FROM DEREGULATION TO REFORMATION

The lexicons of manipulation ring in the ears of Nigerians, from deregulation to reformation. I do not believe anyone representing the government in the petroleum sector. The loss of faith derives from their double-speaking and incoherence. They have lost the national flavour and are speaking in tongues of men in the dark, like the Speaker standing on the yogic head, confused about the intricacies of the sector. They are stooges trained in the poor management of the sector for the comic ending of our national pride. Management of subsidy requires transparency, sense of purpose and a clear direction to the national target. These individuals evidently continue to say they have lost the handle. The Yar’Adua administration began to fail with the infiltration of buy-out and buy-over mongers with experiences in sell-out strategies, who understand the interplay of supply and demand and how to use it against helpless Nigerians. Today, I spent more than two hours to buy fuel to run my kids to a distant private school (passing by a nearby “dead” public school in a deregulated Universal Primary Education) and run my power generating set at night. I am writing this piece in order to sleep well, knowing that I have bared my heart to Nigerians who practice the “blunders of the world” in order to leave no enduring legacy as building blocks of our nationhood

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Mahatma Gandhi’s list of the “Seven blunders of the world”

(1) wealth without work

(2) pleasure without conscience

(3) knowledge without character

(4) commerce without morality

(5) science without humanity

(6) worship without sacrifice and

(7) politics without principles.

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We need to redefine our paradigm. Saving money to help Nigerians has never been a sincere testament. If it is so, why has Nigeria continued to degrade in public execution of people-oriented policies (created militants)? If it is so, we won’t be having trans-regional (within Nigeria) high-ways that are not “motorable”, etc, since the time of PTF and DFFRI. We see high-ways with gullies and hospitals with new dysfunctional equipment and increasing failure of public service infrastructure, like FERMA roads that degrade in months. We continue to hear sermons of degradation to make us think of the past with nostalgia in some respect.

I have not lost faith in my President and may his silence reward him with inspirational touch to continue to direct the affairs of the nation creditably.