Re: Nigeria and hard times

When I read Segun Popoola’s write-up in the Daily Trust newspaper of Thursday, September 1, I burst into tears because I am one of those suffering from the present hardship. But I definitely believe that our prayers would not be in vain.  I am fully optimistic that laughter, jubilation and delectation are underway. In my […]

When I read Segun Popoola’s write-up in the Daily Trust newspaper of Thursday, September 1, I burst into tears because I am one of those suffering from the present hardship. But I definitely believe that our prayers would not be in vain.
 I am fully optimistic that laughter, jubilation and delectation are underway. In my own view, those who see and regard President Muhammadu Buhari as the “Messiah” or game charger are mistaken. I consider Buhari as a ladder or means of the change, but the remote controller of the change is God.
  And, I am optimistic that this change was written on the Preserved Tablet of God. Nigerians should never lose hope or confidence in President Buhari, because we believe that God will surely grant him power and wisdom to liberate the innocent people of Nigeria from this testing hardship. Sometimes, we have to go through hardships to get blessings. The aim of the hardship is to strengthen our faith
       Beyond doubt, our governors have added fuel to the flames for our hardships in Nigeria, through owning workers’ salaries. It seems that our governors are either callous or determined to cripple Buhari’s administration or demonize the APC. According to a professor of Economics, Akpan Hogan Ekpo, the quickest way-out of this type of recession is to inject money into the system. He said: “The only way-out is to inflate the economy by releasing money for both recurrent and capital projects and make necessary plan to help states pay the outstanding salaries of workers”.  
   Positively, a Commodities’ Price Control agency will be re-introduced very soon. Before then, what the president is doing now is making sure that Nigeria could feed itself before 2017. What he has also prioritized is to make Nigeria a net exporter of agricultural products. What he is struggling now is to motivate us to grudgingly return to our farms. Mr. President has succeeded in that, because I am among those who this myriad hardship compelled me to till the soil this year. Fortunately, my farm here in Azare has been blessed with maize, grains, groundnut and beans.
      The current Nigeria economy recession demands serious measures; the president should find ways to see that money could circulate among masses. For instance, a lecturer at the Department of Economics of the Kaduna State University, Dr. Aminu Usman, said that one way to liberate Nigeria economy from the recession is to start paying local contractors and awarding new contracts for rural infrastructure in order to resuscitate rural economics to create market for farm products and manufactured goods. Paying foreign contractors only put pressure on our FX.
 Mustapha Baba Azare, Bauchi State