…urge govt to be plain, forthright
Nigerians have condemned what they described as half-truths and outright lies coming out from the government quarters.
They also alleged that many activities of government were opaque and gave room for doubts.
They accused people in government of peddling half-truths and elevating lies to statecraft.
“During Buhari’s administration, Lai Mohammed, his Information Minister, was the government’s propaganda machine. But see where that propaganda has taken us to.
“All we need is sincerity from Tinubu, he should be forthright because his information handlers are feeding us with half-truth, nobody believes anything they say again and that is very bad for an administration that is barely one year,” Chijoke Umelahi, an Abuja-based lawyer and a onetime Abia lawmaker, said.
According to him, it is painful when the government lies because it is the highest authority that should be quoted and trusted, but when the reverse is the case, the country is ridiculed and loses reputation at home and abroad.
Gbenga Sesan, executive director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African social enterprise platform that campaigns for digital rights and inclusion of Nigerians and Africans, thinks that the present administration has not been forthright with the information it has been passing to Nigerians.
Expressing his displeasure on the issue, he noted that the government needs to realise that hypocrisy eats away at legitimacy, which they are already struggling to ascertain.
“If the reason anyone runs for election is to serve the citizens, then the least you can do is to be sincere in your dealings so that when necessary, they can show empathy towards you,” he said.
Citing an instance of insincerity of the government, Umelahi pointed to the lingered minimum wage negotiations and the recent hike in petrol pump price, which he described as the government stabbing labour at the back.
Confirming Umelahi’s observation, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deceived the union and Nigerians at large with the recent increment in fuel price.
Angry at the insincerity of the government, Joe Ajaero, president of NLC, explained that the increase contradicted the agreement with Mr. Tinubu’s government on the national minimum wage, describing the increase as traumatic and nightmare.
The angry Ajaero recalled that during the negotiation of the minimum wage of N250,000, there was an agreement that the fuel price remained as Mr. President told the labour leaders to accept N70,000 minimum wage with no fuel price increment.
“But here we are, barely one month after and with government yet to commence payment of the new national minimum wage, confronted by a reality we cannot explain. It is both traumatic and nightmarish,” the NLC president said, while decrying the insincerity of the present administration.
Apart from the half-truth by the government in the minimum wage and fuel increment issues, many think that the government is also insincere with the state of the refineries, especially the Port Harcourt Refinery, the production date of which has been postponed six times by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, since 2021.
In 2019, Mele Kyari, Group CEO, NNPC Limited, said that the NNPC would complete all four refineries before the conclusion of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. In July this year, he announced definitively that the refinery would be operational by early August, now he is shifting to end of the year.
“I can confirm to you, Mr. Chairman, that by the end of the year, this country will be a net exporter of petroleum products.
“Specific to NNPC refineries, we have spoken to a number of your committees, and it is impossible to have the Kaduna refinery come into operation before December, it will get to December, both Warri and Kaduna, but that of Port Harcourt will commence production early August this year,” Kyari boasted while speaking before the Senate in July.
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Many keep asking why a top government official keeps deceiving the country, knowing full well that the refineries are not ready.
“Have you ever wondered why many Nigerians abroad are treated badly by their host countries and also why we are subjected to humiliations at immigration points at airports around the world? The answer is simply because those countries read and hear how insincere our government is; how they don’t have regard for us and the level of corruption in the country. So, as our governments keep lying to us, they keep losing integrity and standing in the international community. Well, they don’t care as long as their pockets are full. Our government officials are the most unpatriotic Nigerians, if I may say. Even those you trust; they learn the deception craft when they get to government. It is sad,” Samuel Onikoyi, a Nigerian academic in Brussels, decried.
He disclosed further that the government is also taking advantage of the vulnerability and docility of the people in sustaining the lies.
“If we Nigerians, as a people, can leave our ethnic and religious differences and say no to our corrupt political class, shun their bait during elections, recall them from the Senate and high offices, sue for strong institutions, no government will lie to us again. That is what is obtainable here in Europe. Here in Belgium, you don’t speak for the government when you are not sure of the issue because unguarded statement can ruin lives and when it happens, the government official involved resigns and is prosecuted as well,” Onikoyi said.
For Hogan Atigbi, a Warri-based human right activist and lawyer, the government is not sincere with its claims on crude oil theft and also not sincere in addressing the issue because the government knows the thieves, it can trace and prosecute them, but has looked the other way on the issue.
He also noted that policy somersault of the present administration speaks volumes on its insincerity.
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“Before Bola Tinubu became president, he fiercely campaigned against the removal of fuel subsidy. On his first day in office as president, he removed subsidy. Few months later, the subsidy returned through the back door. Where is sincerity here, how do you want Nigerians to believe what the government says, when they can deny it as we are witnessing today and people are defending them as if they live in a different country,” Atigbi said.
Speaking further, he advised the government to be forthright as telling Nigerians the true state of their country is better than the half-truth often peddled out there.
“Just be plain, explain and reach out to the people with sincerity and open mind, don’t think lies will help, it will rather make your government unpopular as we are experiencing now. There is no tribal sentiment in this because all Nigerians are suffering the fuel hike, high cost of food and impact of insecurity,” Atigbi said.
Also speaking on the policy somersault, Yakubu Dashit, a Plateau State-born senior economist with a tier1 bank, noted that what the government needed to have done was to own up to its policies that did not work and the people will understand, than defending what is obviously wrong.
“In my opinion, the currency devaluation, unification of the foreign exchange market, policy on dollar repatriation and other CBN interventions are some of the policies that did not work. Yes, they did not work, own up, move on and try other policies until we get out of the wood,” Dashit said.
Proffering solution, he urged the government to uphold sincerity, while seeking for policies with human face as another general election will soon be around the corner.
On his part, Sesan said that nothing beats sincerity.
“Government representatives must realise that power is transient, repent from their current path and start being sincere, first, with themselves, and then, with citizens,” he said.
