Thread by @toluogunlesi

A friend (who has a Biz in the service industry) recently told me they didn’t realize, all the while they were supporting PMB in 2015, just how much of their Biz patronage came from the free money that flowed under GEJ/PDP. That money trickled everywhere

Really thought-provoking

And that’s how it was. Just for the 2015 elections, Diezani shared $115 MILLION to INEC and Security Agencies, to influence the elections. Then there was the $289 MILLION GEJ approved for NIA. All apart from the Grand Largesse: the $2.1 BILLION Dasuki shared to PDP chieftains.

All of this apart from the Oil Subsidy Money: Trillions of Naira paid out to dozens of companies mostly for doing nothing

All that money flowed into real estate, Aviation (PJs), Cars, & boosted the services sector, fueling the rise of fashion designers, events planners, etc

People really balled those days. But the party was never going to last forever. Twas a glittering castle without a foundation. Three things brought it crashing down:

1. Oil Price crash in 2014/15
2. TSA & BVN Implementation for public service; Whistleblowing
3. Fear of EFCC

Someone needs to do a detailed story about the End of the Party. How Big Boys and Girls sold cars and houses and jets to raise money to survive, how people abandoned assets to escape EFCC scrutiny,how businesses built on the mindless corruption crumbled. We all know these stories

To be honest you can understand/empathize why so many people are embittered, and why the battle cry of ‘hunger’ became a potent weapon. Think of how far the $115 MILLION Diezani shared before the elections would have gone, how many businesses & lives they would have sustained.

You can also understand why some people insist the Past was ‘better’.

Has Corruption been wiped out in Nigeria? No. Very long way to go. But I think we’ve put the MADNESS of those years behind us. And I’m convinced PDP will return us to that perpetual state of Anyhowness.

We were a nation running on steroids, then we crashed, when the steroids ran out. We hurt ourselves badly of course - both from the crash & the effect of the steroids on our system.

Now we have to learn to walk all over again. Walk,before even thinking of running. Sans steroids

A lot of what we’re dealing with is the withdrawal effect from giving up steroids

There’s also the humiliation of having to learn to walk, you who were racing at 1,000 miles/hour on steroids before

Which pushes a lot of people to romanticize the days of addiction, & long for it

Of course in all of the madness, not a lot of attention was paid to ordinary Nigerians: pensioners, young people, farmers, petty traders, the poorest & most vulnerable, etc. Govt was run largely for Briefcase Boys & Girls: Oil subsidiers, privatization bounty hunters, etc etc.

Before Buhari came and insisted that TSA must be fully implemented (had been around since 2012 or so, but the GEJ Admin foot-dragged on enforcement), MDAs kept public funds in more than 20,000 commercial bank accounts, & did as they pleased with the money thenationonlineng.net/tsa-fg-consoli…

One of Kemi Adeosun’s greatest successes was insisting on applying BVN to MDAs salary accounts. She once noted that what followed was a deluge of requests from people asking to move their accounts to Microfinance Banks (which at the time had no BVN cover) 🤣

The dramatic drop in access to easy money that Buhari embodies (TSA, PICA, Whistleblowing, VAIDS, ongoing FIRS/Customs automations, a Pres who will not frivolously approve monies a la GEJ — yes a lot required pres approval) — is at the heart of a good part of the disaffection.

What I think we could have done a better job at is the empathy and associated storytelling. Let people know that the pain is felt and understandable, and paint a picture of what the future holds - the pain before the gain, the dark hours preceding dawn, the certainty of dawn.

When Amaechi said (before Wendel Simlin ‘slimmed’ the Tapes): “JUST 3 years of Buhari o, everybody is crying” - this is what he was talking about. The line immediately preceding that was “Corruption has become our culture, it’s our way of life...”

Now we’re paying the Price.

Lekki Real Estate benefited significantly from the ‘Amnesty’ & ‘Subsidy’ boys & girls. Maaadt money. Stories of people paying tailors N1m for 5 kaftans in Abuja. Nigeria was world’s biggest importer of USD notes.Didn’t even GEJ use the PJ economy as evidence of Naija prosperity?

SLS, 2013: “Nigeria has become the largest importer of the US Dollar in the whole world...” informationng.com/2013/09/nigeri…

Since 2015:

20,000+ MDA bank Accts closed, replaced by TSA

Fertilizer Subsidy payments ended

Pension fraud scams busted by PTAD

50,000+ Fed ghost workers busted

>>N700BN in recoveries of looted funds

7m NEW taxpayers

Admittedly these are not things that please many people

When we were supporting Buhari in 2015 to fight corruption (more determinedly than before), to ensure public resources are focused on Infrastructure not on Elite greed, what did we really expect? That the People’s Democratic PARTYING of preceding years would continue?

When we voted for Buhari I assumed we knew we were voting for a Govt that would knock out of us any & all illusions of ‘doctored’ prosperity - an economic growth not based on any foundation. Not on Infrastructure, Social Investment,not on a sustained focus on Econ diversification

Poor people pretending to be rich, cos we were living large on money we should ve been investing. Buhari’s first task was to remove the illusions. And he has. ‘Guy, calm down. You’re not a big boy. You’re nothing, really.’ But until we realize that, we can’t build real prosperity

Peoples Democratic PARTYING is the reason why 16 years passed without even ONE completed RAIL project; the reason why they failed to fix Lagos-Ib Exp - less than 150km of Road - in 16 years, in spite of its econ potential. It’s why the new Niger & Benue Bridges were left undone.