Nigeria, you will all agree with me , has eventually degenerated into
\nregimentation and dictatorship as Buhari’s secret agents like the late Idi
\nAmin of Uganda are visibly\u00a0 on the prowl. A lot of things have happened in
\nNigeria in the past one year which is an affront to all democratic norms.
\nWe never had it this bad under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu
\nMusa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.<\/p>\n
The leopard, they often say, could never change its spots. Events
\nunfolding marvelously today are pointers to the fact that President Buhari
\nis playing God and thereby creating Frankenstein’s monster as we hear
\nagain an endless stream of anguished cries from the pauperized body
\npolitic. The Daura-born emperor has proven himself not only incompetent
\nbut also incapable of leading the country as he fights wars on every front
\nin a bid to crush dissenting voices.<\/p>\n
Perceived opposition figures are dangerously made after by his secret
\nagents thus casting every inquiring mind to the dark days of Idia Amin in
\nUganda. Buhari’s administration has never brought peace to Nigeria. He has
\nno charisma to lead, he experimented with Nigeria back in 1983 which
\ncollapsed like a pack of cards on August 27, 1985.<\/p>\n
A similar scenario is dangerously unfolding\u00a0 as he assumes unlimited and
\nabsolute powers which he unleashes on the citizenry. Serving APC governors
\nhave become party stooges while their counterparts in the former ruling
\nparty have been marked out for annihilation.<\/p>\n
Buhari has no clue to the myriad of problems confronting the country,
\nJonathan left Aso Rock handing over Africa’s largest economy which he has
\nsucceeded in destroying resulting from sheer incompetence.<\/p>\n
By the way, what does one expect of a man who has no certificates? Even
\nhis so-called economic team does not know what its job entails as its
\nmajor economic policies are failing at every turn multiplying the problems
\nwhich were never there before he forcefully took over power via threats
\nand doctored results from the north. The nation is doubtless in trouble
\nreminding everyone of the dark days of\u00a0 military rule.<\/p>\n
Buhari has resorted to protecting himself with his kinsmen in order to
\nconsolidate his hold on power which is typical of tyrants. There are no
\nviable and formidable opposition voices in the country today. Speak and
\nget crushed has become the order of the day as every dissenting voice is
\nbeing brutally crushed thus promoting a sectional agenda.<\/p>\n
That Buhari is for the north and Muslims is not in dispute; he has shown
\nand displayed that in so many ways. I pity those who are rather naive to
\nunderstand his body language. That country has never been so polarized
\nalong ethnic and religious lines as it is today. His government reeks of
\nnepotism , a government which is supposedly fighting corruption. One funny
\nthing is that his cowardice is\u00a0 in the\u00a0 full glare of public attention, in
\nfact,\u00a0 it has gotten the better of him\u00a0 by moving against men of peace but
\ndreading those who are capable of setting the country on fire.<\/p>\n
One of such is the ongoing covert operation to completely\u00a0 sink and
\nannihilate\u00a0 his immediate predecessor via trumped up charges – the last
\nstraw that will break the camel’s back and precipitate a political crisis
\nin Nigeria.\u00a0 We all know the ignominious path in history\u00a0 on which tyrants
\nlike him have trodden which doubtless led them to a disastrous end. Buhari
\nmet the biggest economy on assumption of office, instead of building on
\nwhat has been handed over to him his incompetence tore the economy to
\nshreds which he often blames on treasury looting as if he did not loot
\nhimself when he served under the most corrupt regime in Nigeria’s
\npolitical history.<\/p>\n
Looted money by late Gen. Sani Abacha under whom he headed the Petroleum
\nTrust Fund,\u00a0 is still being returned to Nigeria to this day who he stoutly
\ndefended . How does he feel now with the billions of dollars being
\nintermittently\u00a0 returned to the Nigerian government some of which he has
\ntaken delivery of himself? Does that not make an accessory after the fact
\nof money laundering? Can President\u00a0 Buhari extricate himself? He can by no
\nstretch of the imagination do so. People are only afraid to speak against
\nthe evil of the day under his visionless leadership for fear of being
\nhacked down by his secret agents. What do you expect of someone who has
\nthe Army, Police and other security agents at his beck and call?<\/p>\n
Peoples’ fear and silence in the face of every agonizing oppression should
\nnot be mistaken for support of his reign of terror. His apologists from
\nthe north are only blinded by ethnic jingoism and do not know what it is
\nlike to construct a pathway to nationhood through a rugged terrain. What
\nthey fallaciously believe in is that political\u00a0 power must remain in the
\nregion no matter whose ox is gored, whether the person is qualified to
\nhold political power or not.<\/p>\n
That is the sad situation the country is marvelously entangled in today
\nresulting from grand deception and heinous\u00a0 lies on whose back that
\ngovernment in Nigeria\u00a0 rode to power. Obasanjo met a virtually empty
\ntreasury and crude oil sold for less than $30 per barrel at the time, but
\nhe delved into work and turned the economy around which his successors
\nYar’Adua and Jonathan improved upon to become\u00a0 the largest economy on the
\ncontinent, but only about a week ago we again lost that prestigious status
\nand position\u00a0 to South Africa\u00a0 under his visionless and directionless
\nleadership.<\/p>\n
The price of crude oil today is well above the price in Obasanjo days!
\nBuhari’s apologists have been taken in by his deafening complaints\u00a0 \u00a0and
\nlike\u00a0 zombies\u00a0 refused to heed the voice of reason to withdraw while he
\nleads them and the country dangerously to an abysmal depths. It is very
\nobvious that he can not lead because employing competent\u00a0 economic
\ntechnocrats is not the same thing as soldiering. I think it is about time
\nhe threw in the towel.<\/p>\n
The hunger and frustration in that country have adversely affected their
\nway of\u00a0 reasoning. How can they still be campaigning and canvassing for
\nsupport of their candidates when\u00a0 their Chief Representative who was
\nelected under the platform of All Progressives Congress is not only
\nclueless but directionless and visionless thereby imposing untold hardship
\non one and all?<\/p>\n
None of his promises has ever seen the light of the day under the existing
\ncircumstances. What he appears good at is the blame game a ploy he\u00a0 often
\nemploys to cover up his inability to deliver on his campaign promises. He
\ndwells so much on looted funds as if he did not nor the past governments
\ndid not loot. They all did at different points in time yet Nigerians were
\nable to feed themselves. The whole thing is very annoying.<\/p>\n
I happened to run into some Nigerians the other day in Europe\u00a0 who
\nrecounted their ordeals while crossing the fiery Sahara desert to the
\ncoast of north Africa from where they often risk their lives crossing the
\nvast Mediterranean in rickety boats to Europe. One of them did expressly
\ntell me how\u00a0 one of the rickety boats capsized and killed no fewer than
\n219 Nigerians who he knew personally while in Libya, a majority of the
\nill-fated Nigerians,\u00a0 he said , came from Edo State. Yet you see the
\nLLilliputianOshiomhole campaigning vigorously to foist his anointed godson
\non Edo people!<\/p>\n
There is hunger and starvation everywhere in Nigeria, a dramatic replay
\nand reenactment of the 1984 and 85 scenarios when Nigerians queued for
\nfood in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria after overthrowing the democratically
\nelected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Under Shagari there was food
\naplenty but soon after he deposed him in coup, Nigerians started queuing
\nup for food; that is what is\u00a0 happening again today.<\/p>\n
Are Nigerians so naive not to see things objectively? Do they need
\nreminding that Buhari is not the Messiah of which Nigeria urgently stands
\nin need? Why have people chosen to be blinded by primordial sentiments and
\nrefuse to call a spade a spade? They have lost grip on realities that the
\nruling party\u00a0 has\u00a0 only succeeded in creating more problems for Nigerians
\nand Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Iyoha John Darlington , a social activist, political analyst and public<\/em> 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\u00a0 on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n
\ncommentator on national and global issues writes from Turin, Italy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"