Dear President Buhari, $4 billion won’t be enough

from the fence

 

Good day Sir,

I never imagined I will be writing this letter, but I felt compelled by a sensed urgency before the approval of your request to enable you and I get a better bargain for the betterment of the country. I hope to make it short.

The media is awash with news that you are seeking the legislature’s approval for a loan of $4 billion and €710 million loan from bilateral and multilateral organisations, in addition is a grant component of $125 million.

As expected sir, people are already kicking against this move of yours from all sections of the nation. You wouldn’t blame them sir, they have germane reasons. Nigeria’s debt profile has been rising in the course of your administration and our foreign reserves has highly depleted compared to what it used to be. Sir, we are almost loosing count of how many times you have sought for loans through different means. A recent report shows that we have spent 11.6 trillion naira in servicing debts while 8.1 trillion has been spent on capital projects, this is definitely not good.

People are asking what has been done with the previous loans that we have collected. Those loans like the one being sought for now where meant for capital projects and infrastructural development which in turn are to create jobs and better socio-economic conditions for the populace. Why are we currently in the top three of the global unemployment rate? Why is inflation still high and prices of basic commodities on a steady increase?

It clearly shows that even though these loans might have been taken with very good intentions, their usage has been far from correct. It means that fake contracts have been awarded. It means that authentic contracts have not been done even if money has been released. In simple terms Sir, it means that corruption, as usual, has taken its share, usually from 80 to 95%, or sometimes everything.

Sir it will surprise you to know that many of the NASS members who are to approve this loan request can collectively fund the bill without going bankrupt. I know it may sound awkward, like poke nosing in people’s private affairs, but sometimes these things have to be said. You see, politics in Nigeria is a highly lucrative “business/venture” and in business there is what is called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Since these politicians from the local to the federal government level got their wealth through politics, directly or indirectly, communal consciousness behooves on them to contribute their own meaningful CSRs to the good of Nigeria. Anyway, corruption has become institutionalized honey and King Solomon advised that if one finds honey, he shouldn’t eat too much lest he vomits, but not so with us, until we get to 90 years and can no longer play politics, then comes relaxation and maybe regret on not being able to have savored life in its actual essence.

Recently, a footballer who used to play in Bahrain professional league returned to Nigeria, he noticed that his area in Lekki, Lagos state, had issues with drainage and bad roads, he saw it as his responsibility to fix the problem.

He brought 10 million naira cash in a video post and challenged other rich people in the area to contribute their own quota in fixing the issues in their neighborhood and you know the caliber of people who live in Lekki, they are even richer than this footballer.

Sir, if this footballer, like other artists and entrepreneurs can bring forth his hard-earned money to do ‘government’s job’, then politicians who get humongous soft-earned money, syphoned through a stroke of the pen, should do more even if it has to be in secret.

Pardon my digression. With the urgency in your letter to the senate, I think you are trying to get things done under the 1 year and few months you have left, I pray you excel. I don’t know why I believe you are a good man even though your reign has been filled with a lot of bad complexities; maybe just bad judgments/decisions I will say.

I am in support of taking loans if they are used properly. With the state of Nigeria’s infrastructure I believe that we need far more than the $4 billion you are asking for. But by all means, funds must be channeled into the purposes for which they are gotten. We need people to get things done, like Amaechi who has given an indelible plus to your administration through the start and completion of Lagos – Ibadan train station, the first of its kind, to begin and complete a project under one administration.

At a time I stopped complaining about corruption, it seems to have won the battle of the century or to be less pessimistic, half a century. Everyone appears righteous until the skeleton is found and justification begins to battle with repentance.

Someone said that Nigeria’s money is like a sea that will never dry. No wonder everyone comes to have their share with hands wide open since independence and till today the sea is not dried. With proper management of our resources, we should never have borrowed or at least very minimal. But since we are not there yet, go ahead and borrow, maybe $100 billion, the worst that can happen is that we will be officially sold to our creditors and then, maybe colonized properly and delivered from mismanagement.

 

 

 

Subscribe to our newsletter for latest news and updates. You can disable anytime.