by Ngozi Razak-Soyebi

G21 AFRICA Contributing Writer

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Ngozi
Razak-Soyebi

LAGOS, NIGERIA - October 1 marked Nigeria's 44th Independence anniversary, and the question on the lips of most Nigerians was, "What progress, Nigeria?"

On October 1, 1960, we gained our independence from British rule. The event was greeted with public jubilation, high expectancy and hope. Sadly, forty-four years down the line, and most Nigerians view the day as nothing more than a mere symbolic commemoration of a date. The joy of breaking free from the shackles of British rule to manage our own business has been reduced to despair and misery and a lot of people wonder now if we weren't better off before our independence.

In his broadcast to the nation to mark the day, President Olusegun Obasanjo struggled valiantly to paint a picture of hope and progress. Alas, a lot of Nigerians think differently and with good reason. In 1960, only 15 per cent of the Nigerian population was considered poor. Today, according to the World Bank report, around 70 per cent of Nigeria's 120 million population live below the poverty line [earning] one US dollar per day.

In his broadcast, President Olusegun Obasanjo maintained that "Our government is not intent on making life difficult for Nigerians. Our commitment is to steadily wipe off the pain from the faces of all Nigerians." He goes ahead to add that, "The decisions taken by government have been taken out of love and out of concern for our future, not out of insensitivity or sadism."

His policies speak differently. On September 23, barely seven days to our glorified independence, he implemented a full deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry. The price of petrol was hiked from forty-three to fifty-five naira per liter. Diesel and kerosene were also hiked from N50 and N42 per liter to N62 and N60 respectively. Now, how's that for insensitivity and sadism?

A lot of Nigerians wonder if the hike, accepting that it is really justifiable and necessary in the face of the harsh economy, couldn't have been held back until after the independence day celebration. In like manner, the last hike in the price of petroleum products was announced just a few days before the May Day celebrations last May. But that is really not the issue here. We can live with sadism; we did for sixteen years under harsh military dictatorship. What we cannot continue to live with, however, is poverty, unemployment, insecurity, corruption and the pilfering of public funds as well as a steady decline in the standard of education and public infrastructure.

Only recently, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report grouped Nigeria among fifty nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America whose poverty level is "near extreme." This most recent hike in the price of petroleum products is sure to hit the poor hardest and will probably push the poverty level to "extreme."

In addition, the UNDP report described the federal government's effort to address the poverty scourge as "very poor and lacking in accountability and equity." This very careful choice of words isn't without justification. Only five years ago, the N10 billion voted by the federal government for the Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) ended up in the pockets of corrupt individuals and did nothing to alleviate the sufferings of the masses it was meant to help.

The 2003 World Health Report showed that while, during the past fifty years, the average life expectancy at birth increased globally by almost 20 years, it fell significantly in Nigeria from 51 years in 2001 to 48 years in 2003. This leads me to wonder if, after reading this report, our nation's decision-making body sat back and said to themselves, "Life expectancy has already declined anyway, so we might as well finish it off with a further hike in the price of petroleum products."

"We are steadily recovering from our past errors and transgressions as we experience a renewed status in the international community, unprecedented growth in industry and agriculture, and successes in telecommunications, power and energy, industry, commerce and health," President Obasanjo claimed.

Could somebody please tell President Obasanjo to wake up and smell the shit we are wallowing in?

• Why should Nigeria, Africa's largest oil exporter, with an OPEC quota of more than 2 million barrels per day, depend on expensive imports for petrol, diesel and kerosene?
  
  
• Why should our refineries be left to rot so a group of individuals can further enrich themselves through the importation of petroleum products?
  
  
• Why is it that the N390 trillion realized from oi l in the last two decades hasn't made any impact on the lives of the ordinary citizen?
  
  
• Why is it that only 12,000 graduates -- out of the 120,000 produced annually -- can hope to secure gainful employment?
  
  
• Why is there no lasting solution to the ethno-religious crisis that has claimed the lives of many?
  
  
• Why should pensioners plead for their pensions to be paid on time?
  
  
• Why should the rights of the Nigerian worker be taken away by a decentralization of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)?
  
  
• Why should the State Security Service (SSS) continue to invade media houses, intimidating journalists?

True, President Obasanjo's administration cannot be held solely accountable for the decay in the land. We are all aware that this decay is as a result of collective damage perpetrated over the years by successive leadership. However, someone has to draw the line at some point.

President Obasanjo's broadcast to the nation might have been filled with hope and promises, but we need more than that. We need sustainable growth in the economy as well as an improvement in the lot of the people. Until then, I foresee our colonial masters sitting back in their chairs, sipping tea from their dainty china cups and thinking to themselves that they could have managed this country better.