Do you like politics? I’ve always disliked the smell of Nigerian politics. It often purges me.
I often ask: “Aren’t all these political parties and filthy politicians the same?” The only difference is the colour of their party flag. Every other thing is the same. They also seem to all want the same thing: Money, Power and Violence.
The events of modern day Nigeria allows me to easily and very accurately predict tomorrow’s news.
You are sure to read a headline of: “We would kick Jonathan out of Aso-Rock in 2015 – APC.” Or: “We would not allow Nigeria to break up – PDP.”
Certainly, somewhere in tomorrow’s newspaper, you would also find: “We would die fighting – Boko Haram.”
What I could not predict was that I was going to eventually wake up someday and one of these parties would suggest that the 2014 budget should not be passed. I was sure I would never live to see such a day. Sadly, I was wrong.
Frightened, I asked the vendor for the newspaper that was staring at me. I was hoping the headline I just saw was: “APC suggests seven ways to reduce unemployment in Nigeria.” That wasn’t it. Instead the headline was: “We would not allow the 2014 budget to be passed – APC.”
Something must have gone terribly wrong.
Is there really a just reason why the 112 million Nigerians living below poverty should continue to suffer? If the APC knew that every minute 14 Nigerians get poorer, they would know the consequences of their planned action.
In a country where 93 per cent of the citizens say they are poor, an opposition party now seems to say they want to achieve 100 per cent. Make all Nigerians poor! Is that the goal? Please can someone tell the leaders in APC that 100 per cent is not a good score to have in this case.
APC however gave its reasons. May be they are right? Can PDP really be vindicated? APC says: “All is not going well in some states; especially Rivers State.”
But Alhaji Lai Mohammed has suddenly forgotten 1969! When as an 18-year-old boy he gained admission into the University of Ife. Would the University of Ife be open if President Yakubu Gowon had delayed the 1969 budget??
Would he have had the opportunity to have studied literature? The degree that allowed him to master the English Language that he knows and now uses to strangle the hopes and aspirations of young Nigerians.
By 1975, when Alhaji Mohammed graduated at the age of 24, the Nigerian Textile industry was operating at 79per cent. The radio and broadcasting industry was operating at 100 per cent. Never in the history of Nigeria had this happened.
Clearly, Young President Gowon knew the importance of the budget. Even though the 1969 budget was just N903 million. Despite recurrent expenditure at 79 per cent of the budget, Gowon passed the budget. That is Great Leadership. Gowon was 35 when he passed the 1969 budget.
Today the spokesman of the APC is 62. I think he is a wise man. Allah is with him. But he should please not forget that only six per cent of Nigerians live up to the age of 62. I think APC got it wrong this time.
My major grouse is that his suggestion or that of his party, if implemented, would negatively impact the lives of ALL Nigerian youth. I am one of them. There are 130 million of us. Many of us do not have food to eat and water to drink.
In 1975, Bola Asiwaju Tinubu was a 23-year-old man when he left Nigeria for Chicago. I think it was a smart move.The Federal Government of Nigeria had kept the exchange rate at about 615 Kobo to a dollar. It was the passage of this budget that gave Bola Tinubu a turn around. How? The Naira was stronger than the Dollar. It was cheaper to pay school fees in the United States than in Nigeria. So, young Asiwaju, a potential star, also had a chance to show his talent to the world.
Today, these same guys, the same group, the same old party that benefitted from the budget being passed now call for a budget to delay the future of Nigerian youth.
Can’t they see that their plan would stifle funding to public primary schools, the schools where 93 per cent of Nigerian parents send their children to?
Does APC have a team in charge of economic planning and development?
In my young life-time I have read and seen too much political fights. The patience of the Nigerian youth is gradually being over-stretched. Never in the history of man-kind has any political party made the mistake APC recently made.
APC had its closest shot at Aso-Rock. Its recent statement about delaying the budget throws a big spanner into its wheel.
Now, it seems easier for a grasshopper to kill a giant than for APC to get the only seat at the Villa. Still not impossible though.
Even Adolf Hitler cared for and protected his team. The APC should care for and protect the Nigerian Youth.
Babajide Ogunsanwo is the founder of Leadership By Data. He is a data and information analyst. @ogunsanwojide writes from Nigeria.
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