Nigeria we wail thee, By Majeed Dahiru

On the 29 May, the first year anniversary of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in power, a day that marked the 25th year of unbroken democracy in Nigeria since the transition from military to civil democratic rule in 1999, the prevailing socio-economic condition of Africa’s largest democracy is indicative of both the president’s service record in one year and the state of Nigeria’s democracy in 25 years. That Nigeria’s work force across the public and private sector embarked on a paralysing industrial action about the time of the first year anniversary of President Tinubu due to his inability to raise minimum wage of workers that was due for upward review in April underscores the verdict of Nigerians on his performance in the one year he has been in office.

A combination of toxic economic policy decisions chief among which are the removal of subsidy on petrol and floating of the Naira against major currencies such as the dollar, pounds and euro by the Tinubu administration has resulted into an unprecedented deterioration in the socio-economic conditions of Nigerians in a way and manner never experienced in the 63 years history of Nigeria. So devastating were the effects of this twin policy decisions that it’s socio-economic destabilisation effect was instantaneous as soon as President Tinubu made his now infamous ‘’subsidy is gone’’ pronouncement on his 29 May 2023 inauguration address, the pump price of petrol, Nigeria’s  most utilised energy product nearly quadrupled from less than N200 to about N700 a litre. The floating of the Naira a few weeks later sent the national currency tumbling against major world currencies and crossing the N1000 mark against the Greenback for the first time in history. From a value of N650 to the dollar, the national took a deep plunge and exchanging as high as N1950 to $1, before steadying at between N1,400 and N1,500.

For an import dependent economy that equally depends on petrol to power its Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, which dominates its Gross Domestic Production of Goods and Services, the steep rise in prices of price of important energy product and the steep decline of the value of the naira, plunged Nigerians into a bottomless pit of economic misery where there can be no light at its uncertain end. The consequential manifestation of the wrongheaded economic choices of the Tinubu administration has been the out of control cost of existence crisis that has left existing and not really living, hence requiring an upward review of the national minimum wage to living wages for the Nigerian people.

Despite the reintroduction of the old National Anthem of ‘’Nigeria We Hail Thee’’ one year after his assumption of office, the failure of the Tinubu administration to put in place measures to mitigate the socio-economic problems his policies caused meant that Nigerians are not hailing but rather wailing Tinubu’s Nigeria, where they have been pushed to the fringes of mere existence. In a country where destitution, hunger, poverty and misery is widespread, wailing, frustration and helpless form of hopelessness pervades the air while its ruling elite are still behaving like drunken sailors in charge of a sinking ship has transformed President Tinubu’s renewed hope mantra into a rhetoric of renewed hopelessness.

However, it must be said that Nigeria’s rough road to socio-economic comatose amidst heightening insecurity of lives and properties has come a long way since 1999 as a result of a combination of factors. An ethnic and religious identity based politics of democratic leadership recruitment process has instituted a corrupt patronage culture as reward system through state capture. This unique form of state capture that international scholars have described as prebendalism has given rise to a ruling political elite whose primary purpose in power is self-service and not public service. With petro-dollars flowing into the coffers of government from rents accruable from Nigeria’s oil wells through monthly allocations has incentivised the preponderance of prebendalism in Nigeria. And the fact that elected political leaders need not lift a finger to raise a hoe and till the soil before receiving huge amounts of money as monthly allocation has induced creative leadership lethargy and governance inertia hence making neoliberal economic practices that enables the abdication of the role of government in the means of economic production under the guise of ‘’government has no business in business’’ attractive to Nigeria’s incompetent, corrupt and kleptocratic ruling elite.

The current multifaceted challenges confronting the Nigerian nation 63 years after independence, 25 years after advent of the 4^th democratic republic and one year of the Tinubu administration is a cumulative effect of many years of toxic neoliberal economic practices by Nigeria’s corrupt, inept and incompetent ruling political whose misrule has reduced Nigeria from a giant to an impoverished, pauperised, traumatised and indebted dwarf that is gradually inching towards a failed state that is increasingly unable to meet up with the primary responsibility of providing welfare and security for its citizens.  And nothing has underscored this failure of the Nigerian state than the current stand-off between the organised labour and the government of Nigeria over wage increase.

Whereas, the Tinubu administration’s ‘’courageous’’ and bold ‘’ extreme neoliberal policy decisions have plunged Nigeria into its worst economic  crisis in living memory, the government lacks both the capacity to generate enough wealth to meet up with its basic responsibility of providing welfare for the people as well as the political will to develop such a capacity, just as the ruling elite of Nigeria are not willing to let go off their profligate and corrupt ways to allow for the re-distribution of available resources equitably. And to sustain their opulence and profligacy, the government has resorted to exerting increased taxation and levies on the struggling people of Nigeria in a most extortionist manner.

The way out of the current socio-economic crisis and other existential challenges that confronts Nigeria will be for President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to lead the way in committing class suicide as the prevailing condition in the country requires such for the purpose of national rebirth. When a man is idle and unproductive yet profligate and corrupt, he will borrow, extort and steal to sustain his lifestyle. Now that the Tinubu administration has gotten Nigeria to a socio-economic dead end, it is time to rethink her political-economic philosophy towards socio-economic redemption. Government has business in business as the business of government is doing business. And to get to the Right direction of socio-economic redemption, Nigeria must take a Left turn away from the path of neoliberal economic practices and free market fundamentalism onto a path where government will take up its role as the main driver of the means of economic production. Any government that cannot run businesses has no business being in government.

Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja and can be reached through dahirumajeed@gmail.com.