Ewolewoo!!

I watched President Buhari on May 29^th. However, again, I  pity him. He wants something but he doesn’t the capacity to achieve what he wants. He wants to help but he’s handicapped. He desires to change the system but the problems are so enormous and the resources so scarce. He has promised the citizens who believed in him but he lacks the financial muscle to do much.  His critics are very happy because of this handicap while his supporters are left confused.  Many Nigerians believe that the financial situation of the country is dire but many, of the same many, still believe that it’s Buhari’s fault. How?  He must find money anyhow and make their lives better. Wahala dey o!!

Make no mistake about it: President Buhari  is in “trouble”.  The trouble has a tinge of absolute reality in it. The reality that is in it is simple: Nigeria and everything about what we’ve been doing in the last 40 years has been built on Crude oil and nothing more. If you have been following ewolewoo.com you would be familiar with this kind of thought process.

 Crude oil is the foundation of all the grammar and corruption that you see around. Crude oil forms the fulcrum of why many “unviable and useless” states were created. It is because of crude oil that ministries  and agencies with duplicating functions were created.  Everything was created to share crude oil money.  The idea of diversification is a new idea that everybody desires but everyone doesn’t understand its viability. The system was never created for diversification reasons, the system was based on crude oil sharing formula.

A vivid example is Fayose, when asked why he couldn’t pay his workers. He told everyone who cared to listen that he only got 791 million naira from federal allocation for the last month. What this means is simple; without Federal allocation, a state like Ekiti state is dead. If the federal allocation that is based on oil is further reduced based on further reduction in crude oil price, the state civil servants should start going for “Night vigils”. It just tells you the wholesome mess we have in the system.

I have had a lot of arguments with many friends of mine. They come out with some interesting economic theory that Government could use to get out of this mess. However, whenever I asked them where the money would come from apart from the crude oil angle, they start speaking in tongues. Agriculture is good but we never planned the system in the last 4 decades on agriculture. It (Agriculture) was never the basis of setting up states that have no viable way of sustenance just like Fayose showed us.  You can see the trouble that Osun has been meshed into.  Aregbesola  is just as confused as Fayose.  Its federal money everyone is expecting. Its crude oil money everyone wants to chop. People can come up with their analysis but it’s a problem

Like I have always said, the problem cannot be solved unless the crude oil price increases substantially to take care of our citizens’ needs and also the bureaucratic and official greed.  In the alternative, if we could have some solid minerals that could provide instant cash into the till. The other measures like I wrote earlier are cutting the size and volume of government at every level to accommodate what comes in. This would be difficult to achieve based on our political composition I agree. This now leaves us with the only option of praying to God to help us out with the oil price.

Buhari, I do agree, has best intentions but with what I am seeing on the ground and the load of expectations that he must satisfy, I don’t envy him at all. I understand that he has to give a message of hope to the citizens, however, he knows his limit based on his reality. 

I pray that things improve. I pray that oil price rises.  Papa God, it is on you and with you that we hope on. Let the crude oil price fly….I know you are seeing the cries of your children. ….Ewolewooo!!