“There are only two families in the world, my grandmother used to say, the haves and the have-nots” – Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 87 – available online.

Once upon a time, there were three classes in Nigeria – the Upper Class, the Middle Class and the Lower Class. Only God knows how it happened. Under colonial rule, even those in the Lower Class still managed to eat three times a day. Extremely few Nigerians starved; and, even most of them were taken care of by the well-entrenched extended family network – until Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello decided that the wicked Britons must go.

Nigerians must rule themselves. If our so-called Founding Fathers could rise from their graves today, and tell the truth, they must admit that they committed a blunder. They rescued us from people chastising us with whips and handed us to Nigerians chastising us with king cobras. Never in the history of Nigeria has such a preponderant percentage of the citizenry been made so destitute and bereft of hope for tomorrow – not to talk of next week, next month, or next year. We are now in the vice grip of five councils – all literally choking us to death in their own way. Whether they enjoy the sadism is difficult to say; but, there is obviously no eagerness to stop killing us softly with their activities. Permit me to list them one by one.

COUNCIL OF STATE

“In every community, there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably, the most dangerous people seek power” – Saul Bellow, 1915-2015, VBQ p 124. 

The NATION newspaper, on the day after the last Council of State meeting, published a picture on its front page. President Bola Tinubu was in the middle; flanked on the left and right by former Presidents Jonathan and Buhari. The paper, published by Tinubu, was too happy to inform the entire world that the Council of State passed a vote of confidence on Tinubu. A picture is always worth more than a thousand words – as advertising practitioners know too well.

Without realising it, if anybody were to be asked to point to how Nigeria found itself in this perilous situation, The NATION provided the shortest and most accurate answer. Nigeria’s last three Presidents, ably supported by Obasanjo and their appointees into various offices, led us into this economic and political quagmire from which escape is almost impossible without dire consequences. Permit me to start with shocking economic facts which even their most ardent supporters cannot refute in any language known to sane people anywhere.

When Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Minister of Finance, persuaded Jonathan that the Nigerian economy needed to be rebased, the two of them had more than economics on their minds. The 2015 Presidential Election was uppermost. To suddenly announce that the national Gross Domestic Product, GDP, had grown from USS270 billion to USS510 billion would certainly help win the election – never mind that Fellow Nigerians experienced no improvement in their welfare. As an added dividend from the meaningless exercise, Nigeria was pronounced the biggest economy in Africa – a claim which visits to South Africa and Egypt could easily reveal as fake news. 

For ten years, Nigeria had paraded itself in the borrowed robes of biggest economy in Africa. Irrespective of how long, every lie has an expiry date. Today, the estimated GDP for the top African countries are as follows:

*    South Africa      373.23

  *    Egypt                  347.59

 *    Algeria                266.78

 *    Nigeria                252.74

Three obvious facts stare Nigerians in the face. One, the nation’s GDP today is only 49.6 per cent of what it was in 2014 or approximately half. Two, our dear country is no longer the biggest economy in Africa; it is now number four. Three, Jonathan, Buhari and Tinubu brought us down to this level.

Two hidden facts which could not be deduced from the figures above are the following. First, in 2014, the population was about 65 per cent of what we have now. Second, with the disastrous decline in GDP, per capita income has gone steadily down; such that, today, poverty in Nigeria has exceeded anything experienced in our history. Third, none of the three leaders can claim to be poorer today than in 2014. Not even self-righteous Buhari. But, we are.

Right now, the three of them control the Council of State – a council of the overfed – who don’t really give a damn whether the rest of us starve to death or not. Deep in their hearts, they know that the palliative measures have failed; that they only opened another opportunity for party members and state officials. In order to protect themselves, the game of mutual back scratching has to be played in the open.

Who among them, as well as other members of the Council, actually believes that we will end this year in better condition than we started it?  “It requires wisdom to understand wisdom…” (Walter Lippmann, 1889-1974, VBQ p 275). How can two failures, as Presidents, know what good governance is? And, if Tinubu is basking in the endorsements by those losers, then we are in deeper trouble than we realise. Vote of confidence my foot.

COUNCIL OF ‘LEGISLATHIEF’ HOUSES

“My monthly salary is less than N1 million. After deductions, the figure comes down to a little over N600, 000. Given the increase in the Senate, each senator gets N21 million every month as running cost” – Senator Kawu Sumaila, NNDP, Kano South.

It is difficult to understand if an inadvertent slip of tongue was responsible for the distinguished senator’s disclosure while speaking on the BBC Hausa Service; but, it has shocked Nigerians normally docile to the marrows. Sunday, August 18, 2024 was unusual in the print media. Virtually every major newspaper had a report or columnist writing about the outrageous amount. One newspaper sympathetic to government had three entries – each adding additional information to what Kawu told us; and all leading to the same conclusion.

Nobody knows exactly how much federal legislators actually take from the national purse each month. But, it is far in excess of what the Revenue Mobilisation and Allocation Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, would lead us to believe. Indeed, if the entire take home pay of senators were to be N600, 000, few Nigerians would contest for the position. Those going there, irrespective of how rich before, still know that there is a pot of gold into which they can dip their fingers without questions asked.

However, those carpeting the federal lawmakers have ignored the same game being played in all the 36 states’ Houses of Assemblies; where a conspiracy of silence reigns. Instead of playing the constitutional roles assigned to them, the Speakers serve as arrowheads to negotiate with the Governors: “Pay us well and there will be no checks and balances”. Just as Ministers “bow and go” during screening in Abuja, Commissioners undergo the same ritual in the states. Thereafter, ‘executhief’ and ‘legislathief’ lawlessness prevails. Invariably, the Auditor General is drawn into the stratagem. His role is simple: “See no evil, write no evil and say no evil about the two branches of government.” To make sure that there is no leakage, the Auditors’ Reports are never read by anybody.

The Auditor General of the Federation’s Report from 2017 to 2021 already provided sufficient information to alert the National Assembly, NASS, to the fact that Buhari’s government was colluding with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to loot trillions from the bank under Ways and Means, W&M. But, the NASS, led by Saraki, 2015-2019, and Lawan, 2019-2023, was never interested in saving Nigeria from eventual calamity. Keeping the scheme going was more important than being patriotic. The CBN Governor would be called; and he would ignore the NASS; and Buhari would not call the Governor to order.

If Nigerians want to know how we tumbled from US$510 billion in 2014 to US$273 billion in 2024, all that is required is to look at the quality of leaders we have had since 1999.

COUNCIL OF UNJUST JUSTICES: THE WAY WE ARE

“The worst form of justice is pretended justice” – Plato, 427-347 BC.

Nobody raised objections when a recent report alleged that the Nigerian judiciary is among the most corrupt institutions in the country. That told us all we need to know about leadership in this country. Taking poor people accused of stealing goat before any of our corrupt judges is akin to asking a mass murderer to judge a wife-beater. Yet, the Nigerian bench is crawling with them…

To be continued next week…