The news was awash of a ‘grant’ of $800 million granted to Nigeria to cushion the effects of the impending fuel subsidy removal slated for June this year.

Like some economists and analysts, I was skeptical about the so-called ‘grant’ as the Bretton Woods Institutions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund aren’t known as houses of charity that give out freebies.

Foremost Nigerian Business Newspaper, BusinessDay was the first media platform to break the story that contrary to what the public thought, it was actually a loan with a 25-year-old moratorium.

The numerous op-eds and analyses that followed the expose by BusinessDay confirmed my worst fears and greatly showed the Buhari-led government for what it truly is – contemptuous of the people! What was the economic sense in taking such a humongous loan about a month before exiting from office? Why set booby traps and landmines for the incoming administration?

Apart from the fact that the loan will only be slightly felt by just 50 million people. What happens to the remaining 150 million Nigerians? The loan is worse than modern-day slavery as it subjects innocent Nigerians who had no say in the decision to take it to a long period of long-suffering.

Economic historians would recall the ignoble role played by the IMF and World Bank in destroying Nigeria’s economy which saw the brightest and best flee the country to lead more dignified lives. Many Nigerians were killed indirectly here by the blood-stained Washington DC and European-based lending institutions.

Riots happened in Nigeria with attendant loss of lives, subsidy on agriculture, health, and education were yanked off which still haunts us to this day.

Why the going back to Egypt despite this clear anti-people policy? At a time when Western nations especially in Europe are creating welfare states, it is tragic that our hare-brained government is hellbent on leaving her citizens at the cruel mercy of market forces.

Buhari should do the right thing by returning that poisoned chalice and writing his name in gold and permanently etching it in the hearts of the people rather than ending up as a Shakespearean tragic hero.

It is not too late to do so; enough of this vile propaganda as the generations yet unborn wouldn’t forgive this generation for the hunger from the cradle it will inadvertently plunge it into.