Back in 2000 I visited Nigeria and passed through Benin.\u00a0\u00a0It was a sorry sight.\u00a0\u00a0I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe the poor shape the city was in.\u00a0\u00a0I visited again ten years later; the place was in a sorrier state.\u00a0\u00a0Lately however, whenever I saunter though Edo State, I am comparatively impressed by the progress made under the current governor, Adams Oshiomhole.<\/p>\n
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So I am partial to Oshiomhole.\u00a0\u00a0I have a soft spot for him and always made sure to pay attention whenever he is in the news.\u00a0\u00a0But Oshiomhole can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to get himself off the news these days \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sometimes for good reasons and other times, not so good.\u00a0\u00a0Just a few weeks ago, the fairly unattractive man snagged himself a very beautiful wife.\u00a0\u00a0Only God and a few privileged Angels know how the man pulled off that astonishing caper.\u00a0\u00a0Plus, the young lady is 30 years younger than Oshiomhole.\u00a0\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be lying if I say I am not a wee bit jealous of the governor there.<\/p>\n
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Then Oshiomhole veered off to another woman.\u00a0\u00a0He laid into Dr Ngozi Okonlo-Iweala, our former Finance Minister and a former Vice President of the World Bank.\u00a0\u00a0As the national searchlight beamed on incompetent governors that have not been able to pay workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 salaries and pensions for several months, Mr Oshiomhole took it upon himself to attempt to re-direct that searchlight onto the past government.\u00a0\u00a0He seemed intent on pinning the entire blame of non payment of salaries on Okonjo-Iweala and her economic policies.\u00a0\u00a0And he did it in a very personal way that was as visceral as it was cringe-worthy.<\/p>\n
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Oshiomhole was on Channels TV the other day and just wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shut up.\u00a0\u00a0He wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let his interviewers get any word in edgeways.\u00a0\u00a0The man basically had a conversation with himself.\u00a0\u00a0The focus was again on some governors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 inability to pay salaries, but the only thing our Adams harped on was how Okonjo-Iweala withdrew some money and what not.\u00a0\u00a0He claimed – contrary to available evidence – that the last federal government also wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to pay workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 salaries.\u00a0\u00a0Then he talked some more about Okonjo-Iweala.\u00a0\u00a0He talked about her with so much negative passion you would have thought she was a former girlfriend who left him at the altar.\u00a0\u00a0It was a most embarrassing outing.<\/p>\n
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In every media, at every opportunity, Oshiomhole has gone after the previous government with crude vengeance.\u00a0\u00a0I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand it.\u00a0\u00a0But it is with this same all-consuming emotion that the Buhari government seems to be going after the previous government too.\u00a0\u00a0This is the first time I will hear of an inability to constitute personal staff and a federal cabinet being blamed on handover notes!\u00a0\u00a0Here we are, seven weeks in, and Buhari hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even got a skeleton of a government in place.\u00a0\u00a0The only thing that passes for governance so far is the periodic wailing about the previous government, and, promises that that regime and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation would be investigated.<\/p>\n
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I say: please investigate by all means and sanction where appropriate, but can we please have a government that actually governs!\u00a0\u00a0Economically, Nigeria is beginning to hurt; can we have an economic blueprint please?\u00a0\u00a0Foreign policy nk\u00e1\u00bb\u008d?<\/p>\n
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I do not think the change people voted for is a government that only want to investigate the past and rubbish people and previous doings.\u00a0\u00a0I am sure we can chew gum and walk at the same time.\u00a0\u00a0All I can see oozing out of the current government at the moment is the need for vengeance as if that is all we require to make progress in this country.<\/p>\n
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That need for vengeance has similarly been visited on Ike Ekweremadu.\u00a0\u00a0Ekweremadu\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sin seems to be that he, a PDP senator, got himself re-elected the Deputy Senate President while the APC National Assembly members were off on a jamboree somewhere.\u00a0\u00a0A couple of weekends ago, the APC tried to force Ekweremadu to resign.\u00a0\u00a0The man refused, so now, the government went and sic the police on him, giving all sorts of specious reasons.\u00a0\u00a0Ekweremadu was lucky; the police had actually turned up to arrest him but he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in the office.\u00a0This is where we find ourselves so early in the day.\u00a0\u00a0Even if Obasanjo and subsequent governments behaved in such depraved blackmailing manner, I thought we were promised change.<\/p>\n
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As Buhari dilly-dallies, incompetent politics and inelegant prevarications are let loose on the land by his Party.\u00a0\u00a0From the Presidency, it is endless flip flops and reversal of one official pronouncement right after another.\u00a0\u00a0Presently, without the services of technical advisers and support around him (particularly in the area of finance) State governors are having a field day taking advantage of Buhari.<\/p>\n
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Please let the government get off its back and get on with the task of proper governance.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about and focus on the provision of security, infrastructure and economic welfare.\u00a0We can do this as we continue to investigate past infractions.\u00a0\u00a0Where there are proven cases of corruption and stealing, yes, yes, yes, let the government go after the perpetrators and do the legally needful.\u00a0\u00a0But there are petrol queues that need to be considerably shortened, abeg.<\/p>\n
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Just a couple of days ago, Oshiomhole was again in the news.\u00a0\u00a0He claimed that States are not able to generate internal revenues because there are not enough taxable entities in those States.\u00a0He blamed it on the previous government.\u00a0\u00a0So Buhari and his people do need to get a move on because, at this rate (and God forbid), should Oshiomhole\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s marriage has any age-related hiccup, the Governor will surely blame it on Okonjo-Iweala and the last government…<\/p>\n
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