Nigeria Has Been In Difficulty For A Long Time, Many Things Are Wrong – Ango Abdullahi

Elder statesman and convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Ango Abdullahi, has lamented the unencouraging state of affairs in Nigeria.

Speaking in an interview with Vanguard, Abdullahi submitted that Nigeria has been in difficulty for a long time and the difficulties didn’t start from the current administration.

He lamented that a lot of things have been going wrong with the Nigerian economy.

Asked during the interview about the palliatives introduced by the government following the fuel subsidy removal by the current administration, the former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, submitted that he, like many other Nigerians, has not received any palliative so he can’t comment on such an initiative.

He said, “Well, you have mentioned that the removal of fuel subsidy caused some economic difficulties for all of us Nigerians. And I suppose you also mentioned that some palliatives have been put in place. The only thing you have not mentioned for me to hear clearly, what palliatives have been put together, or what palliatives have been brought to make life a little easier for Nigerians, so that I can make a comment?

“I am a very old person. I have not received any palliatives as an old person. Unfortunately, Nigeria has been in difficulty for quite some time. And this difficulty did not start with the current administration. It started some time ago, not too far back, I think five to 10 years ago. A lot of things have been going wrong with the Nigerian economy.”

It’s A Leadership Problem

Speaking further, the NEF convener said the problem is not too much about Nigeria’s economy, but a lack of good leaders in the country.

Naija News reports he submitted that many of the challenges the citizens are facing would not have happened if the country has good leaders in charge of its affairs.

“It is not the Nigerian economy as such. It is the Nigerian leadership that has been failing the country in terms of what ought to be done, and what ought to be avoided to make sure that Nigeria remains a very happy country for the people of the country. But unfortunately, this has not happened.

“And so, all the things you have mentioned about poverty, about difficulty, about hunger, and so on and so forth are true. This shouldn’t be happening to Nigeria at all, we have no reason to be hungry.

“We have no reasons to be poor given the fact that God has endowed this country with resources that have not been endowed in any or most parts of the world. So, the crisis we have been having is a crisis of bad leadership and bad governance, whether now or in the immediate past. Nigerians are unhappy about their country because things have gone wrong, and their livelihood has been so badly affected. Therefore, they have every reason to quite correctly say that the country has failed them. And if the country has failed them, it is not because the country has no resources to do what Nigerians should be happy about, but simply because the leadership has not organized itself in such a way so that the resources of the country would be harnessed and used for the benefit of the country.

“So, the issue here is that the crisis you are talking about is a crisis of leadership. And once leadership is wrong, many things will go wrong, as we are having many things going wrong now,” the elder statesman submitted.