Nigeria should shun politics of palliatives
The politics of“palliatives” is an
age-long thing; it is as old as Nigeria herself. If we look back into history, most of the political events and activities directly or indirectly were one form of palliative or the other. Whenever the political atmosphere was tensed, government applied one form of palliative or the other but not the solution just to cushion the effects of the policy that caused the tension in the polity. The state of the nation, from the decayed state of infrastructure to the welfare of the average Nigerian ,is as a result of the palliative measures of the previous administrations military or civilian.
When Nigeria was operating in regions, some political scores were settled with political appointments. Even when she started operating from the states, political agitations were always cushioned with appointments into various offices. Whenever a particular region or ethic group comes forward with its demands, instead of looking for and applying lasting solutions we go for palliatives. Most of the problems we are facing today would not have arisen if true solutions were applied instead of palliative measures.
The restiveness in the Niger Delta would not have been experienced if the right things were done instead of palliatives. The oil companies and the government preferred settling the paramount rulers instead of putting infrastructure in place. There had been agitations upon agitations from that region but nothing was done. People like Ken Saro Wiwa were eliminated to silence the voices from that region but that did not solve the problem.
The present vice president is also there to placate the people of the Niger Delta. All these and many other palliatives cannot amount to development of needed infrastructure or heal the wounds of those in the creeks suffering the effects of oil exploration. If the solutions had been applied instead of palliatives, the militants would not have taken to arms struggle that is costing us so much economically now.
Many analysts have argued that there is nothing like petroleum subsidy but the government insists it is subsidising the product. How much is the actual production cost of fuel? The refineries are either performing below installed capacity or not working so that the elite importing the products would remain in business. Who is deceiving who with all these palliative politics put to play any time the labour unions object to price hikes? If the monopoly of NITEL could be broken with the emergence of private operators, then government should create the enabling environment for private refineries to operate.
It is time for government to stop fooling people with all these palliatives. They should apply lasting solutions. Nigeria can be great again if we shun politics of palliatives and apply lasting solutions.
Arinze Alinnora,
P. O. Box 17985,
Ikeja, Lagos.
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