National Chairman of the breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Baraje has lamented the state of the nation at 53 years, saying it is a thing of great regret that the country has all but crumbled.
In his Independence Day message to Nigerians, Baraje lamented the woes of the country’s education, power, infrastructure and industrial sectors, and concluded that the present government lacks the drive and vision to engineer redemption.
“As I salute my fellow country men and women on this special, epochal and historical event of the 53rd Anniversary of our independence and knowing that many of our leaders may prefer to say otherwise but let me state categorically without equivocation that I am very sad that it is a pity that 53 years after independence, Nigeria is still a crumbling edifice, wrecked to the seams by corruption, bad leadership, ethnocentrism, parochialism, sectarian intolerance and childish political recrimination,” he said.
“Nigeria at 53 has turned into a borderless valley of tears where life expectancy hovers at between 40 and 43 years. Nigerians are callously extorted through various government agencies like the PHCN which today excels in generating darkness and subjecting Nigerians to the highest ever tariff regime.
“The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) set up as a well-meaning agency to tame the rising cases of road accidents has become a tool for mindless extortion through the issuing and re-issuing of vehicle number plates and drivers’ licenses at very exorbitant prices. The petroleum sector has become an illicit cash cow for the people in government, their friends and relatives who exploit the hapless citizens through sundry means and cleansing the treasury via a phantom fuel subsidy scheme that targets the friends and fronts of the members of the government for enrichment.”
According to Baraje, nothing could best demonstrate the wanton brigandage going on in the country than the fact that the government, which set up the SURE-P programme with the huge N32 increment in each liter of fuel Nigerians purchase, has recorded no known achievement with the huge accruals from the increment.
“Today, SURE-P has sacked the 110,000 youths it placed on N10, 000 monthly allowances on the excuse that there is no money to pay them. We ask, where is the government keeping the huge amount it realizes from the inhuman increment in the price of petrol, kerosene and diesel?
“At 53 years of independence, our educational sector has completely crumbled and our universities have been shut for close to three months simply because a government that celebrates free loading of the nation’s resources cannot meet the agreement it signed with university teachers four years ago. Our secondary and primary school sectors are jerking at the most inefficient level; neglected, abandoned and dejected and all have contributed to make Nigerian certificates almost worthless.
“The health sector is in a pitiable state as our hospitals cannot handle simple malaria cases. Nigerians now troop to India and the Far East Asian countries to treat common ailments and nothing is being done to arrest this sad situation. Nigerians want out of Nigeria in millions: embassies of even our poor neighbours have been besieged by anxious Nigerians, ready to do anything to get out of a country our economic managers humour as growing at astronomical levels.”
He described the infrastructure sector as in its worst state, as Nigerian infrastructural base has crumbled, noting that roads are decrepit while the economy has screeched to a halt in the face of unrestrained purloining, coupled with an officially backed oil theft that targets the members of the government, its cronies and hirelings for enrichment.
“The management of the Nigerian economy is, at best, haphazard as the cooking and circulation of flattering and fatuous economic reports that curiously suggest growth in the obvious degenerating reality Nigerians are facing,” he added.
“At 53, youth unemployment has soared to over 80 per cent, insecurity of lives and properties has clearly overwhelmed the capacity of the state and a social crisis has driven many Nigerians to their untimely graves. Our security agencies are inept and the Nigerian Police has been reduced to the attack dog of the present federal government and its cronies while security challenges go unmet. We can go on and on but suffice it to state that Nigeria has woefully failed its citizens at 53 years.
“The indices are all too obvious even as the present government lives in curious denial of these grave realities. On daily basis, Nigerians are kidnapped, assassinated or butchered like chickens in hundreds and government seems at a loss on what to do.
“Against this background, we had expected Mr. President, during his Media Chat of last Sunday, to make a categorical statement that he would not seek re-election but he, unfortunately, chose to dodge the question when it was put to him. We once more wish to appeal to President Jonathan, if he truly loves Nigeria, to abandon his second term ambition and concentrate on how to rescue the sinking Nigerian ship of state.
“Given the mindset of the present government, we doubt if there are hopes for redemption but we will not fail to advance suggestions on how we can get it right as a nation and save this floundering nation from perdition. He listed a series of demands, including the constitution of a critical management team made up of apolitical, eminent technocrats and knowledgeable Nigerians to take over the management of the national economy given the woeful failure of the economic management team of the Jonathan government. On others, he wrote:
“We call for a similar team to arrest the infrastructural decay that is threatening the nation’s infrastructural base at present.
“We demand the empanelling of a credible, independent and resolute anti-corruption body to cleanse the country of the thick stench of corruption that has overwhelmed it at present.
“We demand a re-ordering of the inchoate federal structure we are running with a view to allowing the states and the other federating units more access to resources to attend to the numerous responsibilities placed on them.
“We call for the introduction of state police as an antidote to the worsening security problems, which the present inept and highly politicised Nigerian Police had been unable to deal with.
“We see the clamour for a national dialogue as timely and appropriate as there is an urgent need for Nigerians to come together and discuss matters affecting them as well as the way forward. We, therefore, welcome Mr. President’s announcement in his Independence Day broadcast about the establishment of a committee to advise him on the modalities for the holding of the conference. We, however, wish to warn the proposed conference should not serve the same cosmetic purpose served by previous efforts; it should be empowered to discuss all issues agitating the minds of Nigerians – there should not be any no-go areas except the unity and oneness of Nigeria, which is not debatable.
“Finally, we urge Nigerians not to lose hope but to remain resolute in demanding good governance, transparency and accountability from government at various levels as that is the only way to force the corrupt clique in power to change their ways.”
