In the last part of my Mayday! Mayday! Series published on the 24th of December, 2024, I promised to begin another very pungent but patriotic, altruistic and didactic series, and Folks, the journey begins now.
The first curve in the unalterable challenge before us in 2025 is to debunk and puncture the web of falsehood that the operators of the State and the minders of the Presidency have made an Act of State. On the one hand the President admitted in his New Year message that things are tough but promised that things will soon get better. On the other hand Felix Morka Esq. National Publicity Secretary of the Ruling Party the APC, Mr President’s own Party decides to gaslight the masses, he was comfortable in the sea of deceit, debauchery and delusion which is traditional with the APC. He said on News Night on Arise TV on the 2nd of January 2025 that Farmers have never had it so good. That the balance of Trade is amazing, and that Nigerians are not poorer today than they were before the Tinubu Presidency. The Devil go fear the lies wey the image makers of this Government dey lie.. In fact lies and perfidious inveigle na their forte.
From the Thisday Newspapers choice of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Thisday/Arise TV Man Of The Year 2024 for what they call Courage, Resilience, Tenacity And Tough Decisions In Leadership, it is obvious that 2025 is definitely going to be a Year of Propaganda, demagoguery and debauchery. What courage has Mr President shown? Has he began a probe of the Fuel Subsidy Scam and Perfidy? Has he investigated how the NNPC Ltd and allied agencies spent over 2 billion Dollars in the Turnaround Maintenance TAM of the Refineries (Port Harcourt and Warri)? Can they tell us the actual production capacity of the Refineries now allegedly back on Stream, and save us of the endless debates? How is the battle against corruption under this largely corruptive and corruptible watch of his? And how sincere is his promise to cut the cost of governance?
Do you know that a person can be sincerely wrong, and where one is unwilling to heed critical thought one becomes arrogantly wrong in the pursuit of what may appear Messaiac and, or redemptive. And such is the cup before Mr. President.
Where is the courage, the tenacity and the determination of Mr President to fix the Country? In the more than 18 months of his watch we have seen waste and wanderlust in unmitigated dimensions. The 2023 Budget Extension or Amendment remember he took over in mid-2023, and his 2024 Budget with several amendments were filled with line items and appropriations for unnecessary things, with vast waste and unbridled profligacy ditto the budgeting of billions for Cars and vehicles, billions for Repairs and Renovation of Houses in Abuja and Lagos, Billions for New Presidential Aircraft, Billions for New Vice President’s Residence, Billions for State House Entertainment, and curiously in the present 2025 Appropriation Bill, 75 Billion naira is earmarked for Research and Development in the Women Affairs Ministry, where in all of this has the President shown a proclivity for taking tough decisions? Nigerians are going to be up against a propaganda driven Presidency in 2025, and we must be ready to torpedo their falsehoods in the Sea of Truth.
Where are the Reforms that this Presidency is consistently hyping? History has a different score for nations that predicate their path to recovery on the same normative that the Tinubu minders want us to applaud. In the 1940s Germany and Japan attempted an economic revival predicated on the removal of Subsidy, the floating of their currency and on widening of the Tax net, and boom like quicksand their economy crumbled increasing poverty and want like Tinubu has brought on Nigeria. And the same was the case with Russia in late 80s and early 90s until they refused to follow through with the Counsel of the Bretton Woods Institutions ditto the World Bank and the IMF.
There is nothing in the hype about the removal of Subsidy on Fuel and Energy/Power that promises lasting economic growth. There is nothing in the floating of the currency in a largely consumptive economy that guarantees economic salvation. And there is nothing in the widening of the Tax net in an economy that is very unproductive that proffers redemption. Arrogantly pursuing these normative in the name of Reforms is choosing poverty and depression over life. Someone must tell the minders of this Presidency to seriously think through the policies that they market as a solution to the nation’s problems. They may be sincere, but they are unequivocally wrong, sincerely wrong you may say.
Desperate to assure Mr. President that they are right, and that their policies are working, they constantly and consistently regale us with half truths and blinding falsehoods… They say that the economy is coming around, how can an economy with over 34% inflation be said to be coming around? What sense does more money with far less value make? I hear the cliche workers are better paid now, and I ask is 30,000 naira in 2023 not of far greater value than 70,000 naira in 2024 and now? I ask, how really are States getting more money now than before? Is the real value of money not tied to what it can buy? Why has the Presidency and the minders of the present government become experts in voodoo economics? Are the States actually receiving more money? Are workers being paid better? Thank goodness that the Organized Labour ditto the NLC and the TUC are finally waking up to debunk that debauchery. Indeed with the increase in minimum wage from 30,000 to 70,000 naira and the removal of Subsidy on Fuel, and Electricity, Workers have become far poorer with 70,000 as minimum wage than they were with 30,000 as minimum wage. Such is the unassailable Truth.
The real value of the monthly FAAC paid to States today is far less than what they were receiving before. But for God-sake why should a courageous and tenacious President not walk the path of resource control and devolution of power than to continue with the rent-seeking and rent-taking polices of the past that brought us to this sorry pass? What on earth is President Tinubu really doing differently?
What are the REFORMs in the excessive Oversea Travels and Foreign Trips of Mr President? What are the REFORMs in widening the Tax net in a largely consumptive economy? What are the REFORMs in floating the naira in a largely unproductive economy? What are the REFORMs in removing Subsidy and causing a negative spiral effect in inflation and widening multidimensional hunger and poverty? What truly is this light that they see at the end of the tunnel? I need a Binoculars.
They have told us that the Port Harcourt Refinery and the Warri Refinery are back on Stream without telling us when they fixed the 2016 vandalized Crude Oil Pipelines feeding these facilities. So much half truths because they must gaslight us about the validity of their Reforms. They seek against real statistics to convince us that their so-called REFORMs are yielding dividends. Today we are told that the Port Harcourt and the Warri Refineries are back to 60% capacity, and the next moment we are told that they cannot produce PMS/Petrol yet, this hour we are told that the Port Harcourt Refinery can produce PMS/Petrol but does not have enough Naphtha to blend it, and the next hour we are told that the Warri Refinery cannot produce PMS/Petrol yet. The whole space is muddled up with half truths and mendacity. The entire place is messed up with debauchery and perfidy. And Folks, we must rise up to defeat the blinding darkness of deceit with the potent lights of Truth. We must show that our unalterable commitment to a nation that works for all is beyond partisanship. And we must say to Mr. President and his minders, enough of vain words, enough of half truths and enough of platitudes; we shall call you out when you do wrong, and applaud you when you do right… For Only Truth Shall Set Nigeria Free.
TO BE CONT’D.
Happy New Year, Folks.
I’m CHUKWUDUMEBI.
Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr.
Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT. A Good Governance Advocacy Group.
