MONDAY PHILIPS EKPE writes that the people’s sorry living conditions can become tools for holding the ruling elite accountable
When President Bola Tinubu declared to his guests at the Villa the other day that hunger and poverty had been in Nigeria long before he assumed its highest office, he inadvertently opened the gates of hell. Accusations and insults were thrown at him freely. Insensitive. Inhumane. Clueless. Opportunistic. And more. Truth be told, the only wrong thing about that statement is the mouth that spoke it. He, the “Asiwaju” of Lagos, now Nigeria’s Asiwaju, wasn’t supposed to utter that, at least, publicly. When a national football team’s top striker misses a critical penalty, it isn’t his responsibility to remind his compatriots that such an error is not peculiar to him, that even the world’s greatest footballers do fumble during crucial moments. After all, Tinubu swore on May 29, 2023 to, among other duties, create an environment for his people’s happiness.
Rather than bear grudges against the president, the substance of his Freudian Slip should sober those concerned about the country’s intractable socio-economic conditions. The perennial paradox of suffering in the midst of plenty ought to engage the minds and hearts of people who are genuinely desirous of concrete positive changes in the indices that portray the good life – comparable to other progressive places on earth. Despondency is certainly not Nigerian by origin. Not even the present unfortunate ranking of being the nation with the largest number of multi-dimensionally pauperised people on the planet should suggest otherwise. China, India and some other countries once achieved that ignoble tag. Today, they’re proud global frontrunners in various spheres. Nigeria’s current characterisation too can be altered.
