… A Da’wah Front Intervention in Public Conversation
Dear President Bola Tinubu,
The believing community in Nigeria is concerned that recent government actions and people’s response are omnious and scary. We are, therefore, pained that just two months in office, unhealthy and scary responses and disposition to government policies are becoming genuinely choking and worrisome.
The implementation of the subsidy removal is felt to have been done without requisite data gathering and analysis with a strong position that it could have been done differently.
We, in Da’wah Front, view the hasty implementation of subsidy removal without requisite cushioning effects on the already traumatized Nigerian people as smacking of pressured credit facility conditionality from powerful international groups. When this is added to the floating of the naira, which is just euphemism for devaluation, we are compelled to conclude that our president is severely being pressured.
As a religious organization with real, ordinary people as members, we have been burdened by the killing effects of this twin sudden policies that have debilitated our members just as other Nigerians have are being crushed by the impossible life we have no option to live and without any succour, especially since most Nigerians have not really survived the traumatizing COVID 19 lockdown and the very recent naira redesigning and cashless policy.
We are pained that the consultation with the people, which Mr President promised, should have availed him of alternatives to this policy as there are always alternatives to any human endeavours.
One of such should have been identification and prosecution of the subsidy thieves and retrieval of the stolen subsidy from them. This would have enabled a proper data gathering and data analysis of the next best direction on the draining subsidy regime. Not doing this suggests a deliberate shielding of criminals and palpable fear of the consequences of naming and shaming with the possibility of complicity and liability.
The Nigerian people deserve the details of the subsidy payment, individuals that were being paid and for what. This would have enabled Nigerians to appreciate the huge cost of the subsidy and the vulnerability of the nation to domestic and international rip-off conspiracy.
However, we believe that Allaah, and not any power, strategic support or pecuniary influence, is the one that made you President and is, therefore, the only one to fear and hope to assist you in piloting the affairs of this nation successfully.
Consultation would also have availed you of the abundant intellectual and other services of well endowed and tremendously blessed Nigerians who can offer useful insights into the way out of the subsidy crises. Mr President may not be aware, but should now know that Da’wah Front and other Muslim organizations are blessed with members in all sectors of life and are available to complement retinue of other experts to move the nation forward.
Kindly note that we are as committed as you are to bring our nation out of the woods and confront dehumanizing economic crimes, scams and other fraudulent activities such as the corruption infested subsidy. We are, however, also committed to a realistic way out, rather than unquestioning removal without requisite plans of action to assuage the killing effects.
We believe, because we know, that there is no country without a subsidy regime. We also believe that those pressuring for subsidy removal also administer subsidies in many forms, especially Agriculture which they will not encourage our nation to do in order to be perpetually enslaved to importation of food with its slavery and poverty implications. Savings from subsidy removal must, therefore, naturally go to Agriculture after due diligence on corruption-free implementation.
Nigerians are also of the view that deliberate neglect of the moribund refinery, lack of the will to build new ones and recent reliance on a private refinery that is yet to take off after commissioning are issues driving subsidy. Attention to all this should have preceded subsidy removal and subsequent implementation. Nigerians are asking why we are the only oil producing country without a functional refinery and the concomitant conspiracy theory is better not imagined.
We are available to complement your teams of experts as highly skilled professionals desirous of contributing to the advancement of our dear country.
May peace be with those who follow the Guidance.
By Professor Taofiq Adesina Azeez,
Department of English University of Abuja, Imam, Da’wah Front of Nigeria.
Alhaj Musliudeen Abdul Gaffar,
National Coordinator,
Da’wah Front of Nigeria
