By: Ifeanyi Izeze<\/p>\n
How else do you describe the bunch of hitherto distressed men and women
\nunder the auspices of Buhari Media Office if not to say they are simply
\nstruggling for relevance in this narrow- minded, criminally nepotic and
\nblood-letting administration?<\/p>\n
It is a pitiable state to find yourself in a position where all you do
\nfor a bowl of porridge is to rubbish the finger(s) that once fed you.<\/p>\n
When your job is the burden of fighting for a gormless administration
\nwith a terribly demented headman, you tend to rub mud on anybody who has
\nan iota of ability to think straight far better than not only your _oga_
\nbut also the bunch of adult _almajiris_ masquerading everywhere you look
\nin this government.<\/p>\n
BMO\u2019s only stock in trade now is insulting the former Vice President,
\nAtiku Abubakar, simply because the PDP presidential candidate in the
\nlast general election once in a while as patriot and elderstatesman,
\nmakes useful suggestions to their _zombi_ government on the direction to
\ngo in their \u2018plagiarised idea\u2019 of privatising some critical national
\nassets especially in the nation\u2019s moribund downstream oil and gas
\nsector.<\/p>\n
These same men and women of BMO were hosted for months in the Atiku
\nMedia Office obviously because _Maigaskiya_ had no single structure not
\neven a makeshift one to run even a local government campaign.\u00a0 True to
\ntype, the conducts and disposition of these same people\u00a0 in an office
\nthat volunteered to rehabilitate them, were not different from the spate
\nof herders banditry we have across the country today. Is that the kind
\nof people you take seriously as speaking for a living president and his
\ngovernment?<\/p>\n
You\u2019re insulting Atiku, a man who has successfully ran chains of
\nbusinesses at home and abroad that span almost every sector of the
\neconomy just because you work for a clueless, incapacitated and
\nmurderous administration.<\/p>\n
It is outrightly vexing that in a media statement signed by its
\nChairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, the Buhari Media
\nOffice (BMO), could say it was not totally surprising that the former
\npresidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would
\nresort to grandstanding when he heard of the government\u2019s
\nprivatization plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so sure that Atiku Abubakar would try to position himself as
\nan expert in privatization when media outlets reported the
\ngovernment\u2019s intention to sell off some moribund non-oil assets, and
\nindeed we were proved right when he issued that statement.\u201d<\/p>\n
BMO also dismissed the former Vice President\u2019s attempt to equate the
\nplanned privatization of the refineries to his own plan for the Nigeria
\nNational Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as self-serving.<\/p>\n
Now, being true to ourselves as Nigerians, has this government any
\nsingle idea of its own on how to better the Nigerian economy? Whether
\nthey accept it or not, the recently announced planned privatisation of
\nsome of our national assets was hijacked from the Atiku Policy document
\nthat\u2019s available both at home and abroad. It is disheartening
\ntherefore that a wise and patriotic counsel of an elderstatesman in the
\ncalibre of a former vice president of the country could be turned into
\nan opportunity to insult and abuse him by nonstarters.<\/p>\n
Is the bunch in BMO not aware that several globally acclaimed
\norganisations including Transparency International and the Civil Society
\nCoalition Against Corruption And Bad Governance(CACOBAG) have serially
\ndeclared that despite reduction in payments of public funds into private
\naccounts, corruption and opaque transactions is more pervasive in this
\ngovernment of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) than any government
\nwe have ever had in Nigeria?<\/p>\n
This is a\u00a0 recent CACOBAG statement: \u201cWe have noted the propaganda in
\nsome quarters that reduction in payments of public funds to private
\npurses is a testament that corruption has reduced under this government.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fallacy that is known even to those at the helm of affairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe at CACOBAG do agree that public funds are been paid into
\ngovernment accounts but vehemently disagree that corruption has reduced.
\nInfact, it\u2019s not only worse under this government but going to an
\nalarming rate and drastic action has to be taken to combat it.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment funds may be going into government purse but it\u2019s
\nobvious the corrupt elements in the government have devised means to
\ncontinue to embezzle the funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cOngoing Massive corruption under this government despite public funds
\nbeen paid into government accounts is another magic by the corrupt
\nelements in this government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more public funds paid into government accounts, the more the
\nother means they adopt to perpetrate fraud. It\u2019s unfortunate, with the
\nglaring corruption in the country; some Nigerians are still bent on
\nbeing used to promote the propaganda of this government.\u201d<\/p>\n
If government funds being paid into government accounts have any
\nsignificance in the fight against corruption by this government, how
\ncome corruption is more pervasive under this government than other
\nsuccessive governments?<\/p>\n
And if Atiku Abubakar is not in a position to advice General Buhari on
\nprivatization and commercialization, is it the_ Maikaskiya_ president
\nwhose only idea of investment and privatisation is rearing 50 cows that
\nhas remained 50 since 2003 as if the males use condoms to mate? People
\nshould learn to think before they open their mouth to talk.<\/p>\n
What tangible impact can the hitherto distressed men and women in BMO
\nconfidently point at as achievement of the government they set out to
\npolish? Is Miyetti Allah spokesman not doing a far better job defending
\nthis cattle government than this bunch of food-is-ready internally
\ndisplaced image makers in the BMO resettlement centre?<\/p>\n
Has this government ever had any idea of its own aside running oil
\npipelines and natural gas transmission infrastructures from the
\noilfields in the Niger Delta to Niger Republic; building refineries,
\nrailway projects in Maradi, and military infrastructures all in Niger
\nRepublic?<\/p>\n
What else can Nigerians point at except flooding the entire country with
\nmurderous Fulani bandits and terrorists from other countries of the
\nsub-region?<\/p>\n
Maybe the only idea we can attribute to the credit of this
\nadministration is that it has well succeeded in making cows a priority
\nover the unity of this nation and far and above over the lives and
\nwellbeing of Nigerians (northerners, southerners). When one cow is
\nkilled anywhere, the presidency will unleash battalions of armed
\nsoldiers to crush the entire area where it happened.<\/p>\n
But on daily basis villages are being wiped out. Men, women and children
\nslaughtered like fowls by murderous Fulani bandits as if Nigerian lives
\nno longer matters. Farmers including those in my area of Niger Delta no
\nlonger go to their farms for fear of being killed or kidnapped and women
\nbeing raped in their farms while the president looks the other way with
\npathological indifference as if this has become the acceptable _status
\nquo_.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s even look at it: Since the onset of this Democratic
\ndispensation, which government compares to the Obasanjo- Atiku
\nadministration in terms of economic policy framing and implementation?
\nIs it in ideas, creativity or even in doggedness of implementing
\npolicies and programmes that had direct bearing and tangibility on the
\nwelfare and wellbeing of the citizenry?<\/p>\n
The achievements of that administration are still loudly speaking for
\nthemselves even till today and made even louder as a result of the
\ndocility and the confirmed cluelessness of this directionless
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
Even the Jonathan administration far outshined this bandit government
\ndespite the massive propaganda campaign to rubbish him and his
\nadministration. This is the truth that can be boldly told by some of us
\nwho were privy to what was done to Jonathan and his government.<\/p>\n
Is it not interesting that the \u2018 Gen Buahri administration is very
\ntransparent and non-corrupt\u2019 but it is known that the president\u2019s
\n\u2018men\u2019 who are the _defacto_ rulers, as the president has always been
\nincapacitated and bereft of ideas, can sit at the Presidency and order
\ntheir cousins heading the NNPC to package a $25 billion crude oil sale
\ncontract? Was that not why this clueless and bandit government sacked my
\nbrother Ibe Kachikwu as petroleum minister, a vibrant brain that could
\nhave given this nation a positive turnaround in its oil and gas
\nindustry?<\/p>\n
We also know that under this transparent administration, the nation\u2019s
\ndaily domestic consumption of premium motor spirit (petrol) overnight
\njumped from less than 20 million litres a day to almost 80 million
\nlitres with the subsidy bills escalating by almost 1000 percent, all in
\na bid to rake and pocket subsidy monies.<\/p>\n
Is it in this transparent administration that grasses in IDP camps in
\nthe northeast were cut with billions of naira or in another government?
\n_Na my mouth you wan hear the name_!<\/p>\n
What of the hundreds of billions of Pension funds or is it the devouring
\nof all the savings in our Excess Crude Accounts or the crooked
\nfertiliser bills rackets; the school feeding projects where billions of
\nnaira were said to have been spent feeding children who we know were on
\nlockdown in their parents houses? How many _we go fit count_ but we will
\nstill count them.<\/p>\n
It is stupid to engage in a fight where you know you\u2019re grossly
\nhandicapped or rather outrightly incapacitated. A word of advice to BMO!
\nGod bless Nigeria!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Ifeanyi Izeze How else do you describe the bunch of hitherto distressed men and women under the auspices of Buhari Media Office if not to say they are simply…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n