By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
20-6-2025.
I am quite sure many people would be quick to point out that it does not need a rocket scientist to know that the ‘2027, Sai Tinubu’ (2027, Tinubu Only) people are into the racket only because they would save their skin, and their illegally acquired loot, and continue looting, if the president continues in office.
However, it would take very few people to publicly say so, because not a few are but those who benefit from the present regime, in which every citizen but a minimal minority wallows in abject poverty.
Another dirty ploy the Tinubu people employ is to collect the voters card of unsuspecting citizens and promise that they are getting new ones for them, giving out a token N2,000 with the assurance that the cards would be returned as soon as the renewal is completed. Returning them they would not in their vain thinking that those people would have no cards to use when the time (2027) of the elections comes.
Moreover, many projects are not cited based on needs, but based on who someone in the area knows. Money may even exchanged hands, before some of such could be extended to the area, in a regime that knows nothing better than under-the-table dealings.
So a second term victory for Tinubu would mean that his people would not have to scurry out of the country unprepared, on account of their suffocating CORRUPTION, which has become a passion with them. They would also not want to lose the freebies they get, as most of their household needs are provided by government. Besides, the president would appear to have come to the Presidency unprepared, but with only the sole intention of recouping what he had allegedly spent during his quest for office.
Given its virtual collapse, the environment for the Nigerian economy has become so hostile that many businesses are recording low turnover, coupled with huge losses in revenue. But they are not complaining much about that, because the poor Nigerians are at the receiving end of the difficult times. Others deliver unsatisfactory services, defined by a number of extortive policies, such as FREQUENT ABSENCE of NETWORK, and unnecessary SMS reminders by the TELECOM companies.
A number of the services providers make epileptic offerings at best, and (mostly) non available, at worst, with the tariffs raising all the same. This is the case in the power sector, where the minister is retained despite his huge failure. The failure and the retention of the minister appear to suggest he is successfully executing a predetermined agenda for the president.
All of these are the function of the overbearing CORRUPTION in the country, which stuns any possibility of a turnaround in the nation’s economy. Nigeria may be the only country in the world where you build a beautiful national edifice at N240,000,000 (N240 million in 1991), and some 24 years later, someone comes along and RENOVATES it at a staggering cost of N39,000,000,000((N39 billion in 2025) as well as gives it (changes) his name as its new name.
But the attempt to replace the Vice President (Kashim Shettima) with someone from the same geo political zone backfired. The politician said to be pencilled as replacement for the Vice President may have been popular with his constituency in the past, but is allegedly not the case now. It is alleged that he would remain in Abuja, and other big cities for upwards of two years without visiting his hometown to see his constituents.
Many party members, and supporters of the ruling party in the North East disagreed with the move to replace the VP. The move is said to have led one of the governors in the geopolitical region rained abuses on the National Chairman of the ruling party.
The move is seen as amounting to the ruling party shooting itself on the foot. And a top shot of the party, who it may appear, considers himself bigger than the nation, declared that the party’s show of shame “would lead to another civil war in the country, if care is not taken”. My cowardly silent response is, “not bloody likely, even if the APC itself burns”.
Another shot on the foot by the party is the asking for a tax on embassies and houses of diplomats. A career diplomat, who had served in nine (9) countries, retiring as an ambassador, said that asking for payment of tax on embassy buildings and the houses of foreign diplomats is never done anywhere in the world.
But under the rulership of ‘EMPEROR’ Tinubu, Nigeria has become the first country where all foreign embassies and other foreign missions are asked by the authoritarian regime to pay TAX on their buildings, both office and residential accommodations. Nigeria has thus become a RENT collecting nation, where under Tinubu’s rule, it has turned into a country where almost every thing is taxed, with MOST of the proceeds ending in privately owned bank accounts.
In the light of this pioneering development, it is unlikely that Nigeria will be the darling of the international community. This therefore suggests that the recent letter by the foreign ministry to the Iran and Israeli governments over their current armed conflict, will hardly be given any serious attention by the two countries.
In the letter, Nigeria expressed her displeasure with the war between the two countries, and offered to mediate in the conflict which has been boiling for years between the two.
No serious nation will in fact consider Nigeria as a serious country given the demand for tax, plus the suspicion that most of the money to be raised through this shoddy way will end up in private pockets, given the president ungodly reputation as the most CORRUPT leader in the world. As the alleged owner of the ‘Tax Collecting Company, ALPHA BETA’, he is alleged to have once claimed that he was recouping the money he had spent to governors and other big people (such as emirs and religious figures) in the country during his campaign for the presidency.
There is also the rush for forced (blackmailed) endorsements of the president by APC Governors, parliamentarians, political parties, left, right, and centre. Recently, the governor of Edo State, Mr. Monday Okpebholo threatens to demolish the house of any opposition politician who refuses to defect to the ruling APC.
Price of everything has skyrocketed beyond the affordability of most citizens in the country. The few who can afford everything are either the well placed politicians, and their ‘yes sayers’, or the very rich businesspeople. For many compatriots who depend on the monthly income of a government job, a minimum salary of N70,000 is very insufficient in this difficult time of the Tinubu regime.
The entire N70,000 per month can hardly buy half a bag of rice (the staple food for most Nigerian households). In addition to the rice, there are a lot of other ingredients to use to make a meal. The amount is also insufficient to fill half (1\2) tank of a car. Survival in Tinubu’s Nigeria is really very expensive for majority of the citizens, except for the few very rich within the country.
After recouping his ‘investment’, one might want to know how much interest the president want to make before majority of the citizens are allowed to breathe again? Nigeria is suffocatingly impossible to exist at the moment, with CORRUPTION threatening to expiate the life of the poor in the country.
May God give Nigeria leaders who will lead with unreserved fear of Him, in both their deeds and pronouncements.
Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.
