Best achievements of the Federal Government

When the performance of a government is abysmally bad, the temptation and very easy way to go about such a government by most of the people is to keep discussing these negatives.

If such a commentator is not mindful of himself or of all these pressing negative pressures, to control them, he may get himself into a state of emotional burnout; or even, a psychological depression! However, a commentator with a reasonable conscience will naturally be drawn also, at least once in a while, to look at some of the good performances of the same poorly performing government. This is so, especially of one who is not focused on any mere fault-finding but on the common good of everybody, including even the members of the poorly performing politicians’ gang.

After all, even the devil himself is not always doing evil. Indeed, he usually does apparent good most of the time; but only being sure to sow the murderous evils in-between, as he would need, for his ever sinister purposes.

So, such a commentator would search out some of these goods to comment upon them, in order to be a balanced commentator in these regards; and to be the just man that his nature must surely be about. Furthermore, he will do so because, he would realize that focusing on the good, no matter how little, is a very good thing to do! In that way, being so appreciated and pointed towards the good, such bad governing people may begin to also do more of these goods that are being pointed out; and to be thus positively appraised for more of these in the future. That is if there is still any good human nature left in such poorly performing rulers. In the good political climes, they would do so and let these other observers be the ones to point them out; but not as mere propaganda as bad politics does by itself and of itself all of the time!!

Nobody in his proper state of mind can be in any doubts whatsoever, that the present so-called Federal Government of Nigeria is performing abysmally very badly. He would not need anybody to tell him that, either. At the present time, it can be said that the president and his men are busy serving (i.e., “governing”, if at all indeed they are) very limited portions of this country; while for the others, he/they might as well be non-existent or surely worse! For those other vast majority segments, sectors, or specific units of the country, he is either not governing them or taking anything concerning them as important to him; or, indeed, he is (they are) busy fighting or undermining them. Many people have observed that Nigeria had never been so nepotically run, and nepotism as we know it is the finest form as well as the master engine house of all corruptions!

Talking about the criticism of people in political power, it would be so very easily remembered that during the latter half of the political reign of Donald Trump as the president of the USA, there was no doubt that his utterly uncivil language as a politician, to talk less of a head of state, was so bad that nobody would in anyways be in doubt that these were unbecoming of a head of state! Many other styles of his governance also fell in this category. Therefore, it was very easy for every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the US of A to make it their stock in trade to criticize him. Some even vilified the man; many times, beyond the true level of those wrongdoings – that is, in my humble opinion. Yet the world did not come to an end. Nobody was threatening them of any silly arrests, prosecutions, treasonable felonies, or such other silly things that we ever so readily hear whenever anybody pointed out whatever any corrupt or incompetent government in charge at the Nigerian national level is doing wrong. Of course, this style of public behaviours has become worse currently, especially from the sections of Nigeria that the said president has set himself to work for against the rest of the country! And these people do these without ever seeing that they are making the matters worse by such behaviours – just as all through the military junta era. What a pity for our primitivity and our desire to remain primitive, barbaric, and in all such depraved political states.

During most of the time of the Donald Trump USA presidency, and right up till the last elections, these same members of the opposition and partisan Democratic Party there have been persuaded to talk acutely critically about him. This has continued even in the acrimonious post-election period, running up to the inauguration of the next government later in this January 2021. Some other independent and/or politically neutral people in the US also joined in these criticisms. Not once did I hear of any of them commenting on him in the positive, even for once! Incidentally, when Goodluck Jonathan was president, there was no level of both true and fabricated wrongdoing that he was not criticized about; even by the very people who brought this present government on us and are still the arch performers in all the present ignominies thereof. Yet nobody threatened anybody with treason then. We can therefore see the link between this government and all our past despicable military juntas that nobody wishes to see ever again. So, the civil ways of dealing with bad governments must be the way to go in the present dispensation and no other. This is because, we are all agreed that there will be no more military juntas – especially as the present civilian junta has placed all the military commands in place to guarantee its profligacies! So, when a commentator on a failed or failing government in a developing country does such commentaries in both the positive and the negative issues, it should be easy for one and all, to see this as the true civilization that it most surely is.

Therefore, having looked at the present Federal Government as thoroughly as we ever can, one is able to see at least one area that some progress would seem to have been made during their watch. This is in the area of the national electricity supply. In the particular area of the country that I live, we used to get electricity like once (i.e., in one day only) in a week; and only for a few hours or less. However, in the last year, only at least, we have begun to expect to get light at least on alternate days, and some time for the same few hours every day; and periodically shifted to such other similarly regular times. When the light is unavailable for up to two days now, and you call the manager in the area, he would at least be able to inform us that there is a clearly known fault somewhere that they are trying to resolve. Of course, in other countries with a sense of their responsibility to the people, these service providers will tell you ahead of time or inform the people without anybody having to call, of such a fault and of their efforts to repair it. At any rate, this improvement from weeks and months without light to a few hours of light on alternate days is obviously a very remarkable improvement.

As a national traveler, I know for sure also that this improvement is national; the additional independent input thereof by some diverse state governments notwithstanding! So, let us all know of this and commend the present government and the people involved in the positive changes. They will do well however to have more than the number of prepaid meters for the users of this electricity, in order to remove the huge corruption from fake and exaggerated billings that still prevail in this industry. There is no rock science in ordering, getting, and supplying these meters fully in the country; and the continuing inability to do this is still clear evidence that this sanity that seems to be coming to this industry may not be of a lasting nature. This would seem to be the case also for the billing rates that keep swinging and attempting to be a substantial part of the minimum wage in Nigeria, without talking yet of these lowly paid workers’ and their families’ other daily needs!

So, as we rejoice in this one area of public service improvement observable under this present Federal Government, let us pray for them, that they will attend to the many other inadequacies still straddling even this only area of such noticeable improvement. Let us pray that these people will appreciate this positive appraisal as a sign that we will be delighted to find such other even minimally positive areas of public care and services that we may so appraise them further for. May God Himself, help them and all of us in those regards. Amen! God bless Nigeria!!

Asuzu, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Ibadan.