Nigeria Is Not Poor; We Are Been Robbed: It’s Time To Riseup For Real National Independence.

Independence is not about hoisting of national flags rather about real independence of the people; independence from poverty, lack of life amenities for sustainable living, provision of security and freedom from foreign dominance. This is inclusive of freedom of expression, constitutional supremacy, equity, institutional sovereignty, as well as citizenry’s ability to express their potentialities within the geographical space without any hinderance coupled with accountable management and equitable distribution of available national resources amongst the citizenries.

Invariably, real independence is highly pivoted on economic freedom of the people which essentially will ensure and promote critical mind of the populace, enhancing adherence to policy dictates with expectations which ultimately promotes peace and overall national economic development.

In view of the ongoings, are we truly independent in our nation of today? – where the world bank and IMF has declared Nigerians to be in abject poverty as well as incessant leadership orchestrated insecurity breeches being presently experienced in our nation. Is our nation supposed to be in this quagmire despite 66yrs of hoisting our national flag?

Why are we where we are then? A deep insight into this special 2026 Independence Day question has exposed the various lies our successive governments has inflicted upon us; these are going to be exclusively explored within this broadcast.

It is a known fact that, today, the world economy predominantly runs majorly on ENERGY and CURRENCY PROTECTION. Nations that have energy in abundance don’t get poor nor beg. They develop their energy for the economic wellbeing of their people, they export, protect their currency and eventually be among the leading world economy.

Fortunately, Nigeria has in abundance three of these most strategic energy resources – crude oil, gas and lithium. Amazingly and despite all these, Nigerians are still wallowing under serious poverty level without any envisioned abatement; brought about by incessant lies of government to the people in the areas of extraction, management and distribution of these abundant national resource endowments.

What are these lies?
Successive governments over the decades till date have been on national TV with the same watery deceitful narratives of increase in international price, OPEC placing production ceilings with, our cheap fuel being smuggled to neighboring countries. These are very cheap lies which Nigerians have seriously failed to equally debunked if, we can look back to my claims over the years at my various public engagements:

• What exactly concerns my family members with how much tubers of yam are being sold at various markets when I already have a yam plantation; likewise, can anyone sincerely claim that, Adenuga’s family will complain about cost of data when their patriarch is a major industry player?
• Can we as Nigerians further re-evaluate the former NNPC policy of Direct Supply Direct Purchase (DSDP); even at that, why has our national refineries been intentionally made to be ineffective/moribund despite the humongous budget on them over the years? If these refineries had being working, are we aware of what the price of PMS would have been? Let us consider these tables below:

VALUE CAPTURED FROM 1 MILLION BARRELS OF CRUDE IF REFINED DOMESTICALLY

***NOTE: N 1,500/$ exchange rate.
(Compare this to exporting crude at $69/barrel which gives only N 100M).

LOCAL PRODUCTION COST BREAKDOWN OF 1 LITRE OF PMS

Crude at $5/bbl: N 7,250 --- N 4.56/L
Refining cost: N 18,270 --- N 11.49/L
Pipeline + Margins: N 26,245 -- N 16.50/L
TOTAL COST: N 51,765 -- N 32.55/L

***NOTE: 1 barrel will produce 159 litres. $1 = N 1,450

OCTOBER 2025 PMS REALITIES
Landing cost of imported fuel: N 829.77/L
Dangote ex-depot: N 873/L
Pump Price in Lagos: N 920/L
NIGERIA PRODUCED 408.68MB IN 2024 and 530.41 MB in 2025

Consider 300,000 bpd refined domestically:
Extra revenue will equal: $12-15 billion/anumm from value additions

While in 10years: $120-150 billion or N 174-217 trillion

Savings from cancelled subsidy: $74 Billion

• Another question I’ve been asking is this – where have successive governments been keeping other variants/derivates of our crude like: diesel, kerosine, Aviation fuel, LPG, bitumen, lubricants, petrochemical feedstock, petroleum coke, urea etc? are we aware that, these by-products are more expensive and valuable at the international market if efficiently managed and as such if amortized against dollarized importation of fuel, the PMS pump price will ultimately be reduced by half not to talk of if we have been refining our crude within our nation?
• Regarding our cheap fuel export to some neighboring countries, who controls our boarders, who within Nigeria has the financial and institutional capacity to smuggle out this product, should Nigerians then be bearing the brunt of institutional idiocy, who then is fooling who?

Nigerians, arise to your civic responsibilities. We are not supposed to be poor. We are being purposefully bled to poverty. Our resource endowments are good enough for our needs and not for our greed.

Further, have we ever thought of linking the high level of insecurity in our nation to the leadership support/involvement in the illegal extraction of our valued mineral resources? Amman Pore of CNN and late Gen. Sani Abacha once concluded that, any government that can’t resolve within 24hrs any insurgent or security breach in its geographic space should be adjudged an accomplice. Consequently, don’t we need to ask these and many questions:

• Why hasn’t these insecurity issues in our land abated over the past years rather, getting more exacerbated?
• Though some do argue that such are equally occurring in other nations; but, do we have in such nation’s activities such as illegal mining of resources with people been displaced as it is currently happening in Nigeria?
• Who are the people involved or authorizing illegal mining within the enclaves belonging to the displaced citizens?
• Has anyone been arrested, prosecuted or punished regarding many reported accosted trucks of lithium in the northern parts of Nigeria?
• Where are the accounts of the already extracted lithium in the North?

My people perish because they lack knowledge. Nigerians should understand these to know why they are poor and insecure.

A very huge prominent lie of our government hidden under government idiocy can be unraveled within the structure of our gas sector. This becomes more embarrassing when evaluated against the backdrop of what obtains with other gas producing nations.

Our Nigeria Liquidified Natural Gas (NLNG) as an incorporated joint venture has been unpatriotically and deceitfully skewed with NNPC holding 49%, Shell (UK) 25.6%, Total (France) 15% & Eni (Milan) 10.4%.

NIGERIA'S SITUATION IN COMPARISON

SCENARIO FROM OTHER NATIONS.

***Note: Maintains control & brings in foreigners as contractors not as owners.

100% ownership while foreigners take project risks not company ownership

The above tables were presented as a summary for Nigerians to see at a glance the extent to which our successive leaders had intentionally as well unpatriotically brought us to our knees as an avoidable begging nation; thereby inflicting the weapon of poverty on the citizenry.

What a leadership connivance against its people to be deliberately inflicting second slavery through a well-orchestrated deprivation from their natural endowments.

Inclusive of the above, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria once claimed that, between 2022 – 2024, over 800 factories and businesses closed down due to inaccessibility of dollars to financing raw materials and fiscal policy summersaults which derived from deceptive policy propaganda. While developed nations protect their currencies like national security, Nigeria did the opposite in importing inflation by allowing dollar to determine market forces within its economic spheres.

True, transparent pricing and monopolistic market controls the world market; however, each government determines how their citizens survive outside worldwide market forces. Had we protected our Naira as expected, would Nigerians be facing these embarrassing, avoidable and unfortunate economic misfortunes as below stated:

• If over 800 factories and businesses had not been lost to government’s fiscal policy idiocy with summersaults, the high rate of un/underemployment with the poverty level of Nigerians wouldn’t have been there;
• If, we had been pricing our domestic crude needs in Naira as well refining within like Saudi Arabia, our PMS pump price wouldn’t have exceeded maximally N300/liter instead of the prevailing N1,400/liter;
• The ongoing would have brought down both transportation and foods’ cost by about 65% while equally increasing the national GDP as well the national disposable income index (NDII);
• Nigeria would have saved over N24 trillion with the creation of over 6 million jobs if we had prioritized Naira for local production;
• The over N10 trillion budgeted annually to servicing foreign loans in dollars would have been used to improving our infrastructures in schools, hospitals, roads, housing, security etc; but all lost to currency weakness and serial capital flight with organized institutional theft.

Riyal is been protected in Saudi Arabi resulting to a high and sustained national disposable income while, Norway protects its Kroner for free health and education; conversely, Nigeria protects the dollar to selling avoidable hunger to its citizenry at over N1,420/liter – shouldn’t we arise for our true freedom against these economic saboteurs?

Independence is not mere hoisting of flags but, a full blown freedom from all spheres of life; total freedom from colonial slavery and mentality. At 66, the foremost African leaders – Madiba Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumunba, Sese Mobutu, Thomas Sankara, Mahman Gadaffi, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe are all turning in their graves asking when Nigerians will awaken to their responsibilities in emancipating themselves from this hedonistic and heist Machiavellian leadership imposed mental slavery for the emergence of Africa.

As another year has rolled by, the lone voice in the wilderness is roaring the clarion call again – Nigerians, where do we go from here again; is this the way we shall be looking; for how long are we going to be allowing the sacrifices of our fathers to go in vain; for how long shall we continue to fold our arms against building an expected meaningful future for our coming generations; have we forgotten that, only we can free our souls?

A bright sustainable future awaits us if only we can put on the garb of determined and resilient resistance as postulated by Mahatma Gandhi. Remember, we must pay the price for the prize of freedom to be attained - - therefore, ARISE OH COMPATRIOTS.

Thank you all for listening.
Yours sincerely,
Dayo Kayode Ph.D