To achieve a livable country, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in his book, “From the Third World to First: the Singaporean Story” said Singapore needed “well-organized, well-staffed, and well-directed” institutions “to follow up the exhortations and stirring speeches” delivered by the leadership. Where are the well-delivered speeches of Nigerian leaders to inspire devotion and patriotism?
Prime Minister Lee says to achieve the Singapore of advanced development; the Ministry of Education was given the responsibility to unleash practical initiatives to “changed people’s thinking and attitudes”. He says they gave themselves “a decade to accomplish this”. A decade!
Twenty-three years into the fourth republic, Nigerians are getting poorer as violence rises. Power grid collapse is almost becoming a daily occurrence. The latest is that the financial condition of the country has reached its worst form as the cost of debt repayment surpasses the government’s revenue in the first quarter of 2022.
From the details of the 2022 fiscal performance report for January through April, Nigeria’s total revenue stood at 1.63 trillion naira while debt servicing stood at 1.94 trillion naira, showing a difference of over 300 billion naira. Government blames pipeline vandals, crude oil thieves, and high petrol subsidy cost for the situation.
The implication of this is that Nigeria is not productive and cannot fund education and healthcare for example. It means that Nigeria does not have the capacity to implement its 2022 budget so it goes borrowing to meet some of her expectations. By excessive borrowing, Nigeria is now living beyond its means and she is at the mercy of lenders who would come for her head to get back their money.
Nigeria is in intensive care and requires a surgeon of immense aptitude like Lee Kuan Yew, not men and women whose tradition is to ransack her treasury and then pose as saviors doling out dollars to buy their consciences. Many Nigerians are increasingly coming to see that Mr. Peter Obi is the country’s Prime Minister Lee.
