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Time to fight back

By Pat Utomi
21 December 2021   |   3:20 am
Our country is deeply divided and much fractured. And it is bleeding crimson everywhere. We know who is to blame: Politicians who love themselves too much to see the injuries and pain of ordinary people.

Pat Utomi. Photo: THEINTERVIEW

Our country is deeply divided and much fractured. And it is bleeding crimson everywhere. We know who is to blame: Politicians who love themselves too much to see the injuries and pain of ordinary people. Yet for too long, people of conscience have failed to fight back for the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.

The bad news is that even if the big men of APC and PDP do not understand accountability or that they will be judged by their consciences, the court of history and by God, we who have a duty to stand up for the victims must know that our judgment for not doing enough may be more severe than theirs. This makes fighting back now imperative to save ourselves.

This is why the shadow cabinet path has great historical consequence because it is the easiest way to show what they have done or failed to do and what they have done wrong in the full face of the truth because of their greed, corruption and incompetence and more important the lack of love for the people.

Nowhere is the tragedy of how Nigeria is governed more painful than in the disregard for the poor. Even though they preach anti- corruption so the poor will see them as liberators, they manage to become the most corrupt in our history.

A shadow government will enable us show this every day. Nigeria is not only the poverty capital of the world but as at last month, World Health Organisation report shows it is the Malaria capital of the world. Same goes for the burden of diseases of poor sanitation like diarrhea, cholera etc. These diseases kill the poor by the thousands everyday but because the rich can treat them for a few thousand Naira, our governments make only feeble effort, show no clear strategy for fighting them as most other countries have done successfully. But see how much they spent on COVID-19 because the rich are vulnerable there.

We must stop the big men of Nigerian politics who steal from the poor through the National Treasury and use the money to buy elections, exercise state capture and move our country towards fascism. This is why our shadow team offers a Malaria vaccination that has been tested in four countries including Nigeria and a massive environmental sanitation programme that is a moral equivalence of a Marshal plan.

In the next few weeks I will be unfolding the shadow cabinets’ alternatives with evidence of how they will be funded and implemented. From education decentralisation, easier access, and teacher quality improvement, to huge private capital regeneration of infrastructure on a scale not witnessed since China’s surge, to how we tame the genocide called corruption. It is time for us all to brace up to becoming citizens. Nigeria must and will rise up again.
Pat Utomi is NCFront chair and leader of the Shadow team.

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