Sufferings in Nigeria: They Hit like a Sledge Hammer!

About 23.2 million Nigerians are reported to be unemployed and by being so, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is adjudged the second highest in the world. And then came million more Nigerians who are underemployed. This statistics roughly translate to mean that more than hundred million Nigerians are suffering today.

But suffering is a socio-economic malaise that doesn’t respect any citizen of a country. It doesn’t look at any body’s religious belief system, political afflictions, ethnic backgrounds or social status before it strikes. It simply hits like a sledge hammer, piecing the entire body with its associated vices of pain, hunger, depression and malady.

The widespread sufferings being experienced by Nigerians in spite of the glaring fact that our economy is the largest in Africa is simply due to fraud, waste and corruption being orchestrated by our developmental leaders; leaders that are best described as political elite who are completely out of touch with the daily struggles of an average Nigerian.

The sufferings threatening us in dear country today are not because we lack the resources to lift ourselves out of the strangling quagmire. They are simply because we have been electing politicians who have mastered the act of dishonest practices and abuse of power. Therefore, they are the consequences of their actions in terms of looting, misappropriation, and embezzlement of resources that we are bearing today.

A report by Oxfam revealed that for forty-five years between the year Nigeria gained independence in 1960 and 2005, about $20 trillion (please read me clearly and I repeat twenty trillion US dollars!) was stolen, yes stolen, from the national and state treasuries by our public office holders. The same report added that this amount is larger than the Gross Domestic Product, GDP of the United States in the year 2012.

If we do a simple mental calculation, we would realize that this amount is sufficient enough to have translated into world-class hospitals among our government funded health facilities, best standard and well equipped schools among our educational institutions, and thousand kilometers of good road network across the nation.

Such amount of trillion dollars are fantastically adequate to build industries that could employ the abundant human resources we have, as well as transforming our fertile arable lands in the north particularly Sambisa forest, into an economic gold mine.

Truth be told, without an iota of religious sentiment and ethnic bigotry, the prevailing sufferings we are facing should spur us to elect a leadership whose track record evocates prudent management of financial resources; a leadership whose vision for Nigeria and Nigerians is to give full expression to our democracy through moving our country from consumption to production economy.

We need to get it right in the 2023 elections by electing leaders that are embodied with inspiring leadership virtues that the global community can respect. HE Peter Obi and Sen. Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed of the Labour Party are our most suitable options.

The Labour Party presidential and vice presidential candidates are the new leadership we need to elect in the 25th February, 2023 presidential election because, they intend to use the instruments of job creation and regenerative investment to reduce to its barest minimum the high incidence of insecurity and poverty, and simultaneously move our economy from the consumptive to the productive mode.

We should elect them because they truly seek to build a new Nigeria where transparency, due process, rule of law and prudent management of resources will be the norms. Yes, Obi-Datti leadership is the best option that can build a new Nigeria where every citizen has the right to a decent, comfortable and luxurious life. Our sufferings must stop!