In the next few weeks, the Muhammadu Buhari administration would mark its first anniversary. For close to 12 months, many Nigerians’ eyes no longer produce tears but blood owing to terribly suffering. Hopes have been lost and dreams shattered as the trailer-load of promises made by the All Progressives Congress (APC) before the Presidential election last year have either been denied or yet-to-be redeemed.

The petrol scarcity appears to have defied government's strategies, hence, the continued shift in goal post. Ibe Kachikwu, an ordinarily fine gentleman and a technocrat, who was yoked with the problem of overseeing the Petroleum Resources Ministry at the lower level, seems to have lost next lines of coinages in his wallet of assurances to douse the raging anger welling inside the mind of his longsuffering compatriots.

Several weeks after he promised to terminate the long queues at the filling stations, the Delta-born minister must have seen that talk is cheap. The long queues have remained. The independent marketers are still daring him to raise a finger as they hoard the product. Despite Kachikwu's threat, filling station owners choose when to sell and otherwise. In what appears to be an unholy alliance to terminate the lives of weary Nigerians, those responsible for the supply of electricity decided to abandon their job to dance "DISCO" at a dangerous time.

That has compounded the woes of Nigerians. They neither have electricity nor buy petrol to generate their own power. Life appears to be at a standstill in Nigeria. This unfortunate state-of-affairs in the country has since worsened the standard of living of many people. Many families are now on compulsory fasting, not for spiritual reasons, but to cut down on food consumption. In the last 11 months, a good number of people have lost their means of livelihood. They have turned beggars. But, in the midst of all these, President Buhari still believes that Nigeria’s salvation must come from outside of the country.

In the midst of terrible hunger and poverty in the land, the APC government still mouths its change mantra. It is still very sure that it is on the right track. A few days ago, some key ministers in the Buhari administration were in Lagos, the headquarters of the party, to really convince Nigerians that the government is performing. They rehashed the familiar tunes. Some critics told BusinessDay that they had expected Nigerians to carry placards to protest to the venue of the Town Hall Meeting going by the complaints on the street, yet no one did.

"Honestly, we are the cause of our problems in this country. Everywhere you turn, people are hissing, gnashing their teeth which convey that all is not well in the country, but you can’t see people protest the hardship and against those responsible for the unfortunate developments. I had expected people to say enough is enough," Lawrence Adun, a school principal, said. Adun lamented that rather than Nigerians protest things that are real, they protest irrelevant issues. He cited the recent protests by different groups of youths at the National Assembly in support and againstthe trial of Bukola Saraki, Senate President, by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

"Imagine the rented youths wasting their time clamouring for or against an individual when the country is on fire. Why, for instance, can we not take to the streets protesting the lingering fuel scarcity, poor electricity supply, and other policies of government that have negatively impacted the lives of citizens? Nobody is talking. No country amounts to anything by being docile in the midst of obvious mal-administration," Adun added. It would be recalled that hundreds of youths, under the aegis of Citizens United for Peace and Stability, (CUPS), a few days ago, took over the National Assembly, calling for immediate resignation of Senate President, on the allegations of corruption leveled against him and controversies surrounding the 2016 budget yet to be signed into law.

Another group of pro-Saraki protesters was also at the NASS, saying that the trial of the Senate President at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, was another attempt to muzzle the Senate and pleaded with Nigerians to stand against it. An analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, wondered why the youths would allow themselves to be dragged into the dirty politics of those who want to acquire the whole world for themselves at the detriment of every other creature.

"I think that if anybody wants to protest, there are over one thousand and one reasons to protest against government at this point in time; for youths to storm the National Assembly over Saraki is unnecessary. Well, they were rented to do so. They are an army of unemployed youths; idle hands and minds. If anybody has a gainful employment, such a person is not likely to embark upon such meaningless jamboree," the analyst said. "Where are the Liberty Organisations that used to be vocal? Nobody is hearing anything from them. I want to see them lead the protest. Things are not just ok in the country," the observer added.