Where Is The Goodluck Jonathan Without Shoes By Ken Oloye?

President Goodluck Jonathan should walk
with his head low. It is unfortunate that he
has betrayed millions of poor and average
Nigerians who voted en mass to make him
president. We all believed him when he begged
for our votes by promising to change the plight
of the poor having had a dose of extreme
poverty. What has the one once without shoes
done to better the lives of the poor after we
put him in a place with uncountable shoes.

The gap increases every day. The rich are getting
richer and the poor are getting poorer. The
systemic marginalization of the poor and less
privileged is frustrating and has reached maximum
crescendo. Our resources are being shared by the
few in power while average Nigerians await the
crumbs. From the Federal Government to State
Governments and all over our government and
non-governmental institutions, there is ignorance
and frightening nonchalance to tackling the matter.
The government claims to know the danger of
unemployment plaguing our country and understand
the need for Job creation, yet role out programs
that won’t make a difference. Successive
governments keep making the same mistakes of their
predecessors. The government will rather empower
a Dangote with N50 billion than empower 5,000
people with N10 million each.
Considering the huge amount of money that has been
tagged Intervention Funds voted for SME’s in
recent years, I suppose the landscape of Nigeria
should be dotted with industries. I cannot be proved
wrong. I say it boldly that such funds are shared by
people in power. Amongst all programs for youth
empowerment, I see the Youwin program as the
only sensible way to create employment and having
had encounters with various institutions, I will
share my findings.
The Bank of Industry: the bank of Industry was
established by the Federal Government to promote
the industrial sector in Nigeria. Perhaps they have
done well in turning corrupt millionaire politicians
into billionaires; they have neglected the average
Nigerian and created bottlenecks to ensure that only
the rich get richer. To reach such conclusion, I
examined their loan packages and the conditional
ties. In simple terms, anyone who wants N10
million to start a business must have collaterals
worth N30 million. To get that, you must deposit
10% of desired amount (N1 million) to the bank. You
have to wait for over 8 months to get approved for
a loan. These are just a few out of many
bottlenecks.
How on earth will a fresh unemployed graduate
meet such conditions unlike the politicians that have
our treasury at arm’s length? How would a man
without shoes get N1 million to deposit and own a
N30 million collateral to secure N10 million loan?
The government is reluctant to provide us with
capital; where else do we get it. Our oil and our
natural resources are the government properties and
all proceeds go to the Federal Government wallet.
Yet the government won’t help us with Capital to
start businesses.
If the reports were true, how on earth did Jimoh
Ibrahim rout $200 million BOI loan into his
privately owned company? Can someone please do
the math in Naira? The government only pump
money into BOI to feed corrupt politicians and
not to empower the youths. N220 Billion was
recently released as Intervention Fund and we
suspect that it will find its way into private
accounts owned by corrupt politicians. The Bank
of Industry already has billions in its coffers that the
officials of the Ministry of Finance put into fix
deposits and shares the profits. We need to ask why
the Rice Intervention Fund like many other funds
lies fallow in the bank without being disbursed. The
reason is not farfetched. It is a deliberate
frustration of applicants by way of stringent
conditional ties to ensure that the money remains in
the bank coffers to feed their greed.
The Okonjo Iweala Youwin initiative is brilliant.
If the Ministry of finance can adopt the Youwin
approach in BOI, unemployment will be
drastically reduced in no time. The system adopted
in Youwin can be improved upon to ensure no one
defaults, the government doesn’t have to worry
about people defaulting and there won’t be need for
inconvenient conditional ties aimed at discouraging
people from obtaining loans. In fact, we should talk
more of grants in our present predicament. We
have reached a stage where the government must
look beyond profits and assist the masses.
If our President was once without shoes, he
would understand the sufferings of the masses.
Whoever, occupies the seat of power come 2015
must assemble a team from the field and deliver
Nigeria from the jaws of unemployment.
We have had enough of our resources enriching the
pockets of a few. We have had our fill of
preventable hardships. We have had enough of
corrupt officials standing in the way of potential
business owners. This systemic rot must end with
the present tenure. We desire a change before the
poor and hungry have the rich for food.
The writer of this opinion piece is Ken Oloye.