27-2-2025.          

I am definitely certain that I will not be the most popular person among the Nigerian religious, political, and traditional rulers at the moment, because what yours sincerely is going to write on is something many of them see as a ‘MAGNANIMITY’ by and from them.

The prices of food items are said to be crashing down in Nigeria, allegedly due to the concerted efforts of the present regime led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which kickstarted the fire brigade approach to addressing the ravaging hunger in the country, but not addressing the overwhelming poverty that caused it.

The government is once again using its sponsored clerics to tell the world that it is crashing the prices of food items across the country in order that food may be available for most citizens to afford to buy. But what the government has not done, and will NEVER do, is to ensure that the money to purchase the crashed food items is available to the moneyless citizens.

As doing so will avail the ‘GENEROUS’ ruiners of Nigeria with no sufficient money to help themselves generously, and later ‘donate, or ‘sponsor’ or ‘purchase for distribution to the poor, hapless, desperate and needy citizens of the country’. 

One of such clerics (from the Northern region), preaching to an obviously rented audience, said that as long as prices of food items would come down, if the closed down Northern region borders would be opened so that many citizens could afford to buy, let the North go to blazes, to which his unseen audience answered in the affirmative in unison.

There are also many other sponsored Northern Islamic preachers who are paid to FALSIFY even that which was explained by the Prophet and last Messenger of Allah, Muhammadu (SAW), as a compulsory practice in the performance of some religious services, calling them as ‘hearsay’, but support innovations that even the companions of the Messenger of Allah and those who came immediately after them, did not believe in or practiced.

By the way, how many civil servants are there, both at Federal and the State levels vis a vis the entire poor citizens in the country? Even if the governments claim to make the food items available to everyone, how many poor citizens have the financial wherewithal to purchase them? And in any cases, most of the food items will be purchased by top government officials through their fronts, or top marketers, directly and through their many agents.

The crashing down of the price of food items is like the so called availability of petroleum products, especially PMS, at the filling stations. The product may be there, but the money is not available for many of its users to buy.

It would appear that nothing some irreligious, irresponsible and selfish people would not do as long as they would gain and get worldly benefit, regardless of God’s prohibition against it.

These ungodly lot includes the smooth operators who go into maniacal rage, dishing out all sorts of made-up threats when their mode of operation (perpetually telling lies) are exposed. Silence is the answer that suits such people, so as to give them the rope to further hang themselves.

The narration I have made in my previous articles is not like the autobiography of the ‘evil genius’ General, where the living is praised to high heavens for all the success of the Military regime he served as President, and the dead is condemned for all of its ills. The places I have cited are not fictitious, and the people mentioned are still alive to corroborate the claims I made.

If one is talking about power, or lots of money, or hoarding it for no reason other than just to possess it in humongous amounts, where are the rulers, who once bestride their countries like Julius Caesar did in the Ancient Rome. On the African continent, people such as Nelson Mandela, Laurent Kabila, Robert Mugabe, Odinga Odinga, William Chiluba, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Idi Amin, some of whom were as powerful as they were wealthy.

 

In Nigeria, where is General Aguiyi Ironsi, General Murtala Mohammed, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe (Zik of Africa), Odumegwu Ojukwu, General Shehu Musa Yar’adua,Alhaji Mashood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola (who gave his money so freely and generously like it would never finish), General Sani Abacha (the no-nonsense Head of State feared by many Nigerians, to the point that many took to their heels and fled the country during his tenure), Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, and the former Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamido Olayiwola Atanda Adeyemi 111?

To be sure, no amount of acquisition by the self serving leaders in Nigeria, will make any of them reach the league of those who were rated as the richest people in the world, by the end of  the year 2024. Such people include, Elon Musk of the Tesla Electric Car fame (said to be worth $350 billion), Mark Zuckerberg of the Facebook fame (said to be worth $254 billion), Jeff Bezos of the Amazon fame (said to be worth $242 billion), Larry Ellison of Google fame (said to be worth $216 billion),Bernard Arnourt of the LVMH fame (said to be worth $191 billion), and other multi billionaires, who are far away from Africa’s richest person, Nigeria’s Alhaji Aliko Dangote, of the Dangote fame, who is said to possess a ‘MARE’ $23 billion.

As a matter of conjecture, some of Nigeria’s ruiners may have corruptly enriched themselves from the public coffers, which is why, after diligent researches, two global anti corruption bodies, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the International Crimes Watch, declared President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigeria as the third (3rd) most corrupt person in the world, and one of the most corrupt countries in the world, respectively.

In any case, someone may be so rich and so powerful, but these worldly acquisitions are only temporary, and could only be useful to the living, but of no use to the dead, especially if made illegally. And becoming stupendously wealthy over night is certainly not through legal means.

And no amount of good deeds from ill made wealth will exonerate God’s creations from His wrath in the next world. ‘Donations’, or ‘sponsorships’ or ‘purchases of items to the poor, hapless, desperate and needy citizens of the country’ will NOT stop explanation before the Creator how such a wealth was made. It has to be explained to Him, even if it was acquired LEGALLY, and shared LEGITIMATELY, before death.

May God make it very EASY for us to explain to Him how we acquired and disposed our worldly possession, and discharged the other responsibilities that were entrusted to us.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.