Dear Creator of the universe and Lord of the worlds,
In Nigeria, before the 2015 elections, our compatriots of different faiths were united in one supplication: “Dear God, remove the PDP from Aso Rock and its bungling oddball of a president, Goodluck Jonathan. You answered our prayers. For this, we’re eternally grateful. But it appears the logic behind that prayer was flawed.
We thought, in our ignorant mortal weakness, that if you gave us Buhari as president, everything would fall into place. We thought that his presence alone would stop the police from taking bribes and the civil servants from padding budgets. We thought his anti-corruption credentials alone would improve our economy and erase the fuel queues. We thought that there would be immediate level-playing ground where the sons and daughters of the mighty would stand equal with the children of the unknown.
Even though some of our compatriots came to you with more sublime intentions, the aforementioned mindset was what most Nigerians carried. (This servant included.)
I fear that you will leave us to our own devices and to President Buhari to solve our problems. Please don’t do that.
Because the policemen have not stopped taking bribes. We’re still subjected to all forms of impunity. And while we acknowledge and thank you for the improvement in security, especially in the Northeast, Nigerians are still indiscipline – and we continue to drown in the misery of our own wickedness.
While we concede that things would have been worse if Jonathan had continued, we’re still terrorized by those who abuse situational powers – including men in uniform. Only recently, a soldier told me “I will kill you” simply because I responded with an emphatic “no” when he tried to cut the line at an ATM. Men in uniform still kill innocent citizens extra-judicially – as if the government did not change.
The big shots still find ways to employ their children in government agencies while the children of the poor are told to go and create jobs. If, for example, the president requests for the staff roll of CBN and other agencies, he would be surprised to find newly employed children of big men whose parents are friends or political appointees of the new government. These positions were not advertised to give everyone equal opportunity to apply.
The economy has gone crazy. And both the government and experts are confused as to what to do to subdue it.
Despite Buhari’s presence, the electricity companies still cheat us. When my wife complained of a huge bill Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (Abuja Disco) brought to our house, the staff informed her that they’d been mandated by their bosses to generate a certain amount from every town. So, after deducting the payment of those with meters, they share whatever that is left among the customers without meters – no matter how large the money is and how little electricity we consume.
And when we requested for a meter, we were asked to wait two months. This is not justice. And it happens with Buhari as our president. We simply want to pay for what we consume. Is that too much to ask? Why can’t the government force the DISCOs to provide meters now? After all, it was part of the agreement they signed with BPE. The people who benefit from electricity are the owners and managers of electricity companies. At this rate, darkness will persist. I draw this conclusion from simple logic. Whether electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) provide electricity or not, they get paid. How? Through estimated billing to consumers without meters and those with analog meters. Therefore, if a customer consumed N100 of electricity, he gets N5, 000 bill. The solution to this is also simple: if we don’t consume, we don’t pay.
That can be achieved if we get everybody a pre-paid meter, so that our electricity consumption would be like the usage of our mobile phones, where you pay according to the calls you make. However, we do not see any indication that the government is going to help us in this regard – or force the electricity companies to do the right thing. So far, the DISCOs are waiting to collect enough money from us before investing – what they’ve invested so far is nothing compared to what they make monthly.
Abuja Disco for example, allocated over N260 million as monthly electricity bill that it will generate from my home town of Bida. Yet, Abuja Disco intends to provide only 500,000 meters to its customers (in Niger, Abuja, Nasarawa and Kogi states) not immediately, but in five years. So we still have another five years of darkness to endure.
In short, the only thing we have now is hope. However, except for the dark days of Jonathan, Nigerians have never been without hope. It is what sustains us in the face of more troubles than misery itself would give. Although this hope is more logical than the last. We clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have a president who cares and who is concerned. Yet, we need you if our problems are to be solved.
Therefore, we’re revising our prayers:
We do not presume Buhari will solve our problems. Only you can do that. Thus, dear Lord, the Sustainer of the worlds, use President Buhari and our governors (the good ones and the knuckleheads) as tools to work out our problems. You warned us that you would not change the situation of a people until they change themselves. Some of us have changed. Please ignore the rascals who haven’t. Ameen.
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