By Oduche Azih
THUR 01 JULY, 2021-theGBJournal- Nameless Finance and Energy Experts I presume?
This is not a new development. It only needs to be reinforced.
What do the experts in the stable of The Guardian think?
Let’s hear it, loud and clear. What about the other media houses, both print and electronic?
ChannelsTv, TVC, AriseTV, Vanguard Newspapers, Leadership Newspapers etc?
It is perhaps only The Punch that routinely takes robust positions on the wild shenanigans undertaken on our collective behalf by the seriously ethically challenged who hold forth in government. Opposition from experts like me, (surprise!), has been strident since the cult that runs the NNPC, a subsidiary of Aso Rock, initially floated this strange idea. The Guardian meanwhile presents this matter of opposition as if it was just sprung on us last night.
This is not correct.
The popular misgivings has been out there these past several weeks. And the government has on its part been stubbornly unrelenting.
The mere fact of a government borrowing for four consecutive years for both routine capital and recurrent expenditure and now seeking to shamelessly borrow once again to partake in the ownership structure of somebody else’s refinery is truly bewildering. This is especially telling in view of the fact that it owns three inactive refineries lock, stock and barrel.
And the press, what kind of stupid questions do the journalists ask Mele Kyari when he presumes to provide vacuous clarification to a stunned citizenry?
When governments in UK, US, Germany or India seek to take a wrong turn, experts, visioners, Newspaper Editorial Boards take strong positions. You do not have to guess where they stand and why. Why then is it that here in Nigeria The Guardian and others act as if they are duty bound to be mere government megaphones even in situations where the government has completely derailed?
Dont tell me that it has anything to do with Patriotism when the very future of my grandchildren is being jeopardized.
Where are our own Mohammed El-Erian, Stiglitz and others? Have the likes of Dr Pat Utomi given up? We do not expect the captive NTA to give their views prominence, unless they toe the government line and praise sing.
This is the more reason why the alternative media, not answerable to Lie Mohammed, must step up to do the needful. We cannot out of misguided politeness watch while President Buhari and his merry team run Nigeria into the ground.
If The Dangote Group has any intention to offload a stake in its flagship Refinery Project, it knows its way in the NGX Exchange, doesn’t it? In the unlikely event that it does not fancy that path, the Group can choose private placement among the super rich. They can easily locate them without my help. The very last thing that Nigeria needs now, especially a Nigeria over which Buhari reigns, is another government owned Petroleum Refinery. Nigerians should rise up like one man to oppose this new scam. The proposed liaison with the NNPC may ultimately turn out to be the kiss of death.
Tufiakwa!
Oduche Azih writes from Lagos
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