Happy New Year Nigerians
NIGERIANS came into 2011 thinking mainly about elections – 2012 is offering more, elections in some States and mostly fear of bombs and economic hardship. These combinations promise a year everyone would approach with trepidation.
Insecurity jumped to an embarrassing top place in the minds of Nigerians with the bombing of Nigeria’s 5oth anniversary celebration. More bombs targeted at those celebrating the festivities of 2010 changed the focus of the country from the regular disturbances mostly in Jos and Bauchi to wider national concerns.
As 2011 closes in the next two days, it would be remembered as the year of bombs. Nigerians have never been more bombed in their 51 years. In churches, markets, barracks, on the streets and entertainment places, the bombs kept exploding in 2011. Hardly a week went without a bomb exploding somewhere. As the confidence of the criminals grew, they splashed terror across the nation.
It was a remarkable year that has left scars that Nigerians are bearing. How would 2012 be different? Will the bombs stop? Will the country return to innocence again? What would the security agencies do in 2012 that they did not do in 2011?
We had cause in 2011 to wonder where governments were. From the comatose local governments to the pliant state governments and the unremarkable federal government, 2011 was ordinary, or extraordinary in governments’ neglect of the people.
Except for the elections that forced politicians to interact with the people, the distance between governments and the people widened in 2011. Promises that were eloquently made during the elections were forgotten in days. Will governments remember the people in 2012? Will it matter any more what the people think of governments since elections are still a considerable time away?
Some elections in some States will not have the capacities to make governments act for the people. As far as the pie at the centre has been secured, government thinks more of its welfare than the people’s. A look at the budget spells it out clearly.
As has been the case in the past years, government is spending more maintaining itself in office, than it is spending on infrastructure that would benefit the people. What does a 2012 budget that would spend 78 per cent on government daily running costs and 28 per cent on infrastructure say? Government defends this waste, in other words telling Nigerians it is not the responsibility of government to cater for them.
The same attitude may not apply to the question of tackling insecurity that has fettered Nigerians, shut down opportunities and created an atmosphere of fear everywhere, every time for everybody, but the results are the same. Nigerians have never lived with anxiety and fear as they did in the past year.
Government is rather unhelpful. The failure to make an indelible point about punishing criminals has led to an indiscernible position that has boosted impunity.
What matters most to government is hiking the price of petrol while its various agencies are increasing the cost of accessing the poor services they provide. The campaign to increase the price of fuel is being pushed as if it is the remaining lifeline for Nigeria. How these new prices would affect Nigerians is the least of government concerns.
Happy New Year Nigerians. Welcome to the year that will test the acclaimed resilience of Nigerians and the minimal contribution governments make to their well-being.
