Nigeria, you will all agree with me , has eventually degenerated into
regimentation and dictatorship as Buhari’s secret agents like the late Idi
Amin of Uganda are visibly on the prowl. A lot of things have happened in
Nigeria in the past one year which is an affront to all democratic norms.
We never had it this bad under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu
Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.
The leopard, they often say, could never change its spots. Events
unfolding marvelously today are pointers to the fact that President Buhari
is playing God and thereby creating Frankenstein’s monster as we hear
again an endless stream of anguished cries from the pauperized body
politic. The Daura-born emperor has proven himself not only incompetent
but also incapable of leading the country as he fights wars on every front
in a bid to crush dissenting voices.
Perceived opposition figures are dangerously made after by his secret
agents thus casting every inquiring mind to the dark days of Idia Amin in
Uganda. Buhari’s administration has never brought peace to Nigeria. He has
no charisma to lead, he experimented with Nigeria back in 1983 which
collapsed like a pack of cards on August 27, 1985.
A similar scenario is dangerously unfolding as he assumes unlimited and
absolute powers which he unleashes on the citizenry. Serving APC governors
have become party stooges while their counterparts in the former ruling
party have been marked out for annihilation.
Buhari has no clue to the myriad of problems confronting the country,
Jonathan left Aso Rock handing over Africa’s largest economy which he has
succeeded in destroying resulting from sheer incompetence.
By the way, what does one expect of a man who has no certificates? Even
his so-called economic team does not know what its job entails as its
major economic policies are failing at every turn multiplying the problems
which were never there before he forcefully took over power via threats
and doctored results from the north. The nation is doubtless in trouble
reminding everyone of the dark days of military rule.
Buhari has resorted to protecting himself with his kinsmen in order to
consolidate his hold on power which is typical of tyrants. There are no
viable and formidable opposition voices in the country today. Speak and
get crushed has become the order of the day as every dissenting voice is
being brutally crushed thus promoting a sectional agenda.
That Buhari is for the north and Muslims is not in dispute; he has shown
and displayed that in so many ways. I pity those who are rather naive to
understand his body language. That country has never been so polarized
along ethnic and religious lines as it is today. His government reeks of
nepotism , a government which is supposedly fighting corruption. One funny
thing is that his cowardice is in the full glare of public attention, in
fact, it has gotten the better of him by moving against men of peace but
dreading those who are capable of setting the country on fire.
One of such is the ongoing covert operation to completely sink and
annihilate his immediate predecessor via trumped up charges – the last
straw that will break the camel’s back and precipitate a political crisis
in Nigeria. We all know the ignominious path in history on which tyrants
like him have trodden which doubtless led them to a disastrous end. Buhari
met the biggest economy on assumption of office, instead of building on
what has been handed over to him his incompetence tore the economy to
shreds which he often blames on treasury looting as if he did not loot
himself when he served under the most corrupt regime in Nigeria’s
political history.
Looted money by late Gen. Sani Abacha under whom he headed the Petroleum
Trust Fund, is still being returned to Nigeria to this day who he stoutly
defended . How does he feel now with the billions of dollars being
intermittently returned to the Nigerian government some of which he has
taken delivery of himself? Does that not make an accessory after the fact
of money laundering? Can President Buhari extricate himself? He can by no
stretch of the imagination do so. People are only afraid to speak against
the evil of the day under his visionless leadership for fear of being
hacked down by his secret agents. What do you expect of someone who has
the Army, Police and other security agents at his beck and call?
Peoples’ fear and silence in the face of every agonizing oppression should
not be mistaken for support of his reign of terror. His apologists from
the north are only blinded by ethnic jingoism and do not know what it is
like to construct a pathway to nationhood through a rugged terrain. What
they fallaciously believe in is that political power must remain in the
region no matter whose ox is gored, whether the person is qualified to
hold political power or not.
That is the sad situation the country is marvelously entangled in today
resulting from grand deception and heinous lies on whose back that
government in Nigeria rode to power. Obasanjo met a virtually empty
treasury and crude oil sold for less than $30 per barrel at the time, but
he delved into work and turned the economy around which his successors
Yar’Adua and Jonathan improved upon to become the largest economy on the
continent, but only about a week ago we again lost that prestigious status
and position to South Africa under his visionless and directionless
leadership.
The price of crude oil today is well above the price in Obasanjo days!
Buhari’s apologists have been taken in by his deafening complaints and
like zombies refused to heed the voice of reason to withdraw while he
leads them and the country dangerously to an abysmal depths. It is very
obvious that he can not lead because employing competent economic
technocrats is not the same thing as soldiering. I think it is about time
he threw in the towel.
The hunger and frustration in that country have adversely affected their
way of reasoning. How can they still be campaigning and canvassing for
support of their candidates when their Chief Representative who was
elected under the platform of All Progressives Congress is not only
clueless but directionless and visionless thereby imposing untold hardship
on one and all?
None of his promises has ever seen the light of the day under the existing
circumstances. What he appears good at is the blame game a ploy he often
employs to cover up his inability to deliver on his campaign promises. He
dwells so much on looted funds as if he did not nor the past governments
did not loot. They all did at different points in time yet Nigerians were
able to feed themselves. The whole thing is very annoying.
I happened to run into some Nigerians the other day in Europe who
recounted their ordeals while crossing the fiery Sahara desert to the
coast of north Africa from where they often risk their lives crossing the
vast Mediterranean in rickety boats to Europe. One of them did expressly
tell me how one of the rickety boats capsized and killed no fewer than
219 Nigerians who he knew personally while in Libya, a majority of the
ill-fated Nigerians, he said , came from Edo State. Yet you see the
LLilliputianOshiomhole campaigning vigorously to foist his anointed godson
on Edo people!
There is hunger and starvation everywhere in Nigeria, a dramatic replay
and reenactment of the 1984 and 85 scenarios when Nigerians queued for
food in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria after overthrowing the democratically
elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Under Shagari there was food
aplenty but soon after he deposed him in coup, Nigerians started queuing
up for food; that is what is happening again today.
Are Nigerians so naive not to see things objectively? Do they need
reminding that Buhari is not the Messiah of which Nigeria urgently stands
in need? Why have people chosen to be blinded by primordial sentiments and
refuse to call a spade a spade? They have lost grip on realities that the
ruling party has only succeeded in creating more problems for Nigerians
and Nigeria.
Iyoha John Darlington , a social activist, political analyst and public
commentator on national and global issues writes from Turin, Italy.