Finally, with a little less than four months to the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s /Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s administration of eight years, it will no longer be out of place for citizens to ventilate their disappointments with this government and criticize same for unfulfilled promises and undelivered expectations. Moreover, the popular initial justification of the All Progressives Party regarding how the People’s Democratic Party corruptly rampaged the state for sixteen years, will no longer avail a party that has clearly demonstrated a more sophisticated hatred towards the people it covenanted to protect, preserve and defend. In all ways, except may be the Fulani nation, the Nigerian masses are left for dead with breaths of uneasiness, hardship, hunger, lack, oozing from their nostrils.

This administration reminds me of Genghis Kahn and his punishment of God theory. He once said to his people “I am the punishment of God, if you have not done something terrible, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.” From all indications, it seems PMB is Nigeria’s Genghis Khan with his spate of adversarial policies that have greatly multiplied the pains of the people through the queues.

SIM Registration and NIN Linkage Queues

In March 2008, the Nigerian government led by Umaru Musa Yaradua introduced Subscribers’ Identification Module (SIM) registration, which met little or no resistance at all. Then came PMB in December 2020 with National Identification Number (NIN)-Subscribers’ Identification Module (SIM) linkage Policy which was supposed to be a subtle continuation of what President Umaru Musa Yaradua already introduced. Guess what? PMB asked over two hundred million Nigerians – with over one hundred and ninety million phones, and whereas, over one hundred million have more than one sim card- to thug it out at their local government Areas. Are there not seven hundred and seventy-four local government areas in Nigeria?

How in our widest dream were those supposed to service the millions of Nigerians to participate in the exercise?  At the same time, the Government issued an ultimatum which further engendered the pandemonium to follow the queues at various local Government centers. As a transporter that I was then, I had several encounters with people having to travel from one local Government Area on Lagos Island which was so rough and crowded for them, to another in the mainland within the same state just to beat the deadline. On some of those occasions where I transported those troubled people who were supposed to be on their jobs as I was on my own job around 11 am, one of them had told me in the vehicle from Ajah, that he got the information that Eredo Local Government in Epe was not so rowdy, but on getting to Epe, the center was worse than where I picked her from. It was at that point I swore-at whatever cost- not to take part in that exercise until Government addresses the situation.

The policy did not care about the elderly who would not be able to stand on queues for long or thug it out with younger populace. The policy did not consider Nigerians who migrated to other countries who would not be able to travel back to Nigeria solely for that purpose. As at the time of writing this article, over thirty-five million Nigerians have still not complied with that policy. Unfortunately, some of those who managed to comply, have not been linked despite the fact that government later created franchises for the exercise.   It is hard to comply with policies without human face. 

CVR Exercise and PVC Collection

The Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR) is an exercise organized for the purpose of registering citizens who turned 18 years after the last registration exercise and for those who could not participate in the last exercise for one reason or the other. The Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) mandates the Commission to carry out CVR. The first batch of the exercise for the forth coming 2023 General Election began on the 28^TH of June 2021. As Usual, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made use of its regular traditional Local Government Area offices and may be a few other centers, to register the expected 93.4 million voters.  

In a state where there is political apathy like Nigeria, where majority of the few who tag along politically are doing so to eke out a living and survive, a sensitive government would be expected to create and pursue policies of endearment and programs that are people-friendly. If a policy, like electoral policy, does not directly impact the citizens or directly delivers the dividends of the democracy they have labored for at their door posts, but rather stresses them, frustrates them, or requires them to still spend of their meagre income, especially where it comes with threats and ultimatums, the government should expect complete apathy, non-compliance and hatred for its programs.   

Fuel Scarcity

 On August 18, 2022, Premium Times reported that the Federal Government of Nigeria mulls national summit on removal of petroleum subsidy. Immediately such consideration became public knowledge, the supply chains of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) became entangled. The actors waited and observed for a while, selling their stock bit by bit while carefully studying the business countenance and policy terrain to follow up till around December 2022. Majority of the sellers did not buy new stock or bought lower than the normal average. Because the Federal Government subsidizes PMS with around 235 Naira or thereabout per litre, if the subsidy is removed, the cost of buying at the market would skyrocket.

The business ethos of vibrant actors in the oil sector is strictly to make money. So, they simply keep their stock or sell gradually while trying to restock lower than usual. Its simple business sense. They keep what they bought at a relatively lower price with subsidy on, and then sell at double the price when subsidy is off. The Nigerian commercial spaces are volatile and the actors are opportunistic.

A smart government knows when to keep shut about its program. If it was a case of espionage, it could have been understandable, but where that information on Government’s plan to remove subsidy came from Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, it depicts insensitivity towards the role of petroleum and the delicate nature of Nigeria with its over-reliance on it. So, not the Lokoja flooding as reported by the government, or high cost of vessels occasioned by shortage of US Dollars, higher demand than supply and inadequate trucks as canvassed by the Marketers Association of Nigeria, (MOMAN) that are responsible for the long queues at gas stations, rather, the careless, indefinite, imprecise, trial and error methodology of government is actually responsible.

In this year alone, this administration has reversed itself on policies more than thrice. If a policy is well considered, good, timeously introduced, and effectively implemented, it needs not be reversed. By the time President decided to defer subsidy removal to the incoming government as reported by THIS DAY, the deed was already done. When prices go up in Nigeria, they never come down to the same spot, and greatly adding salt to the injury is the long queues to get the product at higher cost. Nigerians have two of bad options: Either buy at lower price from government pumps with long queues or pay your way at the gate of other pumps, and buy at higher price. 

Scarcity of New Naira Design

A lot of analysts have enumerated on the advantages of the new Naira design, but one is easily understandable by all and sundry: That some wealthy people and politicians in Nigeria have stock-piled the old Naira notes for the purpose of vote-buying and influencing during the elections. The aftermath of the introduction of the new notes with corresponding ultimatum, without accurate analysis for sufficient injection and  without machinery for the financial sector’s cooperation and compliance is the birth of another chaotic and opportunistic circumstances in which (1) POS operators overcharge Nigerians thereby extorting them of their hard earned money, (2) Bankers engage in shady deals of selling Naira to POS operators, (3) angry citizens started targeting banks for violence and banks shutting down both systems and branches prone to attacks.

 Ultimately, the crux of this article is that, in the last six months or thereabout, this government has introduced about six different policies directly or indirectly, with about three running simultaneously that require citizens to be on the queue for events unprofitable to them. Anarchy is in the offing. The questions are, must Nigeria shut down to get to a few corrupt individuals? Are these all that President Muhammadu Buhari persisted and cried for in those years of his failed attempts to emerge as the President of Nigeria?” Does this administration have at all a moral justification to have ever initiated a consideration to remove fuel subsidy having regards to its promises and having vehemently opposed same during GEJ’s administration? Is PMB truly the punishment of God? All these questions and more are answered in the understanding of how a people are confronted by the consequences of the choice they made. Unfortunately, there’s also no hiding place from the agonizing queues and hardship for those who voted their conscience.

Ebenezer Omotola