In the oil-rich but impoverished city of Port-Harcourt in Rivers state, the minister of information on Thursday tried to offer an explanation into why Nigerians have remained in squalor more than a year after President Muhammadu Buhari swept into office with over 15 million votes promising radical change.
Mr. Lai Mohammed blamed the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan and other administrations before it, accusing them all to have mismanaged the country’s oil wealth since black gold was discovered in Nigeria in 1956.
“Nigeria has nothing to rely on to cushion the effects of the lost earnings. Many other oil producing countries and fellow OPEC members are faring better, because they saved for the rainy day,” Mr. Mohammed told a gathering of journalists at the 2016 edition of the All Nigeria Editors Conference in Port Harcourt, according to excerpts published by online newspaper, Premiumtimesng.com.
The Minister of information urged the media to trace the story of hardship to its beginning and cited the examples of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, some of the countries he said saved for the rainy day.
“Saudi Arabia, with about one fifth of Nigeria’s population, has in foreign reserves about 600 billion dollars (which is 23 times what Nigeria has in foreign reserves),” he said.
“United Arab Emirates, with less than 10 million people, has 75 billion dollars in foreign reserves. Qatar, with 2.4 million people, has 36 billion dollars in foreign reserves. Even Angola, with just 24 million people, has about 25 billion dollars in foreign reserves”.
Mr. Mohammed’s explanation was an all-too-common song in Nigeria since Mr. Buhari was sworn into office in May last year.
Mr. Buhari and his cabinet have consistently blamed the administration of Mr. Jonathan for massive looting of the country’s wealth and have repeatedly claimed that Nigeria was almost on the brink of collapse before they took over just in time to rescue it. But many Nigerians are yet to feel the effects of their rescue operation.
Although, several of Mr. Jonathan’s aides and officials are being tried for corruption allegations, the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged bias and accused the president of trying to decimate the opposition, and of not being sincere in that fight.
As the fight against corruption goes on, to the 66 million Nigerians living less than a United States dollar a day, the hardship is reaching unbearable level.
Vociferous Catholic Priest, Ejike Mbaka, a once staunch supporter of Mr. Buhari blasted the president in a recent message to his congregation and predicted doom for him in the 2019 election if nothing was done to address the hardship.
Poverty and hunger are too much and Nigerians are suffering and he cannot keep quiet when things are allowed to degenerate, he told his congregation in a surprising but blunt message.
“It is not easy everywhere. Hunger everywhere. As the president is fighting corruption, some of us are praying that he will equally fight hunger. Hunger is in the atmosphere,” Mr. Mbaka said in a sermon to his congregation on July 23, 2016.
“All this noise about EFCC arrest this and that, after one week that one is over. People are dying of hunger. Dollar is growing every day and naira is dying every day. Euro is rising every day and naira is collapsing every day. Pounds is on hike every day–on a mega level- and naira is dwindling–on a hyper level.
“The landlords are crying, tenants are lamenting. Sellers are crying. Buyers are lamenting. There is hunger on the street. Many students are being rusticated from school, why? Because they can’t pay for school feels. Proprietors are distressed. Many companies are winding up. The economy is hard.”
Mr. Mbaka’s anger may not be an isolated one. The National Bureau of Statistics said months ago that unemployment among Nigerian youths was almost at 50 percent and labour leaders have said that more than 50, 000 high end workers have been sacked since Mr. Buhari assumed office and put in place his new monetary policies.
Banks have sacked workers or agreed to pay them less money. Other financial institutions have also laid out workers in huge numbers. The naira has collapsed and the inability of the Buhari government to find a lasting solution to peace in the Niger Delta region has crumbled the country’s oil production to its lowest level in more than two decades.
With the naira down, the oil prices down, the oil production down, unemployment sky high, and hunger everywhere, Nigerians seem to be reaching a breaking point.
But the fight among APC members in the Senate and House of Representatives seem to even dash the hopes of those who thought the country was finally moving away from selfish interest.
In the Senate, Bukola Saraki has been battling those opposed to him within his own party. In the House of Reps, Speaker Yakubu Dogara has been battling many, including Abdulmumin Jibrin who resigned as chairman of appropriation committee in July.
With problems back and forth and Boko Haram not resolved in the northeast, many are beginning to wonder if the APC was the messiah they had hoped for, or should look elsewhere.
“We are not saying we should continue to lament about missed opportunities, the massive corruption or profligacy of the past, but is it is important for Nigerians to know where and when the rain started beating them; that no provision was made for any umbrella to shield them from the elements, and that indeed genuine efforts are now being made to turn things around,” Mr. Mohammed told the gathering of editors.