This issue about recession….

Over the past 18months of this government’s existence, I have been severally amused at the disposition of Nigerians to a lot of things; the fight against corruption; the ethnic and religious issues we have; our complete lack of understanding of the concept of action and reaction; the selfish nature of the average Nigerian; and more importantly, our unwillingness to turn the searchlight on ourselves to look at our moral core, and to do the surgeries that are necessary for any sick life to be healthy again.

Talking about sick lives, that Nigeria is sick is no longer news. What is news or perhaps still unknown or unbelieved by most of us is the gravity of our illness. Recently, some PDP chieftains started this clamour, and most Nigerians echoed it, that Buhari should return us to where he met us in May 29, 2015. The argument is that at least, money was still flowing back then and people were still able to continue in that same lifestyle that made us a nation of graft and waste.

Yes, money was flowing pre-2015, but have we really asked ourselves how the money flowed and what money flowed? Have we considered for a while, what monies were being spent and how they were being spent? It is like a man who was sacked at work, and who, upon getting home declared a party, took the family to dinner, then out on vacation, changed cars, changed houses, and continued to spend copious amounts of money. Yes, as far as people around them could see, money was still flowing, but it was essentially the last meal of the family before they laid down to die. The way money was being spent in the past administration and the administrations before that was a recipe for disaster. The whole thing became a frenzy in the months running off to the general elections. The abuse of official process, the scramble to outspend the other party became something that had never been seen before in the history of elections in this country.

So we all knew that after the elections, If the erstwhile ruling party had won, it would have continued to be business as usual, and somehow, we may have survived for a few months before a total collapse. I say collapse because the problems that befell us after May 29 would still have come. Oil prices, leading to a harsh Forex regime, an economy that was slowly but surely grinding to a halt, and so on. Essentially, had the pre- May 29, 2015 actors continued ruling, ultimately the bottom would have fallen off.

We have been in this recession track for longer than the life of this administration. The PDP government were just, forgive my language’ cooking the books. Note that this is my personal opinion, but I think that we were already heading for real trouble until the APC came.

Now the APC government has mostly not lived up to expectations in my opinion. There is a site called Buharimeter.ng that kept a list of all the campaign promises made by the President, and a sector by sector, quarter after quarter report on how they are faring, and the truth is, we have not gotten what was promised. The administration is a long way off fulfilling most of the promises that were made. I agree that some of these are still work in progress and in some, we have seen movement in the right directions, but this process is a lot slower than the patience of Nigerians can take. Now amongst the general populace, frustration is mounting, and temperature is reaching boiling point. The government has to get its acts together, and begin to douse the fire that is being stoked all over.

Now I have almost missed my chain of thoughts. So money is not flowing as it used to. For a lot of Nigerians, this is a most difficult time of our existence, and millions of people, including yours truly, have had a rough tumble in the last few months. However, I think that this situation is actually a silver lining in the cloud. Personally, I think most of us live an ostentatious lifestyle; a lifestyle that we can ill afford, and definitely not on our take-home salary. Having said that, a lot of people can live the way they currently are living, but 90% of us are not able to. We can ill afford the two or three vacation trips in a year; we can ill afford 3 cars; expensive boarding schools for the children; a university education abroad, etc. If we are honest with ourselves, we are servicing expenditure that we should not be servicing. Like the government, we are spending too much on recurrent and unnecessary expenditure rather than on things that can help us prosper.

I think that the first thing we must do is to review our lifestyles and priorities. If we can truly begin to live within our means, then maybe we will not be so hard up and desperate for additional income that we are searing our consciences to make. The only thing that I don’t see an alternative to is life itself, but living life has to have alternatives; the kid’s current schools have alternatives; your current high rent house has an alternative; even the cars; etc. etc. There is an alternative to everything. So if our current means does not allow us to live the way we want to, then we can either legally expand our means or begin to live within our current means.

We are all waiting for government to do something about this and end the recession, but while they do what they can do, we have to do what we must do. Starting the change from ourselves is the right thing to do. It may have taken the government 18months to come to the point of realising that they cannot do it alone with the people, but they are right. Most of us silently culpable of not wanting Nigeria to get back on its feet if only we can be okay, so we willingly circumvent efforts at making lasting changes; changes that will take us to a place where we all should want to be.

So perhaps, if we let the country work; as in if we agree to jointly fix it, without primordial sentiments; without thinking about our religious affiliation, ethnicity, political interests or whatever else it is that works in denying the country of our patriotism, this country can actually quickly start making progress. I agree that the government does not do everything right all the time, but I think instead of drawing the sword at all times, we should be objective instead. Take the recent arrest of some judges; right or wrong has no place from the perspective of the possibility that there may have been a crime committed somewhere by these judges. The manner of arrest may be wrong or right, but I think it’s all about perspectives and which side of the fence you are on. Rather than fight over whether the manner of arrest is justified or not, I think what we should be concerned about is ensuring that they have the right to defend themselves in a court of law and if they are guilty, so be it. If they are not, let them after being acquitted seek redress for defamation of character, embarrassment and whatever else the law book says they can.

We can go over other scenarios in terms of how the war against corruption is being fought, and it is important that we all fight high handedness from government, but let’s not forget the real issue; if a crime was committed, then the people involved should face the law, regardless of whose father, uncle, family member, kindred, pastor, bishop, imam, Igwe, Obi, Oba or Emir they may be. That way, someday soon, we will be able to have a country again, and that is what is most important.