THE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA NEEDS TO HAVE LOVE OF THE PEOPLE
Humans are filled with great potentials and abilities, however just like every resource, proper management helps to develop such potential into great realities of success.
Nigeria with a population of over 200 million people with a great weather, good soil and also abundant resources such as crude oil, gold has no reasont o be poor or her citizens lacking food and quality standard of living due to good jobs and abundant resources.
Its obvious that the population are very discontent and full of anger, pains and hopelessness due to so much harsh realities, this is further aggravated by the recent increase in fuel price from 150 to 600naira about 400% increase, many observe truthfully we have never seen such a sharp increase in price of this important commodity which is highly needed by the populace.
The government on the other hand argues that its current subsidising of the fuel price is unsustainable if the citizenry must have a quality standard of living provided for them by the government. Afterall its said that no pain no gain.
In the yoruba culture a proverb says that; ‘the cure for a headache is not cutting of the head’, thus we need to diagnose reason for the headache and treat it. In this case of Nigeria which headache is poverty. Poverty means not being able to afford the basic things needed for quality human living; job to earn decent income, quality accomodation, quality food, good and cheap transportation, excellent communication, quality healthcare, great business returns etc
However, if the citizens must get this prosperity which the government argues subsidy payment will inhibit, then its paramount that the citizens are adequately compensated for this new pain of high price they bear.
While its obvious we are not were we ought to be as a nation, we must be quick to point out that we are not where we used to be.
Its said by a prominent Nigerian who became a Senate President that telephone is not for the poor and thus Nigerians should not expect to have telephones when the citizens where clamoring for communication service, but now we have over 80% of adults population with mobile phones even in rural communities, folks such as farmers, fishermen, market women now have mobile phones to communicate with their customers and fellow traders.
The government of President Obasanjo in 1999 allowed the private sector to come in and invest in that sector, allowing competition which brought innovation and thus different telecomunication service providers came to the scene, thus Nigerians could call, text, browse the internet easily and fairly cheapily compared to the era where to send a message you had to use post office, or actually go visit the person even if its in faraway 200km.
Thus this meant that th country experienced a relief of sort in thetelecommunication secctor, thus now that the heat is on the Energy sector, one expects that an equal and urgent intelligent attention be given, it’s a noteworthy fact that the reputable richest man in Africa Alhaji Aliko Dangote has started a refinery project in Lagos but its also should be well noted that given such an enormous task to only one man is highly burdensome considering the fact that the population of nigeria is large, we still contend with high food prices leading to hunger and high prices of cement leading to homelessness of many. Even though there are proviers of this service but the large population of Nigeria requires a large number of providers.
In the telecommunication sector before new players came in the sole providers charge users per minute whetther you spend1minute1 second on a call you are charged for 2minutes but when new players came in the pricing changed to per second and 1minute1 second on a call you are charged for
1minute1 second.
On Thursday 20/07/2023 about 210million of litres were imported into the country by a private company Emadeb Nigeria Ltd but the reality is that this is a long term disservice to a country that produces her own crude oil.
The right measure should be ensuring that new players including the government which has new funds from paying no subsidy and increasing fuel prices should repair the existing refineries and build new ones to ensure that the crude oil produced are refined in different parts of the country such as North, East, West and South to reduce trucks plying the roads constantly and posing dangers on citizens and even pressure on infrastructure. This refineries will provide jobs for the populace; engineers, welders, plumbers, bricklayers, quality assurance experts, safety experts, geologists, finance experts, managers, scientists and indirect jobs for agriculture sectors and providers of service such as food, housing, telecommunications for this workers.
The refineries in each of this zones will ensure energy availability in those zones and prosperity for the citizens and more income for government through taxes etc this will also improve our currency as we can now export refined products as opposed to crude products which are cheaper.
Thus it becomes a very despicable and dehumanising and pitiable and horrible to hear the government saying the palliative measure for increase in fule price is 8000 per month to citizens when we know allocations to legislators and other government officials, this can not be from a heart that cares for its citizens considering the fact that the 8000 naira cannot even purchase a decent meal or transportation for an individual in a day.
Repair and build new refineries to complement Dangote refinery is the way to provide cheap energy, protect our currency, provide new jobs and prosperity for all.
Thank you.
Oluseye oyeniyi an Entrepreneur wrote in from Lagos, Nigeria.
