DOES BUHARI REALLY KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON?

DOES BUHARI REALLY KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON?

 

Was Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai, just boasting or was he telling the truth? It is reported all over the place that El Rufai claims to be the one who told our dear President, Muhammed Buhari, that the bandits, who now terrorize the people of Nigeria at will, are threatening to kidnap our President, the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces and a once proud General of the people's army!

Are you not scared as I am that it took the Governor who is in Kaduna to give the President who is in Abuja this "intelligence" report already well-known by every Nigerian who owns the ubiquitous smart phone?  The damned information is everywhere on WhatsApp!

Am I stupid to ask if the President does not have a smart phone? Is it that none of his coterie of aides gave him this information that is both so personal and incredibly scary? Is the President so isolated or he in a kind of bubble that he is in the dark as to what is going on around him? Maybe he does not like bad news and nobody around him has the courage to give him what must be the "baddest" of news.  

My good friend, the Hon. Minister of Information, may express the view that the bandits are just making noise, doing "shakara" or engaged in cheap propaganda. Not long ago, I would have joined the Minister and with absolute confidence beat my chest that whoever had the temerity to even suggest that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the largest black nation on earth; the man who commands the biggest army in Africa, can be kidnapped, must have drunk a huge amount of "ogogoro".

Please pardon me to confess that I am not so sure anymore and I get the impression that there are millions of my country men who are scared like me. To my mind, the Kaduna State governor appears to have made the matter worse.   

No one in Nigeria has so repeatedly sought to be President than Mohammed Buhari. At the end of the day, millions of Nigerians, in trust, gave him what he had continually asked for. I know many of my friends who would have taken a bullet for Buhari because they had absolute confidence in him. For instance, my good friend, the great Nigerian journalist, Azuka Jebose Molokwu who now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, was a 100% Buharist. Azuka, who takes no prisoners, was on every platform campaigning for Buhari. My friend, Patrick Harry Doyle, the well know broadcaster and actor, was a Buhari man, through and through. I know that none of them is an APC man or got "shishi" to throw everything for Buhari.

At some point, a creative Nigerian had to divide the populace into "Hailers" and "Wailers". The "Hailers" were the Buhari enthusiasts and those opposed to him were called "Wailers". Does Mr. President know that a great percentage of the Hailers, in the millions, like my two friends, Azuka and Patrick, have become Wailers? Why? It appears that Buhari spent much of his energy campaigning to be President. By the time he got the Presidency, the energy was gone.

I believe Nigerians voted for Buhari because they wanted someone who does not take nonsense. They voted for the former army general reputed to have zero tolerance for corruption. Nigerians installed a President they believed would take on Boko Haram and deal insurgency a deadly blow. There was the feeling that the constantly smiling incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan was too soft to confront Nigeria's problems. Sadly, Buhari's reputation has unraveled before our eyes. No amount of packaging or public relations can cover up what is obvious.

I watched the last APC convention on TV with dismay. Our anti-corruption President, the leader of the APC, was there with his wife, sometimes smiling, as the orgy of corruption played out on national television. Each of the "aspirants", many of them government officials, had bought a party form for the obscene amount of one hundred million naira. Even our Central Bank Governor, a man who should be rarely seen, was said to have bought the form and lined up a large number of vehicles for the presidential campaign! At Eagles Square, delegates were being corrupted with huge amounts of dollars to the knowledge of practically every Nigerian. All the speakers were praising the President in a terrible case of public masturbation.

The chickens have come home to roost. In this month of July 2022, the consequence of the reckless dollarization and the reckless national debt have exploded before our eyes. The Naira has taken a dangerous plunge towards a bottomless pit.  The 5-month-old ASUU strike does not appear to have any resolution leading to mass demonstrations across the country. How do you tell the lecturers that there is no money after they have seen the APC carnival of dollars?

In this month of July, 2922, a former Accountant-General of the Federation was ordered to be remanded in prison custody for allegedly stealing the dizzying amount of more than N109 billion naira and two of Nigeria's major airlines, Aero-Contractors and Dana Air, packed up business and lost their wings. Very soon, only few Nigerians will be able to fly as airline tickets hit the roof and the aviation industry groans over the skyrocketing price of aviation fuel. Travel by road is of course not an option as bandits are everywhere waiting for you.

Suddenly, I am not sure whether Aso Rock or the Central Bank is safe. Everything appears to be unravelling and Nigeria appears to be on free fall. With the diving of the Naira, inflation is galloping like crazy. A decent loaf of bread is now at least 1000 naira! You are left asking: Who is in charge?

As a regular Nigerian, you are left terribly confused. You are scared like hell. You don't have a convoy. You don't have any police security, no Army, no DSS, no Secret Service, not even a catapult! Yet, you must go out every day, completely exposed, in search of daily bread.  If the President's convoy is not safe, Kuje Prison is not safe, the bandits can kill men of the Presidential Guard at will and threaten to abduct the President, who then is safe in Nigeria?

I don't get scared easily but right now, I am scared!  Does Buhari know what is going on? If not for Tobi Amusan, I don't know how I would have survived this week.

See you next week.

THE 30 BISHOPS OF CONTROVERSY!

 Much of the discussions and cartoons on many Nigerian social media platforms in the last couple of days have been about some purported bishops and clergymen said to have stormed the unveiling in Abuja of Kashim Shettima, the running mate to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the ruling APC in the 2023 Nigerian general elections.

You would think that with the many problems Nigerians are desperately wrestling     with, the main discussions today would be about the exploding national debt on the neck of Nigeria; the 5-month-old ASUU strike keeping hundreds of thousands of our young and vulnerable citizens out of school and in the devil's workshop; the unprecedented collapse of the national security system turning every Nigerian into an imminent candidate for kidnapping, banditry, untimely and violent death.

In a week that a former Accountant General of the Federation was ordered to be remanded in prison custody for the alleged stealing of the uncountable amount of more than N109 billion naira, you would think that Nigerians will be talking about the corruption that has run amok; under a government that pledged that if elected, would deal with corruption; the galloping inflation that has wrecked the livelihood of many Nigerian families, the rapidly dwindling value of the national currency, the dizzying unemployment that has rendered many Nigerian citizens hopeless and maybe, the total collapse of morality and values in the country.  

In a week that two of Nigeria's major airlines, Aero-Contractors and Dana Air, packed up business and lost their wings and the price of diesel is destroying businesses left and right, the discussions have been about who recruited the "unknown" bishops, where they came from, what churches and dioceses they represent, how they were dressed, how they all arrived at the same time and dispersed in the same direction and more and more and more. Why?

What happened at the Musa Yar' Adua Centre in Abuja during the week was in every sense, a political comedy of errors. It was a self-inflicted injury. In football parlance, it was an own goal. The APC team was playing with two right footed central defenders and to compensate, they had to pay too much attention to the left side of defence, leaving a gaping hole on the right side and the result was a devastating goal!

I very well remember 1993 when the SDP fielded a presidential ticket of Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, both Moslems and won the support of most Nigerians. This writer supported that ticket 100% and campaigned for the ticket. There are those who today refer to that event to justify the Tinubu/Shettima ticket. They make a very big mistake. Bola Tinubu is not Moshood Abiola and 2023 is not 1993. Moshood Abiola was a towering figure who had built strong bridges across the length and breath of Nigeria and enjoyed the love of Nigerians. By 2023, 30 years would have passed since that historic event. In 1993, there were no unknown herdsmen, no RUGA, no Boko Haram and no government where almost all the dramatis personae belong to one religion. In 1993, there was reasonable trust that a Nigerian government would be fair to all Nigerians irrespective of tribe or religion. That trust is gone!  

The uproar that has visited the announcement of Kashim Shettima as the Asiwaju's running mate ought to be a warning of that lack of trust. The die-hard supporters of the Jagaban Borgu are promoting the narrative that the uproar is fueled by ethnic and religious bigots and that the APC presidential candidate has no need to correct course. I am neither an ethnic nor religious bigot. My late best friend was a Moslem from Kano State. His name was Mustapha Amego. I have friends from nearly every tribe in Nigeria. Even though I am a Christian, several times I have been to mosques and joined my Moslem brothers to worship.

I have heard it said that the Moslem/Moslem ticket of Tinubu and Shettima would easily win the 2023 elections because of the APC structures. Those who take such a position miss the point. The objective for people like me, is not winning elections but governing for national progress so Nigeria will get out of the present rot. How will the ticket successfully govern a nation with such major fault lines and deep suspicions?  

The event at the Musa Yar' Adua Centre in Abuja during the week is very revealing. It clearly shows that despite all the braggadocio, there is recognition that something is not quite right with the Tinubu ticket as it is composed. The Musa Yar' Adua Centre in Abuja is not a big venue. The event during the week was not a Bishops Conference. To invite 30 bishops to a political event, create space for them at such a small venue and celebrate their presence, shows that the criticism is biting and that there is a significant attempt in the Asiwaju camp to neutralize the critics.

The problem is that the show backfired badly. And has become a big joke across the nation. Both the writer of the script and the producer of the show got it all wrong. One credible bishop would have done what the terribly dressed and badly choreographed motley of jesters could not do. May be the script writer thought we needed a bishop for each of the years between 1993 and 2023! In politics, perception is everything. Has any lesson been learnt?     

 

See you next week.

THE NATION BURNS, THE PRESIDENT GOES TO SENEGAL & PETER OBI SCORES A GOAL!

 

This was a week that has truly tested the faith of Nigerians in their nation. Out of the blues, the news spread like wildfire that the advance convoy of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, an army general, had been attacked by bandits in his home state of Katsina. There are confusing stories of a Police Commissioner losing his life in the attack.

As a regular Nigerian, you are left in terrible shock. You are scared stiff. You don't have a convoy. You don't have any police security, no Army, no DSS, no Secret Service and you must go out, completely exposed, in search of daily bread.  If the President's convoy is not safe, what then is safe in Nigeria?

On the same day, while you are still chewing the bitter kola, from the pit of hell, another crazy news story spreads. The nation's best known prison facility, the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja, the nation's capital, where many of Nigeria's most high-profile prisoners are kept, had been bombed and the gates flung open for hundreds of die-hard criminals to flee and disappear into thin air to further traumatize an incredibly traumatized nation.

Kuje is on the way to Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja. So, our dear President, on his way to the airport, gets a photo opportunity of inspecting what is left of the prison. Thereafter, he drives to the airport in another convoy, boards a presidential jet and flies off to Senegal! While the nation is practically burning?!

I watched my good friend, Femi Adesina on television. He had been given the unpalatable job of explaining this oddity. I felt sorry for him. What was so important about the trip to Senegal that the Vice President or any of the coterie of ministers could not be drafted to handle? In these days of very sophisticated digital communication, could our President not have addressed the Senegal Conference from Abuja? Pardon me, but I felt like our president did not grasp the magnitude of what had just happened. In fact, if he was already in Senegal and heard such news, should he not have left the conference and headed home immediately?

Suddenly, I am not sure whether Aso Rock or the Central Bank is safe. Everything appears to be unravelling. Somebody said to me that our President was scared and was running away from the problem. I don't know what to believe anymore.

Politics aside, President Buhari owes Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi immense gratitude for what appears to be calm in the midst of a crazy storm. It is not the heavy rain that is keeping our country relatively cool. Things could easily have got out of hand. In the desert of hopelessness and despair that have enveloped our nation, Peter Obi is providing that oasis of hope. He has kept a lot of young Nigerians busy counting the months and days when our nation will be free of the locusts.

Like it or not, the young people of Nigeria are presently living on hope. Hope is their breakfast, lunch and dinner. The are busy on their smartphones sending out messages and composing "Obidient" graphics, poetry, skits and songs… waiting for what next Peter Obi will say to them … waiting for the day of their true independence from both the machine gun bandits and the bullion van bandits.     

The Peter Obi project clearly has the hand of God in it. If Peter Obi had become the PDP presidential candidate, he would never have got the traction he is getting now. God set him free from the PDP. If Peter Obi had got Rabiu Kwankwaso as his Vice-Presidential candidate, it may have been seen as politics as usual.  God set him free from Kwankwaso. Just yesterday, Peter Obi scored a big goal. His unveiling of a dainty, young and obviously well-schooled Yusuf Danti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate, is resonating across the board. The photogenic duo is different. They remind one of the unassailable Bill Clinton/Al Gore ticket in the U.S. This is at the time that Atiku Abubkar is having a huge Wike headache with his choice of Ifeanyi Okowa as his Vice and the Jagaban appears not to have decided whether he will have a Muslim/Muslim ticket or a Muslim/Christian ticket.

Those in the professional political industry who said that Peter Obi had no structure and will not get anywhere must be wondering what is going on.

Peter Obi is today the super-duper-star of Nigerian politics. He is the conversation everywhere. The attack dogs are having a hell of a time shooting down this moving target. Those trying to divide young Nigerians on the basis of tribe, region and religion, are failing. Seven months to the presidential election, everybody is talking about Peter Obi. The videos of his speeches are trending on Facebook, WhatsApp Instagram and everywhere else and the young people of Nigeria are gulping every word he says. The just extended massive registration for PVCs is essentially driven by young 'OBIdient' Nigerians who have suddenly come to the conclusion that to end the misery, desperation, joblessness and hopelessness that has engulfed the nation, they must change the politics. I predict again that the turn out for voting in 2023 will be unprecedented. The structureless campaign is now on auto drive.

As our Muslim brothers get ready to celebrate the Salah, it should be clear to everyone that the Almighty has not given up on our nation. Hope is in the air. Barka de Salah everyone!

See you next week.