“When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.” – Louis Nizer
This week, social media was abuzz with trendy pictures of All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders (General Muhammadu Buhari; former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; and, former Kwara State Governor and Senator representing Kwara Central, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki) rocking APC sunglasses.
True to form, instead of the (Peoples Democratic Party) PDP attack-dogs to focus on saving their failing ship from sinking in next year’s general elections, they chose to make a mockery of these eminent gentlemen’s choice of political eyewear – failing to remember that “When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.”
This was the case when the Special Adviser to the President on New Media, Reno Omokri (also known as Wendell Simlin in social media circles), fabricated a flawed fantasy that “The future of Nigeria under President Jonathan is so bright” that the aforementioned APC leaders had to wear shades. If this statement were to be taken literally, one would assume that Nigeria as it currently is, is on the right track to a brighter future. However, when Mr. Omokri’s claims are weighed against Nigeria’s poverty profile on the United Nations Human Development Index and other developmental indicators, it is clear that the future of Nigeria – if President Jonathan is allowed to continue in office – is nothing to write home about.
First of all, since Mr. Omokri wants to deceive Nigerian’s about brightness and light – let’s talk about power. Since 2010, Nigeria has spent upwards of N553 Billion on the power sector. In addition to this, due to the lack of electricity in our homes, research conducted by the Community Research and Development Center (CREDC) has shown that Nigerians like you and I cumulatively spend more than N796.4 Billion annually to fuel the generators that power our homes. With this being the case, how bright can the future of our pockets be when we – the citizens – are outspending our own government in creating power?
If Mr. Omokri wants to talk about a brighter future, let him explain why education, specifically the literacy rate of Nigerians aged 15 and older, which is a key development indicator that predicts the future success of a nation is at an appalling 51.1% (or 90 million people) according to the United Nations Human Development Reports. Let Mr. Omokri and the PDP government that he represents also explain why this same human development index specifically says that 67.98% of Nigerians, which represents 120.3 million people survive on about N200 a day when our country produces over 2.5 million barrels of oil a day at $83 (N14100).
While Mr. Omokri and his PDP masters are also formulating their fancy assumptions of Nigeria’s future under Jonathan, let them tell us why we have over 650,000 internally displaced Nigerians in the North East that have not yet been catered for, when earlier this year, Aso Rock boasted of raising over N80 Billion for the Terror Victims’ Support Fund. Where has this money been going? Why are the domestic refugees not being cared for? What is so bright about a government that seems to have forgotten to take care of its own people due to the political permutations of the upcoming election?
As we go on into the future, we must not let people like Mr. Omokri make trivialities of the problems that we currently face as a nation. The future of Nigeria is too important to be left to individuals that create conjectures, and pose them as facts – when the numbers from development surveys have clearly been speaking for themselves: Nigeria under this PDP-led government is not on the right track. Nigeria needs to be salvaged now. We must take back our country at the ballot box so that our future can be saved from the failed policies (or a lack thereof) of this PDP-led government.
Olu Wole Onemola is the Public Relations Officer of the All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF), he tweets @OluWoleOnemola.
