REBOUND OF THE ECONOMY: SANCTIMONY OF THE PREACHERS AND THE HYPOCRISY OF THE CRITICS

By

Shehu Bashir Esq

Every nation goes through one economic hiccup or the other. It may be as a result of previous maladministration, political instability, corruption or other factors. Notwithstanding the zigzag of recorded progress, writing off the revival and survival of your own country as a result of that temporary comatose situation is what differentiates the patriots from the reactionaries.

Nigeria, no doubt has been struggling to raise it’s head above the water level, to swim out of a dire economic situation with a slow but steady pace of progress. The last one year has been more particularly tough, being a transition period. Like a patient in coma, several attempts are being made and many strategies are being applied to revive the steeping economy. At a time, it appeared like we have hit a brick wall of stagnation but the bulldozer of resilience will not fail to navigate through the obstruction. Joyfully, we are picking up in slow but steady pace, with so much hope to relish on.

As a nation, we have faced many challenges which can be classified as a “fight for the survival of our soul”. We are still facing many more challenges in other areas like security and corruption control.

In making efforts to revive the situation, many people spoke out and are still speaking out on what and what should be done to better the state of the economy. They offered quite a lot of useful pieces of advice to help the decision makers rejig the economy and salvage the situation. Progressive family members were not left out in adding their voices, to raise the bar of an ideal good governance. Things are gradually picking up in that order.

In democracy, it is absolutely normal for any citizen who is genuinely concerned about the state of affairs of the country to point out areas of needs for government’s attention and action. When things are not going fine as expected, every citizen can make necessary inputs to help government wake up to it’s responsibilities without qualifying the nation as a “failed State”. No harm in healthy criticism. You only do harm a nation when you encourage rebellion, disloyalty, distrust, incitement, etc, against the State. Some of the adjectives some dudes use in qualifying this country would have fetched them prison terms if they were citizens of some other countries that frown against such adjectives.

When there is obvious and undeniable improvements in the cause of governance, and things start to pick up with renewed hope, it will be ungodly, hypocritical, sanctimonious and unpatriotic of any such critic not to recognize and appreciate the government for the job well done. Criticism is not and should not be an expression of bitterness borne out of emotional hatred for the holder of an office but a desire for good governance.

For the records, the economy has started to pick up and things are gradually falling in place. The jackals of forex manipulation have been tamed. The cartels of subsidy exploitation have been reined in. The artificially skyrocketed prices of goods are gradually taking a nose dive to its economic equilibrium. Diesel price is falling. Petrol (PMS) is following shortly. Aviation fuel has not gone up in any unusual manner. Those who turned themselves into the warehouse of forex as though it is a commodity for buying and selling are already counting their losses. The hewers of wood and drawers of water who joined the bandwagon to hoard food items, taking advantage of the situation in order to increase the prices and make more money are rather getting poorer in their own misjudgement.

As indices of growth, some of the agencies of government are taking charge and improving in their performances. The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, is now raising the bar in tax collection administration efficiency with resultant increase in higher revenue collection. The Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL is now simplifying oil trading with nairalization of sales of crude oil to local refineries. This is going to further strengthen the Naira. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is the surgeon-general, resetting the rearrangement of the internal organs of the economy. Proceeds from crude oil sales will not be housed by CBN for proper accountability. The collaboration among key stakeholders in economic management and coordination has improved with effective increase in production outputs. Any cynic can argue or deny these but facts are sacred.

I have heard many cynics calling the recorded progress “accidental consequence of trial by error”. This is no doubt a statement from the pit of hatred for the government and disloyalty to the nation. The modus operandi to achieving a desired goal does not have a strict uniform order. Often times, many unintended consequences are mostly the most desirable consequences. Therefore, whether or not the outcome is a result of a structured methodology, the result, if desirable should be celebrated. The government who achieve same should also be applauded always. If failure will attract criticism, then success should also fetch commendations.

Ironically, these set of “cash-tivists” called activists that we have in Nigeria can hardly separate criticism from hatred. In their usual blind hatred for the holder of the office, they try to run down the country they are using its passport to travel abroad to collect funding for disrupting the same government. They are often ladened with biased hatred.

Many prophets of doom and false men of God predicted the rise of dollar to climb the roof top to N4000/$1. Some of them were all over social media, TV and radio stations to prophesy evil for a country they call their own. It would appear as though they were paid by foreign agents to bad mouth Nigeria in order to demarket our greatest potentials.

Quite a number of them were just ignorantly talking and making unintelligent analysis just to chase clout and look holier than thou. It was a combination of treachery to a nation and conspiracy against the government. The eventuality of course did not go their unpatriotic prediction. Nigeria economy is gradually picking up. But now, they are silent in disgrace of their own hypocrisy.

Interestingly, in a twist of fate, the congregants who listened to these “men of God” desecrating the altar to make unreligious inflammatory projections against the country have started to call out these misguided clergies. The evil is not of the religion but of the misguided fanatics of religion.

I have observed that most of the vociferous ranters who were giving a guillotine choke on the government when things were at the lowest have suddenly lost their voices now that things are picking up. I have searched everywhere but I have not read from any of them, acknowledging the turn around progress recorded so far and appreciating the government. Rather, they are burying their head in shame while rooting for other areas of needles criticism.

The shameless nonentity, the “uncertified expert in forex dealings” who wrongly advised innocent but gullible people to “keep their dollars” would have enjoyed a retributive justice if only we were operating a criminal justice system similar to that of China. It is high time some of these incendiary statements are treated as incitement against the state. Only then would the likes of outlawed homosexual advocates stop hiding under cross dressing to break the law against the act.

Indeed, these campaigners of calumny are agents of evil who prey on our illness to get fed. They hit and eat only in crises. In harmony and progress, they are empty and irrelevant.

Going by the way some paid agents wrote off this nation with a tag of irredeemability, it will be a good thing to do if there can be a policy to name and shame those who are decorated pessimists. Those who do not see anything good in the good we are doing but only see bad even in the good we are doing. The colour of good to them, depends on the fill of their pockets. And the colour of bad depends on the stint of their social relevance. They are everywhere with the voice of blackmail to force everyone to believing their false narrations. Even our most revered legal profession is not spared of these miscreants. They try to dominate the space with falsehood. But in truth, the eventuality has always been vindicating the patriots.

Wishing your country evil just to gloat the government you don’t like is not activism. It is a betrayal of a nation.

If you cannot praise when things are good, your criticism when things were bad could not have been for patriotic sake. Stop being a reactionary element, Nigeria will not fall for you to feast on. If the singing of the parrot does not enjoy your amazement, you must be a fan of the bray of the ass. Anyone who does not celebrate the rising of his country or celebrates the downfall of that nation does not deserve the honour of the citizenship of that nation.

GOD IS HERE