Paul Onomuakpokpo
What is
more alarming in the midst of the current crisis of fuel
price increase is not really its searing impact on the lives of the citizens
. Of course, the increase throws into sharp
relief the calamitous progression of the administration
of President Muhammadu Buhari from a disavowal of promises to a
brazen affliction of the citizens with policies that would
effectively plunge them to the nadir of despair. But what is clearly
grimmer is the path of the lack of transparency that the Buhari administration
has taken.
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| *Buhari |
Remember,
desperate to clinch the presidency in 2015, Buhari and his co-travellers in the
All Progressives Congress (APC) in the giddy days of the campaigns made several
promises that apparently portrayed them as fully reconciled to the
urgent need to rescue the citizens from the depredations of a ruthless
political class. They promised to pay unemployed graduates N5,000, create jobs
for the teeming population of the unemployed and through a magic wand known
only to them transmute the severely decimated naira from trailing
behind the dollar to a pedestal of parity of N1 to $1.
But
since almost a year that Buhari became president these promises
among others have either been blatantly denied or totally
neglected. It is not only that the promised stipend has not been paid but
that the rank of the unemployed has bourgeoned against the backdrop of failing
companies due to the worsening economic crisis. And instead of the
promised parity, the naira continues to crash, with heightened speculations
that it would soon hit N500 to a dollar .
No
doubt, while the citizens wait for the government to make the right policies to
improve their condition, it is clear that they are currently beset
with a cruel fate. Or how else do we explain a situation where while
their economic power is becoming more vitiated, they are compelled by the
government to pay more to live in the country? Since those first few days of
the Buhari administration when it appeared as if electricity had improved in
response to his so-called body language, the nation has been plunged deeper
into darkness . Yet, the Buhari administration increased the tariff regime,
contrary to his promise to improve electricity. The citizens protested, whined
about the injustice in paying for a service that was not provided. Some went to
court to seek judicial ramparts against this impunity. But the Buhari
administration and the electricity companies have had their way.
