Poor Governance Should Stop

 By Terry  Adeniji

The government at all levels in the country is collapsing, the non-state actors have hijacked the reign of government from the people in power, especially the regulatory bodies in charge of our critical sectors, and the poor citizens are made to bear the brunt of their non-performance.

In the area of security, the Department of State Services, the police, and other security agents are helpless as the terrorists and bandits continue to terrorise people, killing, maiming and collecting ransom in millions of naira paid in cash and yet, the same huge money finds its way back to the bank and all these security agents can’t track it. Something is clearly wrong with our system, and yet nobody is resigning.

Regarding the same issue of ransom being paid, what is the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Communications Commission, and other intelligence agencies doing to track the money because that is the major way to discourage kidnapping. If they have tried and eventually, it is proven that they can’t deliver, they should honourably resign.

Still on the issue of insecurity, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, just like other major roads in the country, is going the way of Abuja-Kaduna Road where many have been killed and millions collected as ransom, and yet nobody is caught by the security agents.

The terrorists are presently occupying the forest in the South-West and their presence along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which is a major link road to other parts of the country is already creating fear, tension and loss of confidence in this government and the security agents who are less concerned about the plight of the poor.

The people in charge should deploy more personnel and equipment on this road to secure the lives and property of the people.

Regarding the economy, the middlemen have hijacked our main economic sectors. While the government can tell us stories about the deregulation of the petroleum sectors, the middlemen are busy cheating the common people who are the majority, and nobody is defending the masses; rather the ministry concerned will support the exploiters.

The current fuel scarcity, high cost of kerosene and cooking gas, are being dictated by the middlemen. They are fixing the price as they desired and no regulatory body is checking their excesses, while the consumers are the ones bearing the brunt.

They collected these products at a moderate cost but triple the final selling price to the final consumers. Where is the ministry in charge, and other regulatory bodies? Oil theft, subsidy fraud, and over-invoicing are still going on unabated in the sector and the end is not in sight.

In the sports sector, while we can boast of few achievements, our dismal failure in football shows that the regulators don’t know their job.

The players are of poor quality from obscure leagues or Tier 4 leagues of the world. Some are tired legs and their attitude on the field show they can’t give what they lack. Foreign coaches that are rookies are being foisted on the nation. These coaches can’t get any job elsewhere in the world except in my dear country. No wonder we recorded failure in all our football outings of recent. The ministry should wake up and the regulator should do their job.

We have good players in our local league. If they are given exposure and training, they will deliver and that is the way to go.

The failure of governance also extends to our educational sector where the regulators are taking issues personal with the Academic Staff Union of Universities to the detriment of the students and the parents.

The government must awake from its deep sleep and do its job by ensuring that ministers, regulatory bodies, and agencies do their job, and anyone found incompetent should resign.

*Adeniji is a commentator on public issues