By Ralphs Okey Nwosu, National Chairman ADC, being Keynote address on the 76th NEC Meeting of ADC at Nicon Luxury, Abuja, on 28th May 2024.
Protocol.
I want to use this opportunity, dear NEC members, to commend your spirit. When we fixed this meeting, knowing the severity of things, the burden we face, and the uncertainties surrounding our daily living, many would assume that by now members of ADC would be tired and ready to submit to the state capture or have submitted to the temptation to Japa, but here we are in high spirits. Sure, things are bad.
I am gladdened that despite all the many challenges, you like myself, have resolved to soldier on. I feel encouraged by your staying power and the courage to go the extra mile. Times of great turmoil bring up the true patriots. I join the national secretary in welcoming you. Welcome my dear colleagues. Nation-building could be daunting. Let’s be soldiers for Democracy and country. True patriots with ADC DNA have no options than to pick up the country from the brink and further destruction and near irrelevancy to where we deserve to be. Well done ADC.
On the state of the nation, I believe Nigerians know the truth about their government and country. Only a few still live in denial. The bible verse “My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions” captures our situation under the APC-led government of the last nine years. As I have often said, it is irreconcilable that a democratically elected government will on day one impose hardship on the people. To increase the price of any commodity by over 400 percent from day one by a new administration is not only callous, it is cruel, dangerous, and evil, it shows the mind and heart of the Presidency and elected officials of the day and their advisers.
The consequence of this policy gaffe can only be imagined. I pray that our scholars, researchers, and various data mapping organizations will be able to show the morbidity, mortality, poverty, loan defaults, business closures, insecurity, and quantum of investment blockages (local and foreign) that singular action has caused. The hospital records alone cannot give the morbidity or mortality; many of our people cannot pay hospital bills or the transportation to get near the hospitals either. Not even the overflowing morgue records.
Many families are so impoverished that they can neither afford the transportation cost to take their sick ones to the hospital, many cannot afford the hospital bills while many more cannot pay mortuary bills or afford the funeral costs. Party leaders, I do not need to tell you that our people live in despair.
The policy flops are too many and have set all tiers, arms and agencies of government on fire alert while our fire brigades are in comatose. That has resulted in policy summersault at every stage of President Tinubu’s led government. The economy is in shambles. The monetary framework of the Central Bank of Nigeria can no longer be trusted to stabilize the Naira as our foreign reserve has been depleted to rock bottom. The administration goes cap in hand looking for investors and loans. But the environmental condition is damning.
The security situation is awful. Bandits still occupy many Local governments and farm areas. Kidnapping for ransom and other vices are rampant. The streets are not safe. Transportation is grinding to a halt; either by air or road. The road infrastructure, security situation and cost of petroleum discourage road travels. The airports are becoming ghost and isolated areas also.
The states and local councils are no different. The governors operate in octopus style, holding onto everything like imperial majesties. The political landscape is depressing. Elected government officials and their appointees seem to be living in Wonderland in nauseating opulence and treachery.
What the Tinubu and APC conundrum should teach us is that there is no John-Wayne approach to leadership and Nation building
