By Kate Henshaw
I woke up on Sunday morning and as I performed my morning rituals, I contemplated my country, Nigeria and the attendant hardships that face the common man. I looked in the mirror as I brushed my teeth with water I bought from the store as I cannot drink my tap water and wondered what next lay in store for us. We face an onslaught of negative policies that make us groan more from the weight of the load.

On October 7, it rained heavily again that the floods were all over … at least those of us on the Island and Lekki in particular,had a stressful day.I stayed indoors the next day as I did not contemplate driving through my ‘ocean drive’ to get to where I needed to. I did not enjoy my forced rest as there was no electricity and that was no wonder as the thunder and lightning of the day before was not so lenient.

My generator was bad and the man to fix it had not showed up yet after promising the previous week to come and replace the part that needed changing. So there I was with my daughter, praying for PHCN to have mercy on us and they eventually did six hours later and I looked up into the sky and said thank you… .

The end of the year does not look like it will be received with the usual gaiety and celebrations for next year we put on our boxing gloves and our whole battle armour to defend the last vestige of hope that we have in the form of the fuel subsidy. If I understand the meaning of the word subsidize, it means that I am not paying the actual price of a product because it has been reduced to enable me afford it.

Removal then means that it will no longer be within my reach if my purchasing power is low, and this is true for millions of Nigerians who are barely scraping enough to live on. We are being told by the government that it would free up to N1.2trillion of public fund that would be used to address the national infrastructure deficit. The NNPC Group General Manager, Public affairs, Dr Livi Ajuonuma has been quoted as saying that the removal of the subsidy will mean our universities will be well funded, roads built and we would benefit from other social infrastructure. How true is all these given that previous increases in petroleum products under past administrations never yielded any positive result or effect in our lives instead corruption has become more widespread and on the increase.

How about the huge and staggering salaries our law makers take home being subsidized? How about all our elected leaders leading by example and taking a huge cut in their salaries so that we can then say they too have sacrificed? Why does it always have to be dumped on our doorstep, we the ordinary man, who already is battling with a lot of challenges

under so much hardship.The Federal Government is rumoured to have set aside substantial amount of money to counter Nigerians’ rejection of the fuel subsidy removal by the way of a campaign to support its position. Where has this money come from? How about fixing our dilapidated and non-functioning refineries? How can we always be in the midst of plenty and never have any? We are surrounded by water yet we do not have clean water to drink? We supply electricity to neighbouring countries but we do not have regular power supply .

We are blessed with the most intelligent minds on the face of the earth, as I believe that Nigerians are the most industrious people I have ever met, yet our educational system is nothing to write home about. As I pondered on these and wrote my article, the electricity went out and I was forced to wait for few hours before I could continue writing this article, luckily I had saved what I had written so far.

It is not about the removal of subsidy but dealing with the spirit of greed and avarice that is gripping this nation from head to toe. It is not about sensitizing me to understand why the Federal Government chooses to drive another nail into the coffin of the already dead masses but about giving us a sense of well being and belonging to this nation we call ours, improving my quality of life.

I have lost the will to continue praying for God to better our lives as I believe He has drawn His curtains and called on the angels to sing to Him as loudly as they can to drown out the cries of a nation that He has blessed in every possible way but has refused to stand, still crawling on its belly at an adult age of 51years.

The FG needs to get our priorities right. Make life worth living for us the citizens of this country and stop hitting us with a sledge hammer while we are on the floor without any strength left to get up. Simply put, we have a right to health, good roads, clean water, sound education, food, security, electricity. Ask me not what I can do for my country but what my country can do for me…at the very least.

To ease tension, I would like to congratulate Funke Akindele for the very successful premiere of Return of Jenifa. It is a must see.