๐Project manager @ Creative Peto Concept ๐A chef ๐จโ๐ณ, ๐Bโs c (Ed) University of Benin๐, ๐CEO Footies~Supplies๐ ๐Future Business tycoon ๐ฅ
A parliament that listens earns the trust of the people. A parliament that opens its doors strengthens democracy.
That conviction inspired the birth of the National Assembly Open Week, and I am delighted that we are set for the 3rd edition of this unique initiative from
WE COULD HAVE BEEN SENEGAL TOO
Shall I Begin?
The night before the dawn of 2022, Nigeria had already written her own obituary - the budget told the ugly truth our rulers were too shy to admit.
Nigeria initially budgeted for N443 Billion for fuel subsidy payment. Before the year shut its eyes, the government returned seeking an additional N4.39 Trillion Naira. Ten billion dollars.
For appropriate context:
The entire national budget for year 2022 under review was N17.3 Trillion.
A staggering N4.39 Trillion of that was budgeted just for an unproductive, wasteful and retrogressive subsidy regime.
Approximately 20% of our national budget squandered just to sustain an expensive lie of a cheap fuel to earn the applause of a largely ignorant population.
For a more effective context and this is where it gets interesting or should I say annoying:
The budgetary allocation for:
Health - N711B
Education - N1.3T
Infrastructure (Transport, Works, Power, etc) - 1.45T
Housing - N500B
COMBINED - N3.97T
But Fuel Subsidy alone was N4.39 Trillion - Far higher than the 4 most critical sectors of the economy combined.
The rot was more expensive than the remedy. The poison was better funded than the cure. Generation after generation, we fed the trap and called it governance.
By 2023, the calculations had grown obscene. N18.4 Billion per day.
Not for teachers. Not for surgeons. Not for asphalt or electricity or the crying farmer under a failed irrigation system. Just - fuel subsidy. Every single day.
Madness.
No wonder our Universities were poorly funded and went on strike for a cumulative 59 Months between 1999 - 2023.
No wonder our infrastructure decayed without renovations and reinvestment and no federal road was motorable.
No wonder our hospitals became glorified mortuaries due to poor funding and inadequate investment.
No wonder km long fuel queues consistently plagued us.
No wonder State governors became professional beggars going bowls in hand to the Villa for bail outs just to meet salary obligations.
No wonder that even at the height of our oil prosperity, we still couldn't record formidable achievements.
Until a true leader emerged and did what cowards catalogue as impossible. He took the bull by the horns - bare-handed, in broad daylight, before a nation that had mistaken poison for provision. He damned the consequences. Risked the applause. Staked his re-election on an altar and courageously pulled the trigger.
He removed the subsidy.
And with that singular, seismic, long-overdue act - he did not just balance a budget. He lanced a boil that had been festering for four decades. He healed the nation of its fastest-spreading cancer, even as the patient screamed that the surgery was the disease.
Without that decision, Nigeria today would not merely be struggling. Nigeria would be a cautionary tale that other cautionary tales whisper about - worse than Senegal.
And yet - it was Senegal who got the young president. The photogenic revolutionary. The crowd's favourite. The one Twitter fell in love with.
Good Evening Severally...
If you wait patiently and live long enough, there is a very high likelihood that your fav will disappoint you eventually.
Just like a former minister. A two-term governor. A man we once celebrated as intelligent, as visionary - went on national television, unprovoked, and confessed to treason.
No prosecutor summoned him. No leak forced his hand. He simply... spoke. Because somewhere between the applause and the impunity, he had begun to believe he was untouchable. And the untouchable, as history has shown us repeatedly, always overreach.
Nothing ruins a man faster than the quiet, poisonous belief that consequences are reserved for other people.
Wisdom is profitable to direct.
@NigeriaStories I like how Una leave the topic dey deviate to another just to make them look like theyโre not workingโฆ. Posting fake news is bad and shouldnโt be encouraged. It creates panic and fears!