Poverty And Hunger Amid Opulence

By Matthew Ozah  

I shall begin this piece on a morbid note, with other disturbing tales. A news report that went viral on the internet has it that a seven-year-old boy in Lagos was lynched for allegedly stealing garri, perhaps to quench hunger with it. Of course, the wickedness and horror that followed the public anger shows signs of the times in the country.

President Buhari's 72nd Birthday party 

Also, President Muhammadu Buhari recently raised the alarm and warned Nigerians to brace themselves for an imminent outbreak of famine in the country. In the same breath, he called on religious and traditional leaders to assist him prevail on the selfish businessmen who took advantage of the huge demand for Nigerian grains in the global market, to embark on mindless and profit sojourn exporting grains across our borders and put local market and citizens out of food. Another horrendous situation is the United Nations’ warning that 75,000 North East children risk dying of hunger if we don’t do something urgently about it.

Oddly enough, in the face of all these heartbreaking news coupled with inflation and looming economic hardship in the country, the pomposity about wealth and how it’s being exhibited by the political elite is evidence that opulence has found a new home in Nigeria. The position the political elite chose to place themselves and the masses is like a tale of two cities, on the one hand, is a view of a world dominated by an empire without a king on which the sun proverbially never set, on the other, an amorphous blob in which people have dissolved into areas of darkness and are not remembered until election period.

Nigerians will find much to intrigue, entertain and absolutely electrify while wondering and trying to figure out the mind-set and the subtle difference occasioned by the wide gaps between politicians and the masses. By their very nature, you need no interpretation to discover their deceit and everywhere they exhibit their prowess, that immediate striking influence which requires no labels will sense and expose their presence. It is, therefore, hurting that politicians are insensitive or they pretend not to have any clue about the sufferings of the masses, of whom they cajole with mouth watering promises during election campaigns. They fight for their self aggrandizement once in power.

A case in point is a recent report of N3.6 billion expended on exotic cars for members of the House of Representatives. They chose to splash money on luxury cars at a time the country’s economy is having some difficulty and when crude oil price, the major foreign exchange earner for the country is dropping on a daily basis. In defence, they rebuff any one that dares to question their misdeed, claiming that the cars are not ‘luxury’ and that it is long overdue for their oversight functions and they cannot sacrifice anything for it. Yet, they are quick to ask Nigerians to endure the economic hardship and sacrifice more for the nation. But when it affects them, they shall be first served.

Aisha Buhari, Bags And Fleas

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

A tragic irony that has imperiled our collective well-being and has indeed precipitated the nation’s current political and economic ruination is the readiness of the citizens to brook their leaders’ dereliction of duty while still wishing that they chart an uncommon trajectory of national development.

*Aisha Buhari 

We watch our leaders loot the treasury and appropriate our national resources as the extension of their private estates.  But let some years roll by, then we suffer collective amnesia and we launch into a revisionism that casts  national villains in the mould of heroes to whom  the citizens are eternally obliged.

If the President Muhammadu Buhari presidency fails to break itself from floundering and is unable to positively impact the citizens, there would still be people who would insist that he contributed immeasurably to national development. After all, he detained many public thieves and recovered their loot.  Already, the citizens are being told that they should be patient because the so-called dividends of democracy can only be brought to them after the current government has cleared the unimaginable rot left by its predecessor.

Although the camp of the supporters of Buhari is thinning out having been disillusioned by his ineptness, the citizens who are not amenable to this delusion of waiting  for good governance to manifest but insist on evident performance are easily branded as enemies of the positive change that is launching the country into prosperity. 

And this is why our shock at the lack of direction and the gaudiness of the lifestyles of our leaders at a time there is so much suffering in the land is muted. The list of the manifestations of the hardship is endless: Workers and pensioners have not been paid salaries for months; those who can no longer endure are taking their own lives and children can no longer go to school .Those who are in school abroad who can no longer pay their fees because of the foreign exchange crisis have turned into thieves, prostitutes and beggars. But amidst this, the children of our leaders are schooling overseas. No wonder they do not care that teachers are not paid at home and schools are being shut down. Are these the people we expect to think about how they would improve our education?

Aisha Buhari's Lavish Party Obscene, Callous And Wicked – The THIRD Force

Press Release 

*Aisha Buhari 

“The THIRD Force considers it morally repugnant and a slight on the sensibilities of Nigerians that at a time when over 2,000 Nigerian lives have been reportedly wasted and unaccounted for in the Zaria Shia massacre; at a time when Nigerians are confronted with severe economic hardship, fuel scarcity and Nigeria’s worst ever crash of the Naira against the dollar; at a time when Nigerians are groaning under the yoke of what may be the worst Christmas celebration ever; at a time when the scourge of Boko Haram attacks have overwhelmed the capacity of our military to defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria Aisha Buhari, the wife of the Nigerian president is throwing a lavish party that was not only obscene in its opulence, but callous, wicked and insensitive to the plight of millions of deprived Nigerians who are bearing the brunt of this government’s record cluelessness, lack of direction and phantasmagoric policies.

*Mrs. Buhari arrives for the dinner party (informationvilla)

“What exactly are we celebrating? Has President Buhari’s government achieved so much that a party of rice, pounded yam, fruit juices and malt drinks organized for starving youths of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party is the priority of the moment? What happened to the IDP camps with millions of displaced Nigerian citizens who have been reduced to beggars by a government that failed them?

“Under Buhari, Nigeria’s economy has suffered terrible blows. Nigeria appears directionless; the right of citizens to free speech is being threatened; our stock market is crashing; citizens are being killed and their rights violated by the same authorities that swore to protect them; our president is globetrotting like foreign trips are running out of fashion; we wake up every day in a Nigeria where election promises are being denied by the ruling party and return home to food left over by the movers and shakers of the country. Yet here we are, organizing a party to immortalize the folly. What disdain!

As Nigerians Mourn, Buhari Celebrates...

President Buhari must have his party despite the excruciating hardship in the land 

*Joined by family and associates, including Gov 

Rochas Okorocha and Rotimi Amaechi, Buhari 

savours his 73rd Birthday Party 

President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha, hosted an impressive dinner party at the State House yesterday, December 17, 2015, to mark her husband’s 73rd Birthday. Observers are wondering how a president under whom Nigerians are experiencing one of the worst economic conditions in the country’s history can muster the presence of mind to have such a party and even plaster the social media with pictures from it – where they are celebrating and laughing as if they have no care in the world.