The Buhari regime’s single-minded obsession & raison d’être is to make life a little more miserable than it is already is for everyday folks every day. Its entire policy thrust has been centered around tactics and strategies for tormenting Nigerians.
Introduce charges on bank deposits and call it “stamp duty.” Check. Increase tariffs on electricity that’s barely there. Check. Increase petrol prices. Check. Regime honchos were running out of ideas on how to make Nigeria an even more treacherous snake pit than they’ve already made it.
Then one of them had an epiphany: Oh, we can make Nigerian bank account holders re-register their bank accounts even though they already went through hell to get Bank Verification Numbers a few years ago. It’s pointless duplication, sure, but that’s not the point. The point is to inflict pain and misery on Nigerians, which is the lifeblood of the Buhari regime. It is what gives it its highs. I hear the policy has been withdrawn now after massive outcry. But there’s more on the way.
Regime strategists and tacticians are still brainstorming on the next sadistic agony to visit on Nigerians.
Farooq Kperogi is a Nigerian academic, media scholar, public speaker and newspaper columnist.
