I WISH NIGERIANS LESS MISERIES IN NEW YEAR, SAYS SOYINKA
Soyinka who described the situation as traumatizing said, “In the accustomed tradition, I wish the nation less misery in the coming year. A genuine Happy New Year greeting is probably too extravagant a wish”.
The Nobel Laureate cited the viral newspaper clipping of the old Daily Times newspaper edition when Muhammed Buhari as minister of petroleum and natural resources was quoted as saying, “Fuel crisis may be over next year.”
“Even with ‘unorthodox’ aids of passage, this was no task for the faint – hearted. Just getting past fuelling stations was traumatising, an obstacle race through seething, frustrated masses of humanity, only to find ourselves on vast stretches of emptied roads pleading for occupation. As for obtaining the petroleum in the first place – the less said the better”, Soyinka stated.
“I suspect that this government has permitted itself to be fooled by the peace of those empty streets, but also by the orderly, patient, long -suffering queues that are admittedly prevalent in the city centres. It is time the reporting monitors of government moved to city peripheries and sometimes even some other inner urban sectors, such as Ikeja and Maryland from time to time to see, and listen!”
He described government attitude as attempts to buy time and pass blame, adding that the current hike must be remedied quickly, and wonders what happened to initiatives by different states of the federation to create their own energy sources, saying such moves had been sabotaged by the federal government.
“When many of us are blissfully departed, an updated rendition of this same clipping – with a change of cast here and there – will undoubtedly be reproduced in the media, with the same alibis, the same in -built panacea of blame passing.”
“Just to think laterally for a moment – what became of the initiatives by some states nearly two decades ago – Lagos most prominently – to decentralize power, and thus empower states to generate and distribute their own energy requirements?
“Frustrated and eventually sabotaged in the most cynical manner from the federal centre!. As the tussle for the next round of power gets hotter in the coming year,” Mr. Soyinka wrote, “The electorate will again be manipulated into losing sight of the base issue … Sooner than later, but not as soon as pledged, the fuel crisis will pass.
“And then, of course, we shall await the next round of shortages, then a recommencement of blame passing.”
Soyinka in an apparent reference to the nation’s perennial lack of basic amenities lamented that despite the nation’s abundant resources, nothing is beyond shortage.
“What will be the commodity this time – food perhaps? Maybe even potable water? In a nation of plenty, nothing is beyond eventual shortage – except, of course, the commonplace endowment of pre-emptive planning and methodical execution,” Soyinka said
