Alphonsus Nweze
The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, has decried the increasing negative economic, social, political and security situation in Nigeria.
The traditional ruler who spoke Saturday at his Ime-Obi Palace in Onitsha during his 20th Ofala festival said: “Our country today appears to be in dire straight than at any other time since national independence, except for three years of the Civil War.”
He said that the biggest challenge of the nation now is insecurity which affects most parts of the country and disrupts every aspect of our public and private lives.
The monarch lamented that the inability of the farmers to harvest their crops due to terrorists, and the conflicts between the farmers and cattle herders have been causing serious inflation and food scarcity in the country.
Although, said the traditional ruler, there has been phenomenal increase in fuel subsides since 2015, the price of fuel has been more than doubled over the same period.
The crude oil export, said the Obi, has almost halved due to organised thefts by domestic and international syndicates even as the security agencies look the other way.
“This situation has diminished our foreign exchange earnings in an era of high oil prices, leading to unprecedented foreign loans to support the recurrent expenditures of the government. External debts have grown by more than ten folds since 2015 from $19.7b $98.6b,” said the Obi of Onitsha.
He equally said that the scarcity of USA dollars to meet corporate and private foreign obligations has driven the value of naira very low, about 30 percent of its 2015 value, saying that some forecasters are predicting a rate of $1 to 1000 by the end of the year.
He decried the dwindling education in the country, saying that as at June this year the World Bank stated that Nigeria has the highest number of Out-of-School children at eleven million, among the highest in the world.
“All public universities have been shut down for some eight months due to strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), while many state Governments are still in arrears of payment of salaries, pensions and other financial obligations. Unemployment is rife particularly among young graduates and there is a worrying exodus of middle class professional families abroad in search of better life,” lamented the Obi.
He pointed that the emergence of Third Force Movement represented by Peter Obi of Labour party and backed by the teeming youths of the country as a political pressure group is likely to redefine the politics and governance in the country, irrespective of who emerged as the president of Nigeria in 2023.
The monarch called for a peaceful, free and transparent election with a clear mandate for the winner to face the daunting task of building a safe and united country that provides equitable opportunities for all citizens in line with the United Nations declaration on fundamental human rights.
“That is what the average citizens yearns for and deserves,” stressing that “the stakes are very high for political parties and the nation.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) owes a huge duty to posterity to discharge its statutory function faithfully and transparently,” he ended.
