Funmi Olaitan, Ibadan
Former governor of Oyo State and chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rasheed Ladoja, has said Nigerians are facing hardship because of the nation's economic conditions, lamenting that those in government have refused to accept this truth.
Ladoja while speaking with journalists after observing the Eid-el-kabir prayer in Ibadan, said the failure to accept that there is a problem is the main reason why the government cannot search for solutions to it, stating that the salary earners in Nigeria are suffering the most under the present government.
The Osi-Olubadan of Ibadanland who noted that the civil servants who started earning N18,000 minimum wage in 2003 when dollar exchanged for N150 are still earning the same amount when dollar now exchanges for N370, saying civil servants are now earning less than half of their salaries 15 years after.
While praying for a better country and Sallah celebrations for all Nigerians next year, Ladoja lamented that the hardship in the country has heightened and calls for urgent steps to address the disturbing trend.
The ADC Chieftain stated that the way out of the woods was for the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to accept the fact that there is problem so as to find solutions to it, noting that presently the government was living in denial.
On the demolition of the Music House of Yinka Ayefele, the former governor who described it as unfortunate, said the government should have called on the owner for the regularisation of his approval papers and fined him for negligence in following the approved plans even if he went outside the approval.
He said, “Let’s say he (Ayefele) contravened the law. The only thing they said was about documentations. He did not ask for approval for certain things. What I would have expected a government to do is to regularise it and give him penalty for it for not been diligent enough to ask for approval. Because the building is not crossing any carnal, it is not disturbing the flood plain. It does not constitute an environmental crisis to anybody. They can penalise him but not to pull down the whole building.
“The country is hard. By the time i woke up this morning those outside my house were more than 2000. That shows the situation in the country. We need to pray that next year should be better than what we are experiencing today. It is true that the Imam said we should sacrifice but there should be limit to what we would be sacrificing. May Nigeria be better for all of us.
"We have to start from the acceptance of truth. But if you don’t accept there is problem there is no how you will be looking for solutions to it. When you are campaigning you can say whatever you like but when you are in government it is another thing. We were alive when you said naira will change for one dollar. We were alive when Tam David West told us petrol will sell for N45naira per litre. We were alive but we know the situation today. The situation is terrible but who are those that are loosing more? The salary earners are the one loosing in Nigeria.
"The person who was on 18,000 minimum wage in 2003 when the dollar was exchanging for N150 naira per dollar is still on N18000 salary today when dollar is now exchanging for N370 naira. So it means that the salary earner is earning less than half of what he was earning in 2003 now. What is happening here is known to everybody because the world is a global village.
"And then the various competitions between the various groupings is not helping situation to get better. We have competition among the political parties. We have competition among the ethnic groups. We have class competition. These are not helping us.
"The government did not accept that we had Bokoharam problem, they did not accept we have Fulani herdsmen problem. We are now talking about bandits. The next time they will say it is people from Libya that has come to invade us. So it is the fault of not accepting the truth and that is why we are not getting the solution."
