Like a bolt from the blue, Senate President, Bukola Saraki virtually bombed Nigeria and her citizens when last week he asked President Muhammadu Buhari to as a means of stemming the gale of hunger ravaging the nation, sell outright some of the country’s assets namely the refineries, the airports, and others to get money to feed Nigerians. Nothing can be more absurd and puerile than this suggestion. It is like the case of a family head who sells all he has to feed his children. Would this step solve the family’s hunger? The answer is big NO.
In the Bible, there is the story of the prodigal; son who sold all what he had and within a short time spent all he had on frivolities and eventually became wretched.
If Saraki means well for Nigerians and the country, there are other options for him to suggest, one of such is to canvass for reduction of National Assembly members’ emoluments and for the President to intensify his corruption war to recover looted funds. His advice would further impoverish the citizenry.
What Nigerians are getting from the sale of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Nigeria Airways whereby the companies were sold to politicians and their cronies is to say the least saddening. The country has never got it right with power not even now that the acclaimed former Lagos Governor Raji Fashola is in the saddle.
For the fact that Nigerians are hunger-stricken is not tantamount to selling our assets to feed the citizens.
Senator Bukola Saraki by his suggestion does not believe the country could wriggle out of the mess the country finds itself going by the Federal Government’s efforts at economic credibility. It is rather unfortunate. Going by past experience, it is obvious that the companies would be sold for a pittance which will return the country to square one.
We make bold to say that no African country however impoverished or undeveloped had ever resorted to selling their assets no matter the condition as proffered by the Senate President. It is purely an anathema. Instead, countries trudge on till they get it right no matter how long.
This is what we expect the Senate President to tell President Buhari to reduce the number of jets in the Presidential fleet.
It is a known fact the former assets were sold to big thieves in the nation who hadn’t the technical know-how to manage the companies, the result of what Nigerians are battling with hitherto.
The sale of what remains of our assets can never and will never be a viable credible alternative to our hunger. The sale clearly means Nigerians should not hope for better tomorrow which the Senate President is trying to tell Nigerians and it is NOT so.
The Federal Government is hereby fervently urged to engage tested technocrats who can turn around the economy to achieve the desired result in a record time and jettison Senator Saraki’s exposition on the state of the economy which is already dead on arrival.
Nigerians are resolute to continue bearing with their government in as much as the government is fighting doggedly to fix the economy. We advise President Muhammadu Buhari to discountenance Senator Saraki’s suggestion in its totality and forge on with his economic solutions. Patriotic Nigerians nationwide have condemned Saraki’s antidote and it should be like that. Nigerians don’t lose hope easily as Saraki appears to make us believe. They always keep hope alive all the time. So if he can’t make the citizens happy, he should not sadden them.
The Senate President by any stretch of imagination cannot and is not a poor or hungry man going by the humongous money as salary and emoluments that members of the National Assembly carry home monthly. They have never deemed it fit to donate to the welfare of the citizenry rather than asking President Muhammadu Buhari to sell our assets.
Experience had shown that there are some unpatriotic Nigerians waiting in the wings to buy these assets at a pittance and later not knowing what to do with these assets, further compounding the nation’s woes.
It had been said for the umpteenth time that our National Assembly members are the most paid politicians in the universe, very unfeeling to the plight of the citizens. Since the country had been in recession, what significant step have Assembly members taken to help this government in the area of personal sacrifice rather than Saraki advising the President to sell our assets? It is a huge joke of the century. The Federal Government should not listen to them rather it should trudge on relentlessly to fix the economy no matter how long.
Saraki’s exposition can be likened to a thirsty man who does not have water to drink and was asked to drink the water in the drainage. The aftermath could be perilous. He could contact infectious disease which may even end his life abruptly.
So the Senate President’s advice should be thrown into the trash can of history.
