Who in
this world does not know that President Muhammadu Buhari has, in the
past two years or thereabouts, been in and out of hospitals?
Yet, the
governors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, October
31, 2017, endorsed him as its standard bearer in the next general
election. The president has been on a recuperative regime that most
times affects his official circumstances.
The belief must be that he is the only
person with the clout to ensure the party’s victory in the presidential
poll. Beyond this permutation, the governors unarguably are selfishly
positioning themselves for an encore, subsequent political appointments
on completion of their current terms, and guarantee their escape/trial
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
It is embarrassing, to put it mildly,
that some thoughtless people have begun to clamour for President
Buhari’s candidacy in 2019! If for no other reason, Buhari should be
allowed to live the rest of his life blissfully by retiring to Katsina
State—at least on recuperative grounds.
From now till eternity, Nigeria’s history
can never be complete without a generous mention of Buhari. This is the
best time for the number one citizen to take a graceful bow He should
ignore selfish politicians who want to ride on his back in the next
general election.
It is also ridiculously laughable that
the APC has preposterously set up the machinery for his re-election.
Even with less than two years to round off its term, it is obvious, from
all indications, that the APC may end up being worse than the hounded
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the defunct National Party of
Nigeria (NPN). So far, it has been one step forward and nine steps
backwards. The party, as represented by President Buhari, seems
unprepared for the country’s leadership, overwhelmed by challenges of
governance and uncoordinated—almost confused and clueless! This
administration needs to get its act together.
My earlier position that our tale of woe
should be blamed on former President Goodluck Jonathan—and not
Buhari—has not changed. Issuing from that standpoint, the next
submission would be this: what is this government doing to right the
wrongs of the past and move us away from stagnancy? There is nothing to
suggest whatsoever that this government has the capacity and competency
to re-engineer this country. Power was divinely thrust on those in its
corridors without leadership empowerment and direction. I have the
strong conviction that the APC bigwigs never knew reins would come to
them on an ill-prepared platter, hence the growing and scandalous
bewilderment in their mismanagement of the ordained victory.
In his last eid-el-fitr message,
President Buhari declared that he appreciates Nigerians’ sacrifices. The
hardship and excruciating times in the country do not call for prosaic
addresses. What the people need is the mitigation of their circumstances
and not sweet nuggets and etymological architecture of promises that
will be unfulfilled—not being the first time. The way we are going, most
of us will die before the anticipated/promised El Dorado. As bad as it
was, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of ex-President Ibrahim
Babangida’s regime was not as asphyxiating as this visionless and
despondent time. There is nothing that suggests a better tomorrow. The
whole environment is gloomy, catastrophic and frightfully irredeemable,
almost. The level of poverty, want and hopelessness-cum-haplessness of
the “average” (the middle class if it still exists) Nigerian is
atrociously unprecedented, unimaginable and unconscionable. It has
transcended official callousness.
And to compound matters, the Presidency
and other departments of the Executive in their public communications
seem to be working at cross-purposes. Statements are ludicrously issued
followed by bovine retractions or elucidations. In most cases, the wrong
officials make pronouncements that are secondary to their portfolios or
assignations. Because of space constraint here, I will take one
utterance. What was the business of the SGF telling embattled Senate
President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to vacate his seat? It only confirmed that
the Presidency was behind the travails of the man. This was needless
since the case was already in court amid a cocktail of controversies and
suspicions. Nobody in government at any level has the right or rascal
effrontery to interject in this matter. It is absurd, unethical and
jaundiced. There are many other such instances of official garrulity.
Recently, for the first time in the
history of Nigeria, a three-day holiday was declared for a routine
spiritual exercise. In all my adult years, I have never witnessed this
kind of official recklessness for which Interior Minister, Lt.-Gen.
Abdulrahman Dambazau should have been dismissed with an apology to
Nigerians by the President. If we were not a lazy country that places
wrong-footed premium on religion, what was the haste in declaring the
initial two-day holiday? For goodness’ sake, it should not have been the
President extending the duration. The overzealous and nonchalant
official who fumbled initially should have been summoned to do that and
thereafter fired. That is how to grow a country, its civil service and
the entire machinery of governance. Bureaucracy frowns at this kind of
indolence and carelessness.
I keep asking, like many other Nigerians:
why is it that only members of the PDP are being probed and prosecuted?
All the reassurances that the sluggish wheel will get to the APC
chieftains do not make any difference. If there are 12 fraudsters in the
PDP, there is an equal or more number in the APC. This selective
approach to anti-corruption battle is itself a form of endemic
corruption. The irrefutable impression being created is that most of the
trials are mere victimization, settling of scores and outright
witch-hunt. The Federal Government and The Presidency and their
pliable/willing/dependent/biased agencies have not hidden their
confirmatory proclivity for the current executive power drunkenness and
fatalistic descent to anarchical autocracy that will ultimately end up
in implosive self-destruction! Who in this country does not know that
one of the most corrupt politicians in this country today is one of the
prime leaders of the APC?
Still on corruptive tendencies, this
phantom idea of plea bargaining should be discarded with immediately if
we are serious with combating corruption. If a man admits to
misappropriation and returns the loot or more, should he just walk away
free? It is like catching a bandit and allows him to go free after
returning what he stole and probably killed some people in the process!
This obtuse celebration of corruption through the instrumentality of
plea bargaining and other indulgent travesties must end if we are
serious in confronting the monstrous ogre of corruption. Such
established looters should be jailed to serve as a deterrent to their
prospective ilk.
I do not buy the logic that the names of
those who return their loot should be shrouded in secrecy in order to
“encourage” other looters to return theirs. This is juvenility of the
worst order. If the government knows those who had stolen money, it is
either they are directed to return the loot amid prosecution or just
clamped into maximum detention until they do the needful. Our situation
requires some measure of official extra-judicial interventions otherwise
we will not advance. Our own democracy must be tailored to be peculiar
because of our distinctive characterisation.
If we must investigate our past leaders,
let it start from Alhaji Shehu Shagari down to Jonathan (who should not
be made a scapegoat). If sitting South African President Jacob Zuma
could be probed, why should we hesitate with our past leaders?
Before the regime change, the APC
spokesperson and now Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed,
used to be loquacious in his oppositional communication. Now, nothing is
being heard anymore in re-affirmative demonstration of how we are as a
people!
This government will remain unserious
about corruption and every other thing until it shows that charity
begins at home by investigating and prosecuting some of the APC topmost
members and sponsors. Demonising and criminalising the PDP ragtag
leadership cannot institutionalise good governance hinged on
transparency, forensic accountability, fairness and the fear of our
Creator.
President Buhari deserves and needs
stress-free existentialism for the next three decades devoid of national
leadership challenges. I beg of everyone, please! It is obvious that
the APC governors do not like President Buhari and this country. If they
did not have sinister motives, they would not, in clear conscience,
contemplate the candidacy of President Buhari, let alone endorsing him!
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