Sani Abacha was an elevated dictator. But if you look at some of his economic policies, they were better than some we have seen in some of the democratic regimes since 1999. Abacha did not allow the dollarization of Nigeria as he pushed for all federal contracts to be in Naira. I know that it is hard for anyone to find something nice to say about Abacha; I understand that but remember: Naira was largely stable during his time.
As I point out the Abacha playbook, I take you to IBB’s liberalization policy of the early 1990s. Without that, we might not have GTBank, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, etc and indeed the new generation banks we use today. Possibly, without those policies, we will still be left with Union Bank, First Bank, and Wema.
Where am I going? I want you to understand that these leaders actually matter. One decision can change the destiny of a people. That we have no jobs today is not because of a curse on Nigeria but because of decisions men and women are making in Abuja and state capitals. That our local government general hospitals have all collapsed is not because they have no customers. Rather, we ran them dry due to lack of funding support, preferring London and New York. And the biggest one: we killed post offices and unbundled rural and urban Nigeria, and in the process put Nigeria into economic coma.
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But we can recover and that will require us voting for the right people. I ask you to go and get your PVC card. Begin here (INEC needs to improve its servers; the website keeps getting slower)
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Abacha did not allow for dollarisation of Nigeria, but our miseducated compatriots will sit on this very platform arguing and queuing behind the old guys who dollarised ordinary primaries with impunity? Their unbridled quest for dollars is part of the reason why naira is tanking, but they are promising you people that they have a fix to our economic woes, really?
We cannot mistake a suicider for a martyr, both are dead but for opposite reasons. When someone who wants to make your life better pays you so much, just for you to allow him to make your life better, you have to be very wary, because it’s the sick that looks for a doctor. It’s never the job of a doctor to go round searching for who is sick, bribing the sick person, just to cure him/her. Use your head, else you are the next victim.
As the two old tigers slug it out up there, bruising themselves severely in the process, the young lamb should simply gather baskets and bowls and place them under, and as the battle rages with things getting scattered, they will be falling into the baskets and bowls placed under; who knows, the leftovers might outnumber the bounties fought for…
Your vote matters, never abuse this unique right and privilege, for posterity sake.