2024: Let’s pray for Nigeria!

Since Nigeria is a star gold medal winner in prayers and celebrated spirituality, I think this intervention should be a special focus on the rational prayers for Nigeria.

In trying to take up this special task however, my attention was drawn to a verse in the Christian Holy Book: ‘You ask and receive not, because you asked amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts’ (James 4:3). Thus, the first prayer is that Nigerians would not continue to pray amiss.

First and foremost, it appears as if Nigerians are no longer interested in whether or not there are saboteurs or how many there are in Bola Tinubu’s government. They do not pray for a repeat of the Muhammadu Buhari era in which, even as a military General, his government was ‘hijacked by a cabal.’ In their view, that ought to have ended on May 28, 2023.

So, it behooves the president to not wait until faulty impressions are formed about his government before proving that he means well for the country. Tinubu shouldn’t be seen as lacking in empathy or having lost empathy with the people. Already, that impression is gaining traction and he needs to wake up before it snowballs into something else.

With the current situation of things, ours looks like a country afflicted, with weak institutions as one of its settled political imperatives. There is bleeding in every sector, with the economy suffering a lot of leakages. The country is gradually becoming unlivable, with poverty becoming not only a new normal but also making life miserable for the people.

The tragedy of our economic theories is that they work in contrast to economic realities. Or what type of economic policy is it that the only option left for the poor is suicide?

When the naira redesign policy gave birth to unlooked-for effects and widespread chaos some months back, with the scarcity of naira notes as one of its many consequences, Nigerians were quick to heap the blame – and, rightly, too - on Godwin Emefiele who at the time was the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Now, Emefiele is out of the loop but the problem seems to have resurfaced even in a more threatening form.

Not long after this government came on board, Vice President Kashim Shettima vowed that insecurity would soon become a thing of the past because “President Tinubu, in the next couple of weeks, will unveil the ‘Fulaku’ solution, which will address the grievances and the exclusion of our Fulani cousins in the North West.” That was on July 16, 2023. Today is January 6, 2024. ‘Fulaku Solution’ is yet to be unveiled. So, nothing has changed. As a matter of fact, Nigerians are of the view that the situation is gradually getting out of control.

Only on Christmas Eve, Fulani militia attack on some communities in Plateau State left no fewer than 200 people dead, with the terrorists vowing to return. So, if Fulaku is taking too long to feature, why can’t the president come up with a temporary strategy that can, in the least, make Nigerians sleep with their eyes half-closed? Isn’t the situation, as it is, killing?