I got inspired to write my post this week when I read the recent comments on the so-called economic reforms going on in Nigeria and the profound analysis by my good friend Otunba Opeyemi Agbaje, a dear colleague and family member who seemed to call for patience while the reforms take root. In his commentary, he essentially argued that reforms take time and that Nigerians need to be patient. He underscored his point by summarizing the game-changing reforms that had a lasting impact on him over the years, including the reforms of Deng Xiaoping in China from 1978, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore from 1965, the Indian reforms under various leaders from the 1990s, and Margaret Thatcher’s reforms in Britain.

After recounting the significant reforms in China, the UK, India, and Singapore, my good friend Otunba Opeyemi opined, and I quote him: that “None of these reforms were easy. None lasted just one year. Many of them were accompanied by quite some pain, but in all cases, they were very successful. The success we see today in all these places was the outcome of these processes of reforms being executed with discipline and endurance.” He concluded his piece, shared widely on his blog and social media, by stating, and I quote again that “Reforms are not a cup of tea, and they don’t succeed in 1 or 2 years, especially in our case where we have allowed the rot to go so deep! There are mistakes that may have been made and enhancements that can and should be done, but if we endure and succeed, it will be for our good. Leadership is critical, but if we retreat from the difficult road, we will have suffered for nothing.”

As I have privately mentioned to my erudite colleague and friend, this analysis by Otunba Agbaje, as is usual with some of our Ikoyi elites, and I say this with profound respect to him because I do value and learn from his financial analysis most of the time, his analysis this time appears to be done in isolation from the real facts on the ground in our nation.

When we talk about global reforms in other countries, and want to use that to speak to the Nigerian situation, we need to compare apples to apples, not corn to yam as my Otunba did in his piece.

While I do not dispute the summary of the game-changing reforms in India, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, or Singapore, our posiotn from the Fadeyi side of life is that the reforms that happened in those nations bear no semblance in any way, shape, or form to what we are dealing with in Nigeria. I sincerely see no relevance to what’s happening here right now. Hence this article.

We must ask: what exactly is the ‘reform’ happening in Nigeria that the ruling party is enjoining the people to be patient about? Even Patience, who I used to know on Ijaoye Street in Fadeyi, is no longer patient with the suffering she is going through in Nigeria, for no purpose. Similarly, both Obiangeli, Adamu, and Ramota, who used to live next door to us in Fadeyi, have lost patience with the ‘Emilokan reforms’ and are on their way to Cotonou by Okada rides as we speak.

Reform is good, but do we have reforms in Nigeria? From my perch in Fadeyi, all I can see is more of the same, but this time done with even less transparency and, surprisingly, much less competency than under the much-vilified GEJ regime.

Facts speak louder than sentiments. Let’s look at the’reforms’ we have in Nigeria right now, not what the government or its apologists tell us we have:

• Is it a reform that told us it’s the end of the subsidy they claimed to be executing, but which they had no courage to sustain, no plan to handle the cobra effects of the removal before announcing it, and the same subsidy removal they have started paying again through the back door? Subsidy removal that the citizens do not benefit from but which only the government patrons and insiders enjoy?
• Is it the reform where the President is the Minister of Petroleum, which controls NNPC and has not been audited in years, but the President has no courage to tear apart?
• You mentioned privatization in those reforms you cited, but what kind of privatization do we have in Nigeria where the leaders basically sold it to themselves for cheap and can’t even run it well? Power was privatized by GEJ by giving licenses to people who had no clue about running electricity and were hoping to resell the licenses, like rice importation licenses. Please lets compare apples to apples. What we have in Nigeria is not privatization but state capture by Ikoyi people in an incestuous orgy of political patronage.
• You talked about Chinese reforms after millions had died of hunger. It is true, but you forgot to mention that they made corruption a capital offense, aggressively pursued exports, and forced population control to the point of death if you made the mistake of having a second or third child. What reforms is this government doing about population control or the real fight against corruption when our current President basically personifies corruption in the minds of the people, whether that’s provien or true or not? Seriously? Why would anyone compare Nigeria’s current ‘reform’ to China’s? Thats a cruel joke on people who are not even allowed to protest in peace!
• Is it the reform where they tell us Nigeria has no money but they still continue to live in leadership affluence, buying more luxurious planes, yachts, and renovating an already renovated VP house for billions? or the kind of reforms where they are Paying themselves millions, if not billions, a year while the rest of the country is literally suffering untold hunger and hardship. None of those four game-changing reforms in Singapore, India, UK or Malaysia  were anything like the kind of reforms we are experiencing in the hands of our own government.

So ,we ask the government and their apologists, telling us to keep looking for the elusive Patience: ‘What kind of reform exactly are they doing’? Please not  give reform a bad name, and Patience does not want anyone ot embrace her righ now. Patience is just too hungry and upset right now with No job, No Light, No Water.

I agree reforms take years and even decades, and we desperately need them and the attendant unavoidable pain that must come with them, but it’s an insult to the common sense of every Nigerian to say Nigeria is undergoing reforms when everything is basically the same but just worse than before.

That’s the issue, my Otunba. We all want reform as we can’t continue like this forever, but the government needs to have clarity. Be clear to themselves and us about what they are doing. Be consistent and empathetic when the pain of reform is too much and people cry a little.

Right now, it’s an insult to compare what we are going through in Nigeria with the fundamental structural reforms that happened in those countries.

In case you have not come out of your palatial mansion enough or visited the real people other than those in the fine Yoruba Tennis Club and Ikoyi Club you attend to observe, Nigerians are masters of suffering and patience as long as you are upfront with them and the government is not doing one thing while telling them to do something else.

That’s the whole point. Our quarrel is not with reforms per se. We all agreed we need them but anyone tellign us what we are witnessing right now is the kind of reform to rival Singapore or China or Thachers brittain is only trying to tell us a Dog is a Monkey.

My is Ope Banwo, ‘The Mayor of Fadeyi’, and the recently turbanned ‘Ohanifere of Fadeyi’, and we say back to the sender. Our nation Nigeria needs REAL REFORM that is led by selfless leaders who are ready to champion the hardship those real reforms will cause, and who would first start the reforms by reducing government overheads, reduce fleets of planes, cut their obscene salaries and allowances before asking us ot embrace Patience. We will NOT GREE for the leaders who are busy feeding fat on our commonwealth while telling us to play with Patience that has long japa from our nation.