By Farooq Kperogi
Nigeria’s Independence Day is supposed to be a solemn, introspective moment, but Buhari has chosen the day to visit rhetorical violence on Nigerians. In his Independence Day national broadcast today, he signalled that he’d yet again hike the price of petrol (and plunge Nigerians into even deeper misery than they’re already in) by saying, “It makes no sense for oil to be cheaper in Nigeria than in Saudi Arabia.”
Well, it also makes no sense for the minimum wage in Saudi Arabia to be 3,000 riyals (which is equivalent to N305,149.30) while the minimum wage in Nigeria is a miserly N30,000.
To compare the petrol prices of various countries with Nigeria and ignore the sky-high differences in minimum wages and standards of living is beyond cruel. But, as I’ve pointed out before, cruelty is now Buhari’s official governing philosophy.
I wish you I could say, “Happy Independence Day” to Nigerians, but that would be heartless. There’s nothing to be happy about in an Independence Day that has been ruined by Buhari’s cruelty.
