FOR  those schooled in the art of faith, nothing is impossible. We have seen desert lands turned to lush vegetable lands in the states of Israel and Lebanon. We have seen Singapore with no visible mineral resource become a first world country and there are many examples. Why are we finding it difficult to turn our negative situations into positives?

Shall we continue to bemoan our past? Are we going to continue with the ties of our past? Can’t we begin again and afresh? During a discussion with a friend recently, a top analyst in one of this country’s leading media outfit and he gave me a very chilling verdict, nothing can be done about the country’s economy, even in the next four years, he stated emphatically.  He made it sound so convincing – the economy has been so battered in the last 16 years by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, regime and it will really take sometime for us to get out of the woods.

The question now: Are we going to allow the situation to consume us or we should use the opportunities provided by this hardship to look inward, especially as it concerns the vast resources available in the land? Do we see the advantages in it and use the opportunity to address the political and structural distortions that has kept us down all these past years or we continue to mourn the situation? Even if we have to wait, like my good friend advised, what guarantee do we have that it will not end in the same cycle of waste that we have witnessed in the past? Have those in the position of leadership learned any lessons from the past?

We hear top public office holders calling for patience when they have not been good stewards of our commonwealth. Apart from the anti-corruption recovered loots, has this government displayed anything different from what we have witnessed in the past? Could things have been different? As it is now, from what is currently playing out, we have turned full cycle, from a promised welfarist/socialist ideology party, to a full blown neo-capitalist government, meaning it is the survival of the fittest situation.

If you cannot compete, then die. We witnessed a bit of it with the Tinubu and Fashola Lagos state governments. Those who could not survive the heat in Lagos were advised to go back to their villages and not a few heeded the advise. With heavy taxes and strong capitalist business administration, Lagos state got transformed and it was at a cost of so much sweat and blood.

That is the situation we have now found ourselves in the present All Progressive Congress, APC, party government of Nigeria. With the fuel subsidy fully removed, foreign exchange rates in full flow, imports, foodstuffs and everything deregulated, it is now a situation of survive or die.

But death cannot come easily, so we must devise means of survival. The big companies are beginning to find out that corporate social responsibility must be part of their key functions or fold up, same with the rich in society. There must be a balance between the rich and the poor, any unfavourable tilt in either direction will upset the system. It is this distortion that has resulted in so many deviant groups manifesting in the country – militants, insurgents, kidnappers etc – So, what must be done?

Since the Federal government has decided to allow every individual to fend for himself, we should not pretend to be running any form of welfare State. As we have deregulated the economy, we must deregulate the structures. I mean it is time to allow every state, ethnic group, regions, co-operatives et al, to begin to take their destinies in their own hands.

It is clear that the Federal government cannot survive peacefully with the present structure in place. The centre is too unwieldy and must be re-structured. Every group must begin to look inward. Before the discovery of oil, we fed ourselves. It is a surprise that the people of Nigeria have forgotten that the steel culture(NOK) was once a part of us.

There is a solution to all of our challenges, let us look inward, let us look into our land, let us look at the resources that we have been blessed with by God and nature and let us begin to farm our lands. I must stress that solutions will never come from foreign aids. The people are already suffering and things must not be allowed to get out of hand.

We cannot continue to say the cause of our present problems are from past administrations without proferring alternative solutions. If we bury our heads in the past, we will never move forward. The Niger-Delta crises will continue unless the Federal government allows the people a certain measure of control the resources in their land. States in the northern part of the country cannot ban sale and consumption of alcohol and turn around to benefit from revenue generated from alcohol taxes in other states.

We must decide on how we want to move ahead. Every state should be allowed to decide on the way they want to manage their economy and run their own government without the over bearing presence of the federal government.

It is time to run a true fiscal federalism, that is the solution to our present economic mess.

Mr. Sunny Ikhioya