Groaning Under An Insensitive Government

Sunday Menukuro

When President Umaru Yar’Adua took the mantle of leadership in 2007, all and sundry
were happy, thinking that a regime of happiness and progress had come. We did not have any iota of doubt about him when he was reading his first presidential address.

The reason is not hidden. Owing to his academic background, coupled with his humble Islamic belief, we thought he meant everything he said. Not only that, we thought he would pursue vigorously the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

However, it turned out to be that reverse is the case. The present administration does not show that needed responsiveness. Its much publicised electoral reform has been jettisoned and slaughtered on the platform of personal official sustenance.

Federal Government’s unpreparedness to yield to ASUU’s demands for over three months left one perturbed. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who did the same while he was the president, in both military and civilian toga, was not expected to do otherwise because of his holier-than-thou and know-it-all nature. But Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, who were both former lecturers that we also sympathised with when they faced that kind of treatment, were least expected to mete out such treatment to their former colleagues, thereby leaving the students to bear the brunt.

Federal Government’s ongoing deregulation of the oil sector is very unfortunate and painful because it is the downtrodden that are at the receiving end. Those in government and their collaborators are not going to be directly affected by the attendant pain of deregulation as they use free fuel and enjoy other free services coupled with their exorbitant allowances.

I know that the only thing the Nigerian government is doing to help the people is the subsidy, which the present administration is trying to remove. That is why I support the labour union and other civil organisations in their opposition to such inhumanity.

If they are really a good government, what are they giving back to the society if not hardship and cheating? No social security, no free medical service, nothing is working for the people.

The children of those in high positions are not more Nigerian than our children. They themselves are not more Nigerian than any of us, yet they enjoy all the luxuries of life while they leave other people in abject squalor and hardship. They behave as if they do not know that God still exists.

There is no gainsaying the fact that unlike in other oil-producing countries of the world, a huge proceeds from oil have always been stashed into private pockets in addition to the booties they share at will as being revealed almost on a daily basis by the EFCC and ICPC. This is unfortunate and unacceptable.

Menukuro wrote via sunnymaco@yahoo.com