitive increase in the prices of fuel. We knew how much we bought fuel before now.

Nigeria’s economic potential is constrained by many structural issues, including inadequate infrastructure, tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, obstacles to investment, lack of confidence in currency valuation, and limited foreign exchange capacity.

The country is endowed with abundant natural resources ranging from solid minerals (crude oil, gold, tin, iron ore, lead, zinc, limestone, salt etc) to arable land with varieties of agricultural produce such as palm oil, cocoa, groundnut, beans, melon, corns, rice, among others. 

The resultant effect of all these is that inflationary trend soars, investors pull out their fund from the market because our economy depends majorly on crude oil earning.

The resultant effect is that there will be economic hardship; people will suffer to pay their bills or meet up with their daily obligations, sack of workers among economic agents, high unemployment rate, and hike in the prices of basic amenities like food items, housing and shelter.

Prices of food items will continue to soar in an increasing order leaving the cost of living too high for an average Nigerian. Most States of the Federation today have been declared insolvent or bankrupt because they can’t even meet up with their obligations to the masses in the areas of welfare and security.

Our national reserve has continued to fall over the period. With all these anomalies, today the state of the economy has declined to a level where everybody is hugely affected. There are serious problems, hardships and sufferings in the country as a result of the economic kwashiorkor. 

Corruption has eaten deep into the nation’s fabric. Presently, so many corrupt practices by some of our leaders in various capacities have been making waves over the air. Corruption has gone to the extent that even a cleaner in the office who is not lettered understands the language.

This is very disturbing; it creates a piteous situation for the nation. Honestly, it is worrisome. These combined together to keep us in the position we are today. It is puzzling to note that at this stage of the nation’s life, the country is still battling to fix electricity, unemployment, infrastructure, healthcare, education and even youth empowerment.

Independence is expected to free us from all forms of slavery and dictatorship but what we are witnessing is modern day slavery. Who, where, when will this mess be cleaned up?

God Bless Nigeria!!!