There is Nothing Normal in the way Buhari is Ruling over Nigeria.

“...There appears to be confusion in the Buhari administration and this also has to do with delay in acting on intelligence. Someone was quarrelling with me that we were always apologetic regarding Buhari and I said, no. I speak as I see it and this is what I see. The signals coming out now indicate that the illness (suffered recently by Buhari) had a very destructive side effect on his concentration and somebody who is helping him is not doing a very good job. If that is not true, then we will tell him that he is confusing us with some of the things that are happening. They don’t make sense. There ought to be clear decisions and they should come on time. The security situation is serious and the challenging aspect of security comes with intelligence gathering and I know that the intelligence gathering of this country is good. I know that the men and the women who work in this system work very hard. When you bring intelligence to your principal, all you can do is say, ‘If you don’t work on it and act on this, this is going to happen.’ The leader doesn’t have to delay their action, but when they do, it becomes a reaction. I can’t understand how a precise military commander like Buhari who came to power with Idiagbon and whose actions we saw the first time he was in power (is the same one now). You cannot compare that with what is happening today; it is not normal.” – Dr. Paul Unongo. 

Abba Kyari: Speaking ill of the Dead by Remi Oyeyemi.

"The evil that men do live after them." -- William Shakespeare.
I am aware that this is breaking with the conventional wisdom. I am conscious that this is a rebuke of tradition. I am not oblivious to the fact that it is against the norm. I am not unaware that this is not in tune with the mainstream. I am aware some would loath me for it. Some would deride me. Others would call me names. Those who really never liked my guts, would have this reinforced it for them. But those who have the objective ability to see things the way they are and are able to call them as exactly as they should, would see some sense in this.

The idea of not speaking ill of the dead is not a good idea, especially if the dead person did nothing deserving of praise. The idea of praising the dead, regardless if the dead, during his or her life was mean spirited, greedy, selfish, inconsiderate, odiously acquisitive, ruthless and disdainful, is totally unacceptable. It is wrong and should be done away with. We should be able to say exactly what kind of person someone was during his or her life. I have been reading in the media unbelievable eulogies about the late Chief of Staff to President Mohammadu Buhari, Mr. Abba Kyari. I have been reading some hypocritical praise - singing of this man who, to many Nigerians who celebrated his infliction a couple of weeks back, was no less a monster, because he has become the casualty of the Coronavirus 19. I have read from those who hated him saying embarrassingly 'nice' things about him. What a fraud. What a dishonesty.

It is a sad day when people cascade into casual casuistry with unbridled audacity. It is an act of deliberate undermining of the societal values to heap praises on someone whose remains ought to be used to cast away evils from the entire society. To project a mean - spirited public office holder as a saint when he is not, is a sin in itself.

I take serious objection to the rain of praise that has been raining down on the corpse of the late Abba Kyari. Though, this is a matter of choice to which we are all entitled depending on the way we see it. In my own view, Kyari is not deserving of any praise whatsoever. It is alright for President Buhari to cry himself hoarse. Kyari was his Chief of Staff and his relative. It is okay for his goons in Aso Rock, his partners in crime to weep without end. It is okay for those who are beneficiaries of his corrupt practices, his impunities to gnash their teeth to numb. It is their loss. His immediate and extended family members reserve the inalienable rights to mourn him infinitely and indefinitely.

I also believe that it is alright for the rest of us who are victims of the first family and their collaborators in Aso Rock, to acknowledge the loss of a soul, not because of any other reason other than the fact that we are all human beings. And this is where it ought to end. No more, no less.
For those who are Buhari's sycophants and who still hope to benefit from the misery he is visiting on Nigeria, it might be acceptable to them to shed their crocodile tears even if they really did not like the man when he was alive. They are welcome to do so.

Here is a man, who never got a single vote, whether rigged or not, from the Nigerian people, but who hijacked the executive powers of the Presidency. He held Nigeria and Nigerians to ransom since 2015. He rode roughshod over the people of this country. He appropriated all the appurtenances of power for his personal idiosyncrasies.

Abba Kyari never cared. He never gave a damn. Yes, he did not give a damn how many Nigerians died. He did not care how many Nigerians went hungry. He did not care how much injustice was perpetrated. He did not give a damn how many innocent Nigerians were murdered. He did not give a damn how many Nigerians were chased off their ancestral lands. He did not care how many of our daughters were raped. He did not give a damn how many were maimed by his tribesmen.
He was a perniciously greedy soul. He was remorseless in his ways. The 500 million naira bribe he took from the MTN was emblematic of his innate rapacity. It was emblematic of his bloated edacity. He appointed himself to the Board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It was the first time in the History of Nigeria for an incumbent Chief of Staff. It was against the norm of decency and restraint. It was impunity at its worst.

Kyari relentlessly harassed the Vice President, licentiously anchoring Professor Osinbajo's deliberate disempowerment.  He unabashedly intimidated the Ministers and prevented them from meaningful collaboration with the man who appointed them, or whom he helped appointed. With a mien akin to that of a dove, he was a heinous hawk, a vicious vulture that is egregious and atrocious in its debauchery and cupidity.

He was mindless and mean. He was cruel and cold. He was crude and callous. His greed was congenital. His insouciance encrypted his guiled mendacity. He was hung up on power hunkering. He had disdain for the rules. Like his principal, Buhari, he believed and acted above the law. His arrogance was horrifying. His condescension, sardonically sickening in the way and manner he exercised unmerited power.

Yes, the idea of not speaking ill of the dead is a VERY WRONG one, especially if that dead person never did anything to deserve it. If this practice was to continue, it means every criminal in our midst should look forward to being praised after he/she was dead regardless of the crimes committed. This would also mean a genuine disincentive for those who strive to do positive things and improve their communities.

It is very important to ensure that dead people's memories be imbued with their acts of omissions and commissions when they were alive. It is an act of injustice to arrogate false achievements, fake qualities to monstrous figures more notorious for their kleptomania as they gallivant through the inner rooms of power.

Hopefully, when I die, people would have the unburnished courage to say exactly what they feel about me and not deodorize my omissions and imperfections. Hopefully, those who would feel the need to mourn me would not see the need to be hypocritical and dishonest in their elegies. In all this, what became clearer is the vanity of vanity itself. It brought to the fore the cliché popularized by the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State in the early 1980s, "...vanity upon vanity, all is vanity." It underscores the ephemeralness of not just power, but of all things that are human, except our deeds. This probably informed William Shakespeare's ageless rumination captured in the   phrase, " The evil that men do live after them."

We should not praise villains when they are dead. It is a great disincentive to those who labored to be above board and did the right thing. You don't have to agree   with me. You don't have to like me. Please, don't like me, just respect the truth.

“The world tells us to seek success, power and money; God tells us  to seek humility, service and love.”  -  Pope Francis.

The Nigerian Leadership Crisis under General Buhari.

There is no gainsaying the fact

that General Buhari is the worst thing

that has ever happened to leadership in Nigeria.

Nigeria on Autopilot.

Right now, Nigeria is on "autopilot". The Chief of Staff who plays the role of the defacto president is in isolation, having tested positive for Corona virus. The president who actually is a window dressing, is Missing In Action. In the meantime, the Vice President is as good as a "glorified office boy" inside the Aso Rock Villa. Poor Nigerians!

Sowore’s Ordeal just Drives Home the Point that Nigeria's Buhari is Clueless about Governance by Ayo Akinfe.

(1) Like 200m other Nigerians, I simply cannot get my head around how this government has the time, energy and interest in pursuing critics at a time when it has a plethora of major socio-economic challenges facing it. I ask myself if some of those in the corridors of power actually think at all. Can any rational person faced with an annual $100bn infrastructure deficit, a meagre gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of just 1.9% a year while the population is increasing at a rate of 2.6% really have the time for social critics?

 

(2) Only this week, the international ratings agency - Moody’s -downgraded its outlook on Nigeria to negative from stable because of  sluggish economic growth. According to Moody’s, Nigerian government revenue is not increasing, so the country will have no option but to keep borrowing. It added that this will soon make the debt-to-GDP ratio untenable and unsustainable 

(3) Of our 36 states, only Lagos is self-sustaining and can survive without oil income. All the other 35 states are wholly dependent on federal handouts to survive. If this life support known as federal allocation is switched off, all these states will just crumble like a pack of cards 

(4) As we speak, Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world, the open defecation capital of the world, the out-of-school capital of the world and the polio capital of the world. In all these areas, we embarrassingly top the global charts 

(5) As if that is not enough, insecurity is scaring away investors by the day. Boko Haram and Fulani cattle herdsmen are running riot across the country while kidnappers are having a field day 

(6) We only generate about 7,000MW of power, of which about 4,000MW is delivered. We need at least four mega hydro-electric plants to bring generated output to around 20,000MW and we have not yet figured out how to make our privatised distribution and transmission companies effective. Many of them are heavily indebted, lack the access to capital to invest in equipment and the sector has struggled to attract international investors 

(7) When it comes to transport, we are sitting on a mega time bomb. Lagos has a population of 22m and does not have a tube or metro network. Shanghai has a similar population and it has an urban metro with 413 stations used by 10m people every day. Their Maglev train which connects the city with the airport runs at a speed of 431km an hour. It is a magnetic levitation train that does not have wheels or an engine. Are we blind to all this????

(8) Look at our port debacle. We only have one functioning sea port despite having 853km of coastline. How to dredge Warri, Forcados, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Ikot-Abasi has surely got to be something that keeps our ministers up every night. How do they sleep soundly with such problems plaguing the nation and no programme to resolve them on sight?

(9) Were I in government I would not even have the time to notice that the likes of Omoyele Sowore and Ibrahim El-Zakzaky exist, yet alone find the time to order their arrests. This government simply has too much on its plate to be bothered about what it’s so-called enemies, both real and imaginary are doing. 

(10) Who remembers the phrase: “Nero is dancing while Rome is burning?” Is it just me but surely it would have made more sense to deploy those heavily armed DSS men to Sambisa Forest or against murderous herdsmen than to the federal high court in Abuja where a totally civilised legal sitting was taking place. Is this paranoia or what because it totally blows my head away. If the government is so bothered about Sowore’s propaganda, why not take him on in a series of public debates? Even the Nazi’s were not this paranoid. Joseph Goebbels made his name taking on hecklers and beating them with his charisma. Is there nobody this government can deploy to engage its critics intellectually? I am astounded at the level of intellectual laziness we are faced with in Nigeria. I am not sure who is the greater culprit, the paranoid government or its sycophantic, hero-worshipping praise singers.

Assault on the Nigerian Constitution.

"...Slowly but steadily, a supposed Democratic government began its relentless assault on what our Constitution had enshrined as a government of separation of powers. President Buhari took up the role of an avuncular leader and school headmaster. He simply encroached into territories that were clearly not his to tamper with. If Jonathan had tried a small fraction of this, hell would have known no bigger fury. Yet most of our leaders and elders have disappeared from the radar without as much as a whimper...You brood of hypocrites! Jonathan was our whipping boy and we trounced, thrashed and trashed him mercilessly. But now, we have lost our voices, it is not just that our criticism has become muted, they have become practically non-existent because the Presidential trolls have been relentless in the way and manner that they have traduced the few honorable critics. Our pen tigers have stopped writing. Our loquacious activists have since absconded and abdicated their once noble responsibilities. Such is life. The oppressed, according to Paulo Freire, only fears and respects his oppressors. We have all seemingly been cowed (no pun intended) into submission. Heaven forbid! That is neither the Nigerian spirit nor psyche!..." - Dele Momodu.

The Hausa/Fulani North and the rest of Nigeria.by Lasisi Olagunju.

“I know that no captor, no slave owner wants the captive free. I know that the day the fool gains wisdom is the day the wise loses his power. But since Buhari no longer needs the Almajiri as the tap root of his electoral power, he should use his last years to assist all of us by taking his 'boys and girls' to school. It will help the future of Nigeria if the North gives us men and women who have competence and knowledge to contribute to the national asset pool.

Poor, illiterate Northern Kids

We just had an election in which the two major candidates were northerners. An election conducted by a president who is from the North and by an INEC chairman who is also from the North. These men just gave us a challenged presidential poll closely guarded by security chiefs all from the North. The North, through this election, has told us clearly that it owns the yam and the knife of Nigeria. It should therefore learn to be a responsible husband, doing things well and tidying up properly going forward. I would have said that we need an educated North to give us a believable election in 2023 but my friend would counter that. My friend would say 2023 is too soon for our unprepared North to do right. So how long should we wait for the North to be ready for excellence? This 2019 stuff is sick and sickening. Was it INEC's incompetence or pure mischief that figures in our 2019 presidential election became problematic? The figures announced by Professor Mahmood Yakubu are these:

Total number of registered voters: 82,344,107

Total number of accredited voters: 29,364,209

Total votes cast: 28,614,190

Total Valid votes: 27,324,583

Rejected votes: 1,289,607

Did INEC not tell us some hours to the elections that it registered a total of 84,004,084 voters? So where did it get the new number of 82,344,107 as our total registered voters? What happened to the balance of 1,659,977 voters? Did they vote in that election and if they did, where are their votes? Or they died before the elections or they went on exile renouncing their citizenship? Or they reside in Sambisa forest where there were (are) no polling booths? What happened to them

 

A Northern Nigerian King

Again, why did INEC announce different figures for accredited voters and for total votes cast when all of us who voted saw clearly that voting and accreditation were done simultaneously? INEC said accredited voters were 29,364,209 and total votes cast 28,614,190. Between those two figures are 750,019 voters and their votes. What happened to them? Or did INEC give ballot papers to these almost a million persons who took the ballot papers home instead of dropping them in the ballot box? Then there is the huge number of rejected (cancelled) votes - 1,289,607 (4.5percent of total votes cast). What explanation has INEC for these? Or, again, is it too much to demand reasons for the wasted efforts of millions of our compatriots?

Above all, if you have Buhari's ears, tell him to help us by educating the children of the North. They should not be useful only on election days.” 

Democracy Will Not Be Emasculated in Nigeria.by Waziri Atiku Abubakar.

Waziri Atiku Abubakar.

I thank the Nigerian people who trooped out in their millions to perform their civic duty this past Saturday. The patriotism of Nigerians is heartwarming and affirms my oft-repeated statement that we are brothers and sisters born from the womb of one mother Nigeria.

 

With regards to the Presidential elections that took place on February 23, 2019, it is clear that there were manifest and premeditated malpractices in many states which negate the results announced.

 

One obvious red flag is the statistical impossibility of states ravaged by the war on terror generating much higher voter turnouts than peaceful states. The suppressed votes in my strongholds are so apparent and amateurish, that I am ashamed as a Nigerian that such could be allowed to happen. How can total votes in Akwa-Ibom, for instance, be 50% less than what they were in 2015?

 

Another glaring anomaly is the disruption of voting in strongholds of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and diverse other states, with the authorities doing little or nothing and in some cases facilitating these unfortunate situations.  

Lagos, Nigeria

The militarization of the electoral process is a disservice to our democracy and a throwback to the jackboot era of military dictatorship. In some areas of the country, such as, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Imo states, troops deployed for the elections turned their guns on the very citizens they were meant to protect. This is condemnable and should not be associated with our electoral process in the future.

 

I am a democrat and there are democratic avenues available to present the truth to the nation and the watching world. Already, many international observers have given their verdicts, which corroborate our observations. I am sure more will come in the coming hours and days.

 

If I had lost in a free and fair election, I would have called the victor within seconds of my being aware of his victory to offer not just my congratulations, but my services to help unite Nigeria by being a bridge between the North and the South.

 

However, in my democratic struggles for the past three decades, I have never seen our democracy so debased as it was on Saturday, February 23, 2019. 2007 was a challenge, but President Yar’Adua was remorseful. In 2019, it is sad to see those who trampled on democracy thumping their noses down on the Nigerian people.

 

Consequently, I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019 sham election and will be challenging it in court.

 

I want to assure my supporters and the entire Nigerian people that together, we will not allow democracy to be emasculated.

 

I hope and pray Nigerians will someday summon the courage to defend democracy. That is the only way we can move away from being the world headquarters for extreme poverty.

 

Signed:

Waziri Atiku Abubakar

27th February 2019

Ifeoluwa Olawole and the Ait-Ghezala Graduate Fellowship

Ifeoluwa Olawole calls herself an ardent student of #AfricanPolitics. Originally from #Nigeria, Ifeoluwa is a current Ph.D. student at AU School of Public Affairs. She obtained the Ait-Ghezala Graduate Fellowship to carry a #research on the provision of goods and services in Nigeria.

Kudos to Prof. Todd Eisenstadt for mentoring Ifeoluwa and encouraging her to apply to the Ait-Ghezala Graduate #Research Fellowship.

The Urgent Need for the Political Restructuring of Nigeria.

In the electoral battle between Buhari and Atiku, there are various interest groups. In the core north, there is not much dilemma because both Atiku and Buhari are Fulani muslims. The only exception is in the choice to be made by the Christian north whose people have been consistently attacked and murdered because they dare practice a religion other than Islam.

In the south, there are people supporting Buhari because, to them, it's a sure way for Osibanjo (a Yoruba) to become president in 2023.  And there are those in support of Atiku so that Obi (an Igbo) can have a shot at the presidency in 2023. How myopic both ethnic groups are! Who gives them the guarantee that, come 2023, another Fulani will not emerge as a presidential candidate?

However, there are some of us, moreso in the south, who don't really care much about the current dispensation. Rather, our interest lays in the desire for the nation's restructuring. 

Now, let's assume that Buhari wins the 2019 election and a Yoruba becomes the President in 2023, what did 8 years of Obasanjo's tenure fetch the Yoruba land and its people? The people were still held back in terms of education and socio-economic growth.

And what has the four years of Osinbajo as a vice president  earned or contributed to the educational and the socio-economic growth of the Yoruba land? The man has merely been turned into a glorified office boy and disrespected at every opportunity.

As for the Igbo/south-south, what gains in terms of economic and educational growth accrued to them in all the years Jonathan was the vice president and president respectively?

While Buhari will never "upset the apple cart" to hurt the political and economic interests of his Fulani people, Atiku has, at least promised to allow the restructuring process to take place. In Nigeria, what does it really matter in future political calculations whether an ethnic group in the south produces the Nigerian president when the same people of the south will still be considered as second-class citizens as reflected in Buhari's lopsided appointments into sensitive positions?

Those of us in the southwest can still remember vividly the achievements of the then Western Region under the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo. One could imagine how frustrating it would have been for Chief Awolowo if the nation's structure then was as it is now. Definitely, he would not have been able to build the very first TV or International stadium in Africa. There would have been no Cocoa House (the then tallest in Africa). And, of course, the beneficiaries of the region's free education program would have been frustrated with lack of jobs, especially, at the federal level.

Such was the sad fate of Alhaji Jakande (the erstwhile governor of Lagos State) when he tried to build the first metro line in Nigeria. Who frustrated him? The Fulani hegemonic leaders (Shagari and Buhari). Yes, the same Buhari that is now commissioning imported second-hand trains in Lagos!

The Ignorant state of Followership in Nigeria.

When it comes to political commentaries, most Nigerians will first scroll to the bottom of an article or essay to know the writer before making a decision either to read or discard the article. If the writer is suspected to support the opponents of their favorite politicians, such Nigerians will simply grimace, ignore the piece and condemn the writer. This is irrespective of the quality/merit or otherwise of the article. 

This is one of the biggest problems confronting our nation. Actually, the number one bane of our nation's political and economic development is poor followership! Sadly, those of us that are concerned for our nation's growth are fewer than those gullible and naïve people that follow individual politicians blindly like zombies. Yet, for our nation to achieve progress, we all need (at least, once in a while) to put aside our petty political affiliations and supports for mere individual politicians, to listen to other folks of different political persuasions and, especially those that care mostly for the nation's interest. To the ignorant followers of individual politicians, it's a crime for anyone to support someone else other than the politicians of their choice. That person will be labelled as a paid commentator. Conveniently, they choose to forget that there are some of us who just want any capable person to lift our nation up from its current state of economic doldrum. It's the nation that matters to us, not an individual, even if the individual is seen as a saint or a demigod.

The Ranka Dede Republic by Sonala Olumhense.

“…It did not take long before the Buhari administration, so openly and so warmly received by Nigerians when it came to power, began to show its true and frightful face. Soon enough, it became clear that his administration had a conception of government in which the governed were regarded as a hostile, adversary force, and in which government was virtually an end in itself…

 

“…Blackmailed into silence, Nigerians watched as the traditional foundations of the state were eroded. Ethnicity became a principle of state policy. The economy sputtered along. Educational policy was in shambles. Our hospitals became graveyards. And all along we were invited to believe, as an article of patriotic faith, that we lived in the best of all possible worlds.

 

“Ultimately, it was the arrogance of the Buhari administration that led to its downfall. For arrogance always leads to moral and political blindness. Blindness leads to isolation, and when any government is isolated from the governed, its end is always predictable…” - “The Arrogance of Power” – The Guardian Editorial of August, 1985.

 

Buhari, a 76-year old man who has served in various federal posts in the past 40 years, had justified every appointment profile by claiming that he appoints people he can trust. To begin with, that cannot be the truth given that on several occasions he has declared that he made those appointments on “merit,” not previously knowing the individuals involved. On what basis do you trust people you do not know to such an extent that the ensuing demographic overwhelmingly tilts towards your village?

 

The obvious and immediate interpretation of that claim, to the embarrassment of many northerners, is that southerners and non-Muslims are untrustworthy.

People that will not vote for Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

1. The Intellect that believes education is a very important background for a purposeful leader.

2. Victims of Fulani "herdsmen" attacks and, especially, the people of North Central Nigeria such as Benue, Southern Zaria, Plateau and Southern Kaduna whose major crime is because they dare to practice Christianity in a predominantly Muslim North.

3. Eleven million Nigerians that lost their jobs since Buhari came to power.

4. Twenty million young people he called lazy and useless youths while his own kids (all educated in U.K) are flaunting some ill-gotten wealth all over the place. His son even has a million-Naira bike with which he had an accident sometimes ago.

5. Shittes that are being victimized for practicing a different form of Islam.

6. The southeasterners and, especially, the victims of Operation Python Dance.

7. People that want Nigeria to grow irrespective of the ethnic background of the leadership. When former president Jonathan was messing up the country, the slogan of these progressive people was "Anyone but Jonathan." And now that Buhari is dragging our nation down socio-economically while pretending to fight corruption (only against his political enemies), the same progressives are saying, "Anyone but Buhari ".

8. All the APC members oppressed by Tinubu and Oshiomole especially in the southwestern states.

9. All the people affected by the current economic meltdown...especially those young graduates who have no rich, privileged parents to provide for them.

10. All the people who were deceived in 2015 by Buhari when he claimed to have a WAEC certificate and when he pretended to be poor.

11. Anyone that really cares about the development and growth of our nation.

Excerpts from “Things Fall Apart, But is the President Aware?” by Atedo Peterside

“…Curiously, the best descriptions of PMB’s failures come from his family, friends and loyalists. They are the ones who told us everything that we feared but were unsure about e.g. that he is not in charge, but is controlled by 2 or 3 men, or that his anti-corruption drive is jaundiced because he uses insecticides on his political enemies whilst applying deodorant on his own equally guilty associates and friends. By bastardising the anti-corruption drive, the heads of the security agencies did Buhari a great disservice. Party faithfuls who publicly invite the biggest rogues to come over to APC (and many obliged) in order to enjoy immunity poisoned the waters further and make us wonder if our President (supposedly high on integrity) is really aware of what is going on around him.

Meanwhile, the strongest arguments against Atiku were also those that were bandied around by some of his new friends who were his erstwhile political enemies. All of a sudden, they would have us forget everything bad that they told us before about Atiku.

To hold off the Atiku challenge, PMB needs substantial votes from sections of the country that he has indirectly and needlessly told he can never trust to head sensitive security posts. Meanwhile, at election time, the cabal/kitchen cabinet have taken a temporary back seat, whilst leaving the “untrusted” to lead from the front. The cabal are presumably waiting in the wings to take over and dominate proceedings once again if victory is achieved. If the baboons locked the monkeys out from the dinner table for long periods, when the monkeys were still required to lead the re-election campaign, it is unclear why the monkeys would be let back in after a second and final term is secured.PMB’s campaign has been beset with missteps and personal blunders. Even when interviewers chose to inexplicably handle him with kid’s gloves he managed to misunderstand basic questions and/or to commit one gaffe after another on the campaign trail, thereby portraying himself (to Undecided and swing voters) more like a patient in need of help/sympathy, than a political icon/strongman….”  

• Atedo N A Peterside, is the Founder and President of Anap Foundation.

The Message Nigerians Must Deliver to Buhari Next Week by Dele Momodu.

Momodu (left) and Buhari

Fellow Nigerians, please, permit me to make some quick clarifications in this season of general bickering and mutual distrust and spiteful hatred. One. I do not work for any campaign organisation. I’m supporting the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, same way I voluntarily supported Major General Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. I do so because there is no viable or electable alternative among the fringe candidates. I believe it is within my fundamental right of association and freedom of speech to support whosoever I wish. Similarly, I respect the rights of others to support any candidate of their choice and see no reason why anyone should get angry and jittery over mine.

 

Two. I did not choose Atiku for pecuniary or any other gain. I have not been paid by him or anybody acting on his behalf. I would not sell myself where the future of my country, Nigeria, is concerned. As I write, I’m already on my way to Oxford University to resume and engage in academic ventures for the next six months. I’m gainfully employed and happy and content to manage my modest income, so I’m not desperate for government appointment or patronage, as the social media trolls try to suggest about opposition figures. But I cannot watch my country disintegrate or watch an incompetent government drown our dear beloved country in an ocean of bigotry, backwardness, bitterness and bestiality. I owe it to myself, and fellow compatriots, to stand for truth, and nothing but the truth, as one of those it has pleased God to give some visibility and voice globally. What shall it profit a man who keeps silent in the face of unbridled tyranny and abysmal cluelessness. If I wished, I could have supported PDP in the 2015 elections. Every comfort was assured and guaranteed. But I chose to support a supposed poor man we believed would be a Mandela figure that would rescue us from the scourge of PDP. Little did I imagine we were in the process of inviting a worse pestilence on our nation.

 

Three. I bear no grudge or personal animosity against Buhari. I love him the way I love mankind and respect the office he occupies which I once attempted to enter when I contested in 2011. I believe President Muhammadu Buhari has not reciprocated the massive goodwill bestowed on him in 2015 and that he has treated us with great contempt and disdain. He has also not properly utilised his professional, competent and capable Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Had he done so, maybe we would now be saying something else. This is not to cause any disaffection within their ranks, but every discerning Nigerian knows that this quintessential gentleman is the reason that there is any real noteworthy success for this administration. Otherwise, Buhari has embarrassed his supporters, endlessly, with his reckless, insensitive and uninformed decisions. What many of those supporting him in public today say behind him is unbelievable and unspeakable. I have friends who confess to private threats of business and physical annihilation and are thus forced to endorse a man they know can never take Nigeria to anywhere meaningful, even if given four terms.

  

Four. I have tried strenuously to be fair to Buhari and wrote copiously to advise him, from time to time, as I promised him when we met in his office, one on one, in 2015. I gave up hope, after some time, when I saw the direction he was headed and noticed the irredeemable obstinacy in his DNA. Four years ago, many of us were very excited about the hope this great General offered to our nation. Perhaps, we overrated his capabilities. It has become clear that we wittingly dressed him in borrowed robes and we were all hypnotised and brainwashed, somehow. Today, our eyes have cleared from that giddiness and I’m ready to add my voice to those of others who genuinely believe, Buhari must go. I do this with every sense of responsibility to God and to my country. I will give my reasons shortly.

 

I have had to apologise in the last couple of months to those who feel very aggrieved that a self-confessed democrat like me could ever support a blatant dictator like Buhari. You can never imagine the gale of verbal attacks I suffered and endured for what I considered my innocuous support. The last one that really hit me was in Ghana recently. I ran into the respected Legal luminary, Mr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, at the lounge in Kotoka International Airport. There were two ladies seated with him, one of who I believe is his wife. I greeted them but the other lady snubbed me, and said, “Dele, I will never greet you.” I looked blank and wondered if we’ve ever met, and how I might have offended her. Madam soon threw a sucker punch. “Dele, you are one of those who brought that disaster called Buhari on us…” and she went into her tirade. I tried to explain that I’m indeed very sorry and it was not my fault that I fell for the charms and scam of APC. The woman was practically inconsolable.

 

I have encountered many people like her. A guy almost went physical with me on a flight to London, grumbling aloud about how some of Buhari’s ignorant decisions have messed up Nigeria, his business and family. All I could do was plead for understanding. Unfortunately, Buhari himself is totally oblivious to the way Nigerians feel or just couldn’t be bothered or is probably insulated from objective criticism by selfish advisers. The tragedy of it all is his Messianic complex. He and his cronies behave as if Nigerians owe them a load of gratitude for favours received. Such hocus-pocus and inanity.

 

I have no iota of doubt left in me that President Muhammadu Buhari has performed well below expectations and that he should be voted out, peacefully, on February 16, 2019. The message should be clear henceforth that there is no automatic second term for incompetence, irresponsibility, irreverence and impunity. It is a miracle that Nigeria has not exploded into a civil war with the manner Buhari has treated some parts as second-class citizens with no right to complain. Let me now give reasons why we cannot afford to donate a second term to Buhari when he has clearly not earned it.

 

One. At 76, and with a failing health, Buhari should go into permanent retirement at the expiration of his tenure on May 29, 2019. No man can cheat nature and Buhari isn’t an exception.

 

Two. Buhari has not been in charge or on top of government and governance since he assumed office on May 29, 2015. Some cronies, otherwise known and addressed as ‘the cabal’, have been ruling without being elected. This can only get worse if Buhari is awarded a second term through our collective stupidity.

 

Three. The human rights record of Buhari has never been anything to praise or applaud at any time. Nothing has changed since he was kicked out of power by President Ibrahim Babangida in 1985. He has refused to adhere to the rule of law and has continued to trample on the rights of Nigerian citizens despite several court orders. What makes matters worse is that he behaves like Constantin Demiris, a character in Sidney Sheldon’s Memories of Midnight, who never forgets a favour and never forgives an injury. He has kept his presumed enemies in prison, indefinitely and compensated a few of his benefactors with appointments. Buhari does not hold the Constitution of Nigeria dear to heart and as such behaves with maximum use of force. His goons have been harassing the Legislature and the Judiciary on the pretext that they are fighting corruption, but they deliberately target those they consider inimical to their hold on power. They have invaded homes of Judges in the middle of the night, breaking down doors, and swarmed on the National Assembly with thugs and later with hooded and gun-totting secret agents in broad daylight. He has suspended the Chief Justice of Nigeria when he has neither the authority nor the power to do so. Buhari and those who support this brigandage and total assault on recognised and reverent principles of law and established constitutional institutions choose to forget that the worst kind of corruption is the abuse of power itself.  When it is for ulterior and base motives, as is now obviously the case, it becomes a menace that all well-meaning and true democrats must resist with all their might. There can be no excuse or justification. Otherwise we may as well embrace not just dictatorship, but anarchy.

 

Four. Buhari has been a divisive leader who appears not to believe in the unity of Nigeria. Under his government, Nigeria and Nigerians have been more divided. The lop-sidedness of his security appointments have been dangerously fixated on people of the same ethnic group and religious persuasion, and he does it with nonchalance and condescension. If you like, jump into the Atlantic Ocean, our President won’t blink an eye. He claims, with a straight face that he makes appointments on merit, but we’ve not seen the reflection and positive effects of this merit on the war against corruption, terrorists and insurgents.

 

Five. Buhari’s economic blueprint has been more involved in his stereotypical tightening up the noose on the economy, scaring investors away with ill-thought economic policies and reversal of contractual obligations without negotiations with parties involved, instead of opening up the economy.  This has all happened because of his obsession with so-called corruption. Yet, under his watch, not much has been achieved because of his desperation to hold on to power. This has forced him to compromise, capitulate and led him to bring the biggest and possibly most corrupt chieftains of other parties closer to him. He turns the proverbial blind eye to the infamous activities of these nefarious characters because they are perceived as being able to achieve his unbridled ambition for a second term. He had lost elections on three previous occasions and only won when he got the so-called bad guys to help him attain power. Right now, he is heavily relying on them again to bail him out of imminent defeat next week. And this is the man who falsely claims to espouse anti-corruption credentials and touts himself as a man of integrity.

 

Six. Buhari has failed spectacularly on all his major campaign promises. Nigeria is far worse than he met it. I will be the first to congratulate the government on its achievements in the rail sector and also the success with the militant problem in the Niger Delta. Other than that, he could not even stabilise what he inherited talk less of improving on it. His government has been struggling to control the free-fall of the Naira against the Dollar. He has not been able to cancel and eliminate fuel subsidies which he once described as a big scam and on which the corruption fight has been largely hinged. In fact, payments have more than doubled and the NNPC now holds a monopoly on importation of petroleum products with attendant risk of corruption in high places. We are none the wiser about security spending by him. This was the second plank on which the anti-corruption war was predicated. Loans have ballooned astronomically, yet infrastructure development remains outlandishly backward. We only get to read about monumental achievements on paper.

 

Seven. The last but not the least in my view is the perpetual and puerile blame game. Four years after getting power from PDP, Buhari has not stopped blaming his predecessors, forgetting that this was precisely the reason PDP was sacked from power. Buhari won those elections not on his own accord, but because the general populace had become totally disenchanted with PDP, it’s profligacy, looting and mendacity. Sadly, It seems we have come full circle. Since Buhari has shown the inability to perform the magic he promised, it is time to send him back home, with the sure message that whosoever comes next will suffer the same fate. It is a democratic template we must put in place now and forever. Otherwise, we must accept whatever fate befalls our dear country.

 

The world is watching.

10 Reasons why Corruption has Become Official Govt Policy in Nigeria under Buhari.

The 10 reasons:

Who reinstated and double promoted Maina?

·  Who owns the Ikoyi Apartment $42 million?

·  What has happened to Aisha Buhari’s ADC who looted ₦2.5 billion?

·  Why was the $25 billion NNPC contracts awarded without due process investigated?

·  Why haven’t those beyond Buhari’s padded budget scandals been sacked or charged to court?

·  When will Babachir be charged?

·  How come fuel subsidy has doubled even when petrol price has doubled?

·  Why did President Buhari lift the suspension of the corrupt NHIS boss, Usman Yusuf, before public pressure forced him to suspend him? Why has he not been charged?

·  In May, Transparency International warned that Buhari had increased Security Vote by 600%, yet our soldiers have no weapons and are killed by terrorists. Where is the money going?

·  In February Buhari withdrew $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account to ostensibly fund the war on terror, yet the Chief of Army Staff said after Metele that they have no weapons. Where did that money go?

President Trump is Like the Fabled Tortoise.

Trump is like the fabled tortoise who once claimed to be the wisest man in the world. So, one day, he decided to go hide the "great" wisdom up in a tree so that no one else could have access to it. But while climbing the tree, he put the gourd containing the entire "wisdom" in his front instead of his back as any smart person would have done. Sadly, he didn't realize his foolishness until someone pointed his attention to the displayed stupidity.

2017 Memorial Day Celebration.

“137 years later, Memorial Day remains one of America's most cherished patriotic observances. The spirit of this day has not changed - it remains a day to honor those who died defending our freedom and democracy”. - Doc Hastings.