THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA BY DR AUSTIN ORETTE
Is President Bola Tinubu the cause of Nigeria’s problem? Some time ago, I wrote that I did not endorse Tinubu because he will reduce the misery index of Nigeria. I did not endorse him because he will stop corruption and other ills that plague the Nation. I did not endorse him because he is a saint. The only reason I supported him was that of all the candidates, he was the only one with the sagacity to push Nigeria from the status quo of mediocrity.
So far so good, I am not disappointed. He is doing so well. He has ruffled the feathers of the imposters who assumed that Nigeria belongs to them.
The Tax Bill is our ticket to restructuring. I have always believed that the federation cannot progress unless those who believe in unitarism are excommunicated from the bus of progress. They will call Tinubu many names, but he will go down as the author of New Nigeria. We will all be equal in this federation.
I want to live in a country where there is fiscal justice. I want to be certain that the tax that comes from my boozing is not used to sponsor hajj for those who will destroy the establishment of those who sell beer. There is the case of the oil. I am from the Niger Delta. We need 60 percent of the oil and no Sheik from outside the region should tell us what to do. We don’t tell them how to pray. Why are the ports in Niger Delta not operational? We had Koko Port, Warri Port and Burutu Port. We were a country.
My people are tired of applying for a visa to clear goods in Lagos. We are tired of staying in a place that has so much federal money thrown at it but cannot manage to come up with sensible urban and housing policy.
A visit there is a journey of chaos. What are the senators doing? Can they work harder and give the Niger Delta the Dangote Deal? Dangote is in Nigeria with his own refinery and ports. What is next for him? With the way things are going, he might end up with his own currency. Who says monopoly doesn’t pay?
Nasir El-Rufai has been popping up lately, threatening the president with electoral misfortune. Can you imagine the effrontery? He became a governor with Amajiri votes and he did nothing for them. These people think they own Nigeria. Where was he when Buhari filled every position with his and his wife’s relatives?
Restructuring means you spend and manage what you produce. It is the law of the farm. You reap what you sow and don’t raise your livestock in another man’s garden without any compensation. There is Mr. Peter Obi who thinks the road to the presidency is through educating the Almajiris. If it didn’t work for Goodluck Jonathan, why do you think it will work for him? El-Rufai is no fool. He has the Amajiri votes locked up. The solution is to ship the Almajiris to my village. We have highly motivated mothers who will adopt them and turn them into lawyers, engineers, doctors and respectable members of our society. The amajiris are orphans with living parents who don’t care. We can care for them in my village. With 60 % derivation, the sky is our limit. After they come of age and have become very educated, we will send them to the North to recolonize the North.
We need home grown colonizers in the North. They will bring progress faster to the North than the Fulani who are in a race to return to the 7th century.
Now they will accuse me of asking them to turn their hearts away from the gods of Saudi Arabia to the gods of my village. Who knows, some of them might become educated Imams and not hypocrites who hide Ogogoro in their prayer kettle and underage girls, under their agbada. They will not be hypocrites. This will bridge the gap in the distribution of graduates during NYSC.
Peter Obi should address this. Why should states that have so many Almajiris and no graduates have more NYSC graduates serving than states that are producing graduates? We must correct this Dangote equation. Obi should learn from Tinubu. You don’t placate bullies. We are on the way to a new Nigeria, the end of serfdom. The cacophony all over the place is beginning to be louder than Biafra. The halls of academia have just been opened in Southern Zaria and El-Rufai is apoplectic. He cannot even comprehend that Nigeria can grow beyond one school of aviation. He is inviting Nnamdi Kanu to Dinner and wants to review Nnamdi’s notes. These are interesting times to be alive in my dear country, Nigeria.
We will end up with a federal government that does not baby sit any region. We must have a government that does not rob Peter to pay Paul. No region should become bloated and lazy with excess fat. Those who are addicted to that feeding bottle should be weaned. That is true federalism and equality. Are the Fulani and Biafrans against this? They are five and six. Don’t let their recriminations fool you. They have one agenda. They are one and the same side of a bad coin.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
