OPINION: NIGERIA TODAY
By Richard Inoyo.
Lagos is hostile to the poor, without public accomodation and business district provision for its poor, the State government is busy destroying shops and residence of poor lagosians, using building permits and urban renewal as pretext to continue the hate against proletariat, all in an attempt to get rid of them. The Faculty of Advocates being Nigerian Bar Association needs to rise and challenge the Lagos state government to end the harassment and unethical destruction of assets and livelihoods of poor Nigerians in lagos.
Akwa Ibom is harsh to opposition politicians and activists_ compromising almost everything on its space, investing outside the state, building senseless tower in Lagos state, while its once infrastructural gains get eroded as bad roads and potholes in Itu and elsewhere continue to hit new depth and parameters with zero investment to take flood and other climate catastrophes. Delusion on the part of the leaders is making them to invest more in religious crap_ money that could have been used to build worldclass robotics and AI Research centers for new growth. Oron is now the headquarters of kidnapping in Nigeria_ the Gulf of Guinea serving the crime trade.
Its neighbor, Cross River State is playing the politics of lack_ a dangerous politics that forever pin the State to giving excuses, foisting its young citizens and graduates to be running to Lagos, Abuja and Portharcourt for job, the very job, the leaders refused to create while the leadership is busy buying SUVs for close politicians, state house of assembly members and judges, along with turning many youths to hallelujah kids, praising primitive achievements in road repairs and selected traffic lights installation in few LGAs, while the primary health care across 18 LGAs can't boast of having doctors mounting them in the proper ratio nor the needed equipment and energy facility guarantee to run them efficiently_ the problem persist. The solution is, doctors and health workers need to be recruited and posted to rural places with cars and better housing given to them to enable them stay with rural allowances.
But then, in terms of sport, the state is engaging its public schools' students rightly and helping them to engage appropriately and identify their talent and nurture same. I was at the sporting complex yesterday at the UJ Esuene State, and I love some things I saw. The director and commissioner of sport are innovating impressively. More can be done.
Benue State is improving, we are seeing the investment in agriculture and road_ big investments. Try to visit, I was there few weeks ago.
Delta State government is forever interested in media achievements than real development. Buying time and doing very little with the huge resources in its disposal.
Edo State has been captured in bondage, nothing good to expect, the hardship and failure of governance is now ubiquitous. No solution in sight. No solution, I repeat, hunger is hitting hard and major roads across the state are collapsing and failing at unprecedented rate.
The South East is under siege, a militarised zone that foist travelers to come down from their vehicles and trek while passing certain military check points. You don't see such in anywhere in Nigeria. My travel across the East throughout October tells me the president needs to arrest this madness.
Across key oil installations and extraction centres in the Niger Delta, you are humiliated to raise your hands up with guns pointing at you before you can check in or check out of such places_ an erasure of indigenous people dignity to move freely in their own lands.
In the north, militias and bandits rule supreme, taking taxes and reproducing insecurity at a scale that affects everything from food security to infrastructure vulnerability. And just recently, the rights of children were openly vitiated in prison and in court, until the president regains his senses and call for the discontinuation of the trial of minors seeing how he has been embarrassed for such absurdity not just in media but in the comity of nations.
And for the rest of the country called Nigeria is in a mess. Leadership is missing in action and the lack of imagination is costing the nation too much_ hence, its younger ones are all prepping to Japa. We have a crisis.
Leadership ought to serve life, community and business, sadly we are seeing the direct opposite, a disservice to all three.
There are NIGERIANS who feel we need new hardship and crisis to foist us to have radical and fundamental shift; I beg to differ, we already have plenty of crises that ought to push us to address poverty, hardship and climate catastrophes.
What we need now more than ever is a clear voice to guide new policy-compassion for all.
Signed
Richard Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens' Solution Network.
