Denial, the disbelief in the existence or reality of a thing, the refusal to satisfy a claim, request, desire or refusal of a person making it. It is also the refusal to recognize or acknowledge a disowning or disavowal. In law, it is the refusal to acknowledge the validity of a claim, suit, or the like. Above all, denial is the sacrifice of one’s own wants or need; self-denial.

I have looked closely at the Nigerian situation and lots of people are living in denial of reality. The phrase ‘wailing wailers’ was coined and ‘rebranded’ for a sect of individuals who chose to live in denial of reality of the Nigerian politics shortly after APC-led government took over from the incompetent, corruption tainted and high handed PDP-government of Mr. GEJ.

Ask me if Nigeria is working right now, despite the fact that I supported change in its entirety, the message it brought and the direction APC was going to chart, I will boldly answer you in the negative. Yes, you heard me right, Nigeria is not working…at least not yet! The situation the country is in right now is not too different from what it was under GEJ but one thing is clear, the country is on a journey to greatness as against stagnation in obscurity under the PDP-led government.

It is funny if not ridiculous to note that the same individuals who condemned the country to the abysmal of negativity are the same singing the loudest that the country is not working. The same individuals who profited from ineptitude and incompetence of the former government are on the fore-front of ‘crying’ on behalf of Nigeria and Nigerians as if we are not aware of their sinister plan to side-tackle the country back to the old days of corruption and government for the selected few.

The economic crunch is not peculiar to Nigeria that is a fact that people living in self-denial will not accept. The whole world is going through a period of economic recession and even the world economic super-powers are not left out. However, one thing is clear, economic recession is not a new thing, while some countries continuously prepare for the raining days by applying certain economic controls, Nigeria this time was not in any way ready. How I wish we kept the excess crude oil account.

People living in denial will not even consider what the over $14.8 Billion used for the re-election campaign could have achieved for the country in terms of sustainable development. I am aware of a meeting of Nigerians in diaspora with Mr. GEJ in Houston Texas in the fall of 2012 where it was suggested to him that he could solve Nigerian’s power-generation problem by building 3 Nuclear Energy plants across the country.

The proposal was drawn-up to have a world reputable company General Electric build, operate and transfer. The proposal also mentioned that the nuclear waste will be handed over to any world powers that supports Nigeria in the nuclear program since we are not interested in Uranium enrichment.

As beautiful and well though the proposal was, I was one of the few to interpret the body language of Mr. GEJ that the program will not see the light of the day. Now, you can imagine again what $14.8 Billion would have achieved for Nigeria.

At the just concluded Nuclear Summit, where President Buhari was the only black Nation leader, it was mentioned by the leader of the free world himself that the world will depend on Nigeria at some point in future, therefore, he (President Obama) will lead other world leaders to sign a Nuclear Program deal with Nigeria sometimes in April 2016. Imagine if we started 4 years ago, we are not likely going to be talking about power generation problems now and we will not have to be spending the hard-earned $ from high-output low-income oil money.

Now, if you are one of those living in self-denial, you may continue to believe that the inability of Nigeria to work even almost 1 year after APC-led government took over, I will suggest that you have a rethink. Truth be told, Nigeria is not feeling the global economic crunch (at least, not just yet). The bulk of what this administration have spent so far is from most of the settled plea bargain agreed from the greedy past leaders. The income Nigeria is getting from oil production is at its lowest and the economy cannot survive under such.

Finally, I am not happy the way things are going in Nigeria, the hardship faced daily by citizens to get fuel and non-existent power supply, but I am not unaware that better days are ahead. I believe though that this results from corruption fighting back, it won’t go down easy.

I am also one of those who believe that once corruption and corrupt practices are eliminated from our system, thing will start to go the right way and the common man will begin to enjoy the life he deserves.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Opinion article written by Stephen Olukunle Oladapo