Restructuring: The Grand Illusion
A Nation Without a Plan
Leaders have no real plans to develop the nation. In their psyche, the developed West, and even the more rapidly developing East, offer an escape route. To them, Nigeria represents a farm.
A farm with low-hanging fruits.
They even invite foreigners, come, my brother, bring a big basket.
They come down to Nigeria, fill their baskets, go back to Dubai, return when it is depleted, refill, and go back again to Dubai, London, Johannesburg, Doha, a cycle, or shall I say, a culture of replenishing their lives at the expense of the abjectly, totally, utterly poor.
The Extraction Economy
This is not accidental. It is a system.
A system where value is not created, but extracted. Where the elite do not build, but harvest. Where the nation is not a project to be developed, but a resource to be mined.
And like all extractive systems, it leaves behind depletion, despair, and deepening poverty.
The Mathematics of Inequality
In mathematical terms, I am not showing off. I was not particularly good at mathematics, but the little I learned helps me follow and analyze arguments by reducing them to their essence and testing for proportionality, or even inverse relationships.
For the abjectly poor:
[Their Cycle of Life] = k / [The Cycle of Your Life]
Where k is a constant.
The faster “their” cycle runs, the more depleted “yours” becomes.
The Restructuring Question
I have digressed.
Back to restructuring.
Ask the restructurenistas, “How about coming together to draw a proper roadmap, a plan?”
“No,” they will answer emphatically.
“No. That will be after restructuring.”
Often, they say it like this:
“That will be done after restructuring. Are you not listening? Have you not been listening?”
And many times, I respond very calmly:
“So what exactly is restructuring? How can we start it? What is stopping us from starting it now, on Monday, on the first of July, or on the first of October, our Independence Day?”
The Cabal Excuse
You will hear several different answers which all mean the same thing, the cabal.
“The cabal is stopping us from restructuring? Which cabal?”
Raised voices again:
“Are you not in this country?”
And that is where the conversation usually ends.
A Familiar Pattern of Deception
Ladies and gentlemen, this talk of restructuring is just another scam.
It sounds like a genuine, intelligent solution to our problems, but it is no different from all the debates we have had over the last three decades about the removal of fuel subsidies.
Remember these arguments?
- Nigeria is the only nation where a bottle of Coke costs more than a bottle of petrol
- Removing the subsidy, increasing the price, will stop smuggling
- Increasing the price of petrol will make it possible to build new refineries
We have heard it all before.
The Latest Iteration of the Same Lie
They have lied to us for decades.
Restructuring is simply the latest iteration of that lie.
Wake up.
No Quick Fix
We are not one election, one initiative, or one restructuring away from a better country.
The truth is simple.
We are not one election, one initiative, or one restructuring away from a better country. Rather, we have a very long road to travel.
There is no quick fix, and the sooner we start, the better for us.
The Political Shamans
All this talk of restructuring reminds me of shamans dancing around a totem, painted in impressive colors, claiming to exorcise, claiming to cure illness.
We all know how diseases are caused, and how they can be healed.
Let no political shaman fool you.
Final Word
Don't be MUGU!
I rest my case.
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