We’ve had so many of them. Slogans to the rescue. In recent time I remember the likes of “Heart of Africa” and “Good People, Great Nation”. Even the last National Orientation Agency leadership floated a “Do the right thing” campaign and, as if we have not had enough, the current administration, not to be outdone, has unveiled theirs- “Change begins with me”.
Thankfully the varsity of the claim made in that statement, has been very well questioned by Nigerians especially on social media indicating a clear rejection of an idea that suggests the long-suffering people are to blame for the sorry state of the country and that the onus was on them to become ‘born again’ before they can access the change promised them by the government.
One question I can’t get around though is what really is the essence of unveiling yet another campaign when we have a long history of similar efforts that fell through after millions of tax payers money had been invested into it. One cannot help wondering, do we have the luxury of this jamboree? Should this morality masturbation be the main preoccupation of a government leading a country in recession? Are these people existing in an alternate reality, different from the one the masses exist in?
We have a problem and the problem is not that we are standing drenched in the rain without an umbrella, it is that the people leading us are not even aware. They have themselves encased in a bubble. What with the head of NAN, Bayo Onanuga, a journalist who at the very least should, by the very nature of his training, be able to feel the pulse of the nation, coming out in public to make a huge mess of whatever reputation he has gathered in his life time. His claim: stories of the suffering in the nation are exaggerated by the media. His reason? His daughter revealed that a flight to London was not empty. So if Nigerians are still travelling abroad, everything is okay.
That such characters are the ones leading us states clearly why we are where we are. Mr Onanuga can afford a Virgin Air ticket for his daughter, who probably schools abroad. He also can by the virtue of his position access foreign exchange to pay her fees at the official rates. His house is serviced at tax payers’ expense. He has no clue what the cost of diesel is. He just has light twenty-four-seven. His official fleet never runs out of fuel. He has mobile policemen guarding him. Even the WiFi he used to make his now infamous Facebook post is perhaps paid for by government. He has zero knowledge of the situation in the country even though he heads one of the government’s news agencies.
To this character, things can only be said to have gotten bad when from the window of his fast moving convoy, he sees Nigerians on the street scavenging refuse dumps for their meals (and some are already) or when his daughter boards Virgin and is the only person on board.
It is the Bayo Onanuga kind of mindset that gives birth to such poorly thought-out and needless campaigns such as the one recently launched by the president. It is appalling and downright nauseating that Minister Lai Mohammed and his principal having concluded that Nigerians were morally bankrupt and complete nonentities and that this was the primary cause of bad roads, no power and the negative GDP, decided that another slogan borne on moral reorientation was the answer, the magic wand that will turn everything around.
It is pertinent to note that almost a week after figures were released to confirm the recession, there’s not been a word from the president addressing it. One would have expected that the father of the nation, would talk to his people, acknowledge their pains and reassure them, itemizing in the process, the things he and his team will do or are already doing, to get us out of it and what he expects of the citizens during this period. That is how you galvanize a people to action. Obama did it after he took office and ‘inherited’ a broken America in 2008.
Slogans do not solve problems. They certainly do not take a country out of recession.
We can scream this new slogan until our voice boxes tear out or hire ghost hands to ensure it keeps trending online for the next year, we will still be where we are, or even worse-off if our leaders do not sit up and do the job they were elected to do. This chasing of rats while the house is on fire, is taking us nowhere.
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