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Ojaje Idoko
A phrase that has almost become a cliché in Nigeria is; “WHO DID THIS TO US?” why lamenting about the Nigeria multiple problems. I wonder why we ask about who did this or that to us? Don’t we know that if you want to harvest oranges you should not plant mangoes? It is what you plant that you shall harvest. What have we as a people planted that we desire to harvest something else? We have always run this country like school children who live on handouts from their parents, they don’t need to invest, save or use their resources for projects. Or we use this phrase to mean that our problem is spiritual and so who bewitched us? Na Dem!
In the early 1970s, Nigeria experienced oil boom and so much money was available to us. It was like we did not know what to do with it. They constructed roads and most of the flyovers in Lagos, and that was all, as if the entire country was just Lagos. As at that time, not up to 10% of Nigerians had access to electricity, tarred road, and telephone. We bathed in and drank water from streams and rivers. Primary education was still for a privileged few until General Obasanjo as Head of State declared free Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976. I know of many people who could not have gone to school if not for that program. Instead of building infrastructures and social amenities, we declared the Jerome Udoji award that put a lot of money in the hands of the few Nigerian workers. The workers bought televisions, transistor radios, bicycles, motor bikes, shoes and some cars. And that squandered that excess money.
It was in a wobbling condition that the military handed over power to the civilian on 1st October, 1979. It was clear from day one that the civilians were not in business to provide governance. They squandered the nation’s wealth as if money was going out of fashion. One of them told me many years later, how Nigerians didn’t need a visa to go to London. They would just decide on a Friday afternoon to go to London for weekend. Pack a few cloths, jump into the aircraft with your lover. With so much money at their disposal they painted London red. Harold Shopping Centre was a delight. That was how they ate up the resources of the people until 31st December 1983 when General Mohammadu Buhari and co overthrew the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. It was the carcass of the dying lion that the military inherited, barely four years and three months after handover.
I was old enough to know how we went through that tough time of austerity measures. We went through essential commodity regime. You could not just walk up to a shop to buy anything because they were not available. Everything was rationed. You queue up in open fields to purchase what was essential for your up keep. General Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) came and introduced structural adjustment program (SAP). I can still hear the echo of Prof. Jerry Gana’s voice, as Director General of MAMSA shouting, “No Alternative to SAP”. IBB made many young military men administrators/ governors of states. These crop of young military men turned out as millionaires and they also joined with the federal military government to open up the financial vaults of both federal and state governments. They made both military and civilians millionaires overnight. It was during that period that civil service jobs, teaching and other professional jobs lost their value and pride in Nigeria. Teaching used to be a noble profession but the change of value altered all that. People no longer opted for teaching as a choice but as a necessity to survive. It became more profitable to join the military than to go to the university because it was the short cut to easy wealth.
Naira was de-valued and it has never been reversed. It was this period that the Gulf War happened and so much money was realized from the sale of crude oil, but it never reflected on the life of the ordinary person. While the privileged military personnel were busy building mansions for themselves in Nigeria and buying choice properties outside Nigeria, majority of Nigerians remained without electricity, good road, drinking water and some factories were shutting down. What did we do with the money realized from oil and other sectors of our economy? Then General Sani Abacha came. With what we heard after his demise, much could have been done but it was not to be. All the four petroleum refineries went down. I remember several times the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) contracts for the refineries were awarded, money collected but work never done.
Should I venture into the scam we call democracy in Nigeria since 1999? What actually happened was that the military boys who IBB and Abacha empowered between 1985 and 1998 simply removed the Khaki and put on agbada. They ‘became democrats by change of attire’ and continued doing what they knew best, looting. We heard of Sixteen Billion Dollars appropriated for electricity, but where is the power? After so much money had gone down the drain, we are still the greatest importers of private electricity generators. And someone will ask, who did this to us? You do not know them or we think it is spiritual effect? It is not a spiritual matter but simply that Nigerians do not differentiate between public funds and private money.
Who did this to Us? The answer is in us. When legislators whose primary duty is law making begin to distribute grinding machines, bicycles, motor bikes, sewing machines, bags of rice and food items like noodles, Na Dem Be Dat! Remember we got that during the Jerome Udoji award in 1975. They are the one doing us this thing. When the executive arm of the government refuses to build hospitals, schools and roads and to give water and electricity but chooses rather to pay image makers to do image laundering, this is the result you get. When those in the judiciary suddenly become billionaires and bourgeoisies, that is what you get. The answer to the question is in the hearts of Nigerians. Leave public money alone! Na dem be dat! A bigger question we should be asking is, are we doing anything different at the moment?
Rev. Fr. Ojaje Idoko, is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo writes from Otukpa.