For The Love Of Big Cars: How Labour Party Legislators Blew The Chance To Smell Like Roses And Be Seen As Change Agents
The Oasis Reporters
October 26, 2023
On Saturday October 21, 2023 I put a call through to a familiar forex dealer wanting to know how much he would buy $100. I was merely investigating. He said 115,000 naira.
By Monday morning, it had climbed to 1020 naira to the dollar. By the time I went to meet him on Wednesday morning for a brief interview, it was 1025 naira/$. Twenty four hours later, it climbed again.
So why is the dollar climbing everyday?
There is a lack of confidence in a country that has been grossly deficient in fixing it’s infrastructure from electricity to roads, education and food production, security and health etc, because we have a very miserable and insensitive political class who actually have no idea of what to do.
Youths in the country are fleeing from the nation in droves and the syndrome is called ‘Japa’. The mass migration is now a deluge. They are exiting with their skills hence banks are losing staff. This includes our universities and industry.
The only thriving sector appears to be the political economy. They can afford to squander government resources to cater for themselves by buying exotic cars as symbols of affluence in the midst of overwhelming poverty.
It was shocking to learn that the national assembly bought about 500 exotic cars for it’s members and the money is going to reflate an already extra large Japanese economy.
Meanwhile the Nigerian economy is down.
Watch on Twitter or YOUTUBE by following the link provided.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1717296434754543715
There was so much hope when Peter Obi of the Labour Party threw his hat into the ring to contest as a presidential candidate in the last election because of his credibility. However, the election was won by Bola Tinubu as affirmed by Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
As a state governor in Anambra, South East Nigeria, it was Peter Obi that stood tall behind Innoson Vehicles to start the production of vehicles in the country. Till date he remains as one of the highest government officials that ever patronized the company, and was even paying as at when due. He bought buses from Innoson Vehicles for all the schools in the state. That was an inspirational gesture to the school children in the state who saw first hand what pride lay in home based production.
When legislators bought at least 500 Landcruiser Toyota SUVs, a loud gesture of Labour Party legislators opting for Nigerian produced vehicles and paying back the balance into the treasury or utilizing the price difference for community projects would have given them more mileage politically. But they blew the chance.
The dollar would continue to climb unless there is rising and adequate production in the country rather than over reliance on imported goods.
Labour Party legislators need to redeem their image now.
Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
