Guardian

AS we welcome the New Year, we the people, Nigerians, need not inform the Federal government that we did our best to weather the storm this past year. Oh Yes! 2012 was challenging. It is not that the issues that wore us thin last year were new complaints; they have been moaned about in the past years – insecurity, gloomy economy unemployment and lack of social amenities. They spiraled out of control in 2012 because adequate attention was not paid to them.

But as we renew our hope this New Year, we will put them in perspective so that our dear Government sees where it pinches us, the Nigerians. Nigeria continues to be mentioned in the roll call of the poorest nations of the world although we keep hearing that we are in “the midst of plenty”. Obviously, many of us Nigerians cannot find our way to that “plenty”. It is the duty of the leader therefore to show them the way to that bounty. If a people remain blind, it is the fault of the government. It is true we have tried ways to revamp the economy for some time through things like Austerity measures and Structural Adjustment. The results, if positive, have not survived the times. Other programmes have been introduced since then, but we are yet to see the benefits on our lives.

The ever-resilient Nigerian hangs on with the hope that the near future will be brighter.

But poverty bites so hard that people are thinking some crazy things. I have heard one or two market women wonder loudly why the government should not just print more naira. But it takes enlightenment to know that it would not solve the problem.  Education, which the government owes the people, would inform them of how an uninformed soldier in one African country heeded such a  call and shot his way to becoming the Head of State. Thereafter, he flooded their economy with currency that was not worth the paper it was printed on. The Nigerian only wants to have the necessary things in life, no more.

However, security should top the list of our demands this year. The orgy of killing of innocent Nigerians in the past year is a cause for concern. Bomb blasts which began in 2010 are said to have claimed 3,000 lives. We are not at war. One day, we hear that Government has reached an agreement with Boko Haram, the next day, they deny it. However, whatever arrangement they make or reach, the Government should make sure that they would not rise again to kill. We demand that they are made to understand that any Nigerian has the right to live in any part of the country so long as he is law-abiding. The constitution grants us the right to choose our religion.

A group which has murdered thousands of people in cold blood has committed atrocity against humanity in general and many of us do not understand their cause and what drove them to commit that crime. It takes place in the North, far from some of us, but the horror they leave in their wake causes a lot of tension all over the country. In this New Year, we ask that we do not hear of their anger or explosives.

Since Maitasine’s uprising in 1980, there have been others. People are taking notice because it graduated from the use of bows and arrows to bombs. What are they going to use next time? Government should see that no copy-cat group springs up to demand similar attention.