Leadership (Abuja)
Stella Eze
20 November 2008
Abuja — Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbe has predicted that with the way Nigeria's economy is being run; the country was headed for bankruptcy in the next five years.
According to Ogbe, who spoke to journalists yesterday in Abuja, Nigeria's foreign reserve has already gone down with what he called frivolous spending by the Federal Government, coupled with the crashing oil price, as a result of recent discovery of alternative sources of energy by the western worlds.
He said; "if the oil prices are crashing and the western world is not going to depend on oil, they are not buying enough, the revenues are dropping, well what do you want to do? We are not expecting anything else, what more, we are only importing", he lamented
He decried the slow pace at which the present administration is going, yet with a tall dream of becoming one of the 20 most powerful nations on the globe.
"Yes it is a good dream but how do you make the dream a reality, we have no railway, the power-supply is low, industrial capacity is very low, unemployment is high, on food security. We are still dependant on import, how do you then develop to become one of the largest economy, again part of the issue is this, if you want to grow the economy lets talk! I hope the media will help us out, we are counting on the media support because we are in huge problem, for example youth problems, why are youths involved in crimes, is it necessarily their mother, their father who taught them, or is it new trends from movies or is it the state of the economy that is causing what is going on and where will parents come in? we must change because there have been too much surrender, too much quiet, there is a total surrender to government, what will the government do, where will the government go, government needs to know what the people feels, what the people wants government to do.
Ogbe explained that it was time Nigerian speak out to bare their minds about their perpetual sufferings to the leaders, who are accountable to them.
To champion this, he said arrangements are in top gear to organize a public debate, whereby Nigerians from all walks of life, both young and old, could gather on a regular basis to debate issues of national importance and relay the messages to the appropriate quarters for possible responses.
"We need to talk, it is not about attacking any regime because it is not as if one regime is bad another is good. It is not targeted at anyone just lets talk, the people as opposed to the parliament. Sometime we call the parliamentarians, senators, lawmakers or even ministers who are in charge of ministries to come and talk. You know for example the minister in charge of agriculture, come lets debate so that he will explain the policy that government is implementing, the people will hear, the media will report and the whole thing will become a collective agreement on what, why and how, what can we do, honourable minister when you go tell the cabinet this is way Nigerians are feeling. When we start, we then to have a small secretariat, topics will come in and we will advertise. For instance on economic policies, we will bring people like Aluko, the old-fasioned one against the new ones from Brentwood, Harvard who believe in Privatization and Liberalization, Free-Market, let us debate.
"So I am thinking that when we start we will be able to mobilize everyone because it is not about me, it is about our people, our future, what is going on? Where do we belong to? How much longer can we just continue like this".
Commenting on the recent United States of America's election, which saw the emergence of Senator Barrack Obama as the president, Ogbe said it was time Nigerians learned from how democracy is run elsewhere in the world.
He said Nigerians lacked the characteristics to impress the world, adding that the only thing associated with the country is negativity.
He said; "in one single event America has earned more respect, grown more love, gained more credibility than you have in all the bombs they dropped in Iraq, if not why will be people be dancing from china to Russia, Japan, Africa I mean worldwide. And by how or manner do an African, a Kenyan come to become President of the United States? You found out that the power of love is stronger than all the bombs in the world, America has enough bomb to bury the earth but that is not what it took to give them what they have now. Why can't Nigeria decide to impress the world for once, why must it always be negative events? The real question is how much longer"?
On the implications of these negative tendencies to the younger generations, he said it is a pity, they are denied the basic things in life, which would enable them cope with the challenges in life.
"Believe me for you younger generation I am scared! During our time, once you graduated, or two days before graduation, you have a job before your last paper, you bought a car within two weeks; you have a car loan, and all that you want. But now as a full graduation you return home for second childhood, another five years you are in your father's house for five years looking for job, and there is no hope. And not as if we have finished developing, no housing, agriculture is there, manufacturing is there we haven't done anything, we already have 300,000 youths year to year coming out of school with nothing to do. Also is our national diet helping in the development of the mind".
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Chief Ogbe has spoken well and he is not far from from the truth. For once, Ogbe should be asked what his contributions were to the economic development of Nigeriaas the Chairman of the self acclaimed biggest party in Africa in the direction of the problems being lamented about today. Must the nation wait for when oil is not selling well in the international market as it were to know that our economy is in the hand of external forces. We as a nation left other areas such as agriculture that earned the country high resources and foreign exchange in… [Read Full Text]