Why there is so much hardship – Ladoja

Berates Oyo govt over demolition of Ayefele building                   

 

Former Governor of Oyo State and the Osi Olubadan of Ibadanland, Senator Rashidi Ladoja has explained why there is so much hardship  and groaning among Nigerians .

He said that the economic condition in Nigeria is hard because those in government have refused to accept the truth of the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.

According to him, the failure to accept that there is a problem is the main reason why the government cannot search for solutions to it.

Ladoja who stated this on Tuesday while speaking with newsmen after observing the Ramadan prayer added 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 called for urgent steps to address the disturbing trend.

Ladoja who recently dumped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the African Democratic Congress (ADC)  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 but noted that 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 that the government should have called on the owner for regularization of his approval papers and fined him for negligence if he went outside the approval.

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“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 regularize 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 penalize him but not to pull down any part of the 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 losing more? The salary earners are the one losing in Nigeria.  The person who was on N18, 000 minimum wage in 2003 when the dollar was exchanging for N150 naira per dollar is still on N18,000 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 Boko Haram 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.”

 

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