Elder statesman and frontline industrialist, Dr. Chike Obidigbo, has stated that Nigeria is bleeding profusely without any hope for urgent healing and redirection.
He noted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has found himself in a pitiable situation due to a number of reasons, regretting that none of the President’s aides had shown capacity to pinpoint the cause or strategies to salvage the ugly condition.
In a statement on Friday, Obidigbo said President Tinubu should realise that he inherited a crop of kleptomaniacs from former President Muhammad Buhari’s eight years of maladministration.
He said, “Nigeria is bleeding profusely, and there seems to be no doctors around to control the loss. Although the current socio-economic chaos in Nigeria were not entirely caused by Tinubu, it is surprising that his foot soldiers cannot help him out in redirecting the country.
“No doubt, Tinubu inherited most of these crises from Buhari’s crass incompetence and ferociously corrupt crew of kleptomaniacs who surrounded him and drained the country’s resources to the point of near depletion. But, Tinubu’s calculations for power lured him onto an infested throne.
“The President should urgently weed out incompetent aides that have not made any appreciable effort to revive Nigeria’s once robust economy.
“Tinubu’s failure to inform Nigeria about the status of the economy he met on ground at his inauguration makes him an accessory to Buhari’s years of the locust.”
While reminding President Tinubu that there were a lot of Nigerians with good heads to help him navigate the ship of state, he noted that the country “seems far too large for one black head to exclusively manage successfully.”
“We claim to be wise people, but fail to recognise our shortcomings and limitations.
“At any event, this bleeding economy could make it imperative to consider the peaceful Balkanization of the country into smaller, more efficiently manageable units rather than continue this unending brotherly schism.
“Time has come for us to prayerfully and deeply reflect on the saying that when two brothers fight to finish, outsiders will takeover their inheritance.
“The wise thing remains for the brothers to share their properties and remain alive, rather than die and enrich strangers that might have been goading them on out of bitter jealousy
“I wont say that the creation of Development Commissions around the six geopolitical zones is a step in that direction, but the economy is currently exposing the ugly underbelly of Nigeria,” he stated.
On the recent issues of the minimum wage, Obidigbo said as an employer of labour he has to warn the President from throwing money to problems or pursuing policies of appeasement that could render the economy comatose.
“To me, the recent debate over minimum wage seems a dumb trap to further diminish this seeming lone-ranger approach to managing the economy.
“On one hand, Labour was ignorantly pushed to maximise the minimum wage bargain in the erroneous belief that it will better the standard of living of the people and solve the economic challenges of labour.
“On the other hand, the government wrongly believed that the bitter anger of labour could be assuaged by irrationally increasing labour costs without a corresponding increase in productivity.
“Unfortunately, when the final decision is implemented, the net effect, with its wider implications will hit the country like a thunderbolt
“As an industrialist and employer of labour, I make bold to say that neither the demand nor the acquiescence makes realistic economic sense. The decision will soon backfire on all of us as soon as the wage increase comes on stream,” he said.
Obidigbo remarked that the decision to increase the minimum wage to N70,000 came off as the usual World Bank and IMF ready made prescriptions.
“IMF derives pleasure in stagnating developing economies and making them difficult to govern.
“It is very unfortunate that Nigerians have lost all sense of history, because we have so quickly forgotten the Udoji award era and its devastating consequences on the country’s economy.
“What Labour and the Government should realize is that not the amount of cash in one’s pocket that determines purchasing power, or the standard of his living.
“Purchasing power of cash should be paramount. Simply, work does not follow money, because whenever money is in the forefront, work takes a back seat.
“Conversely, when work is in the forefront, money follows without question. So, in clear terms, money follows work and not the other way round,” he further stated.
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