I am not worried about these antics of the
politicians. It is their way. For them, their business is politics and their
politics is business. No scruple. My real worry is that many Nigerians who are
the elites can see through some of these outright falsehoods but have decided
to sit on fence and keep an embarrassing silence. They forget that millions of
ordinary Nigerians who are confused and hoodwinked by these falsehoods and who
do not have access to facts depend on their voices and guidance to make their
choices. This is, therefore, a message directed at those silent Nigerian elites
who should speak up at this time. For me, I have decided that enough is enough.
This is the time to speak up.
Unfortunately, many of our elites do not want to
speak up now because they do not want to be caught on the wrong side of any
government in the next four years; they prefer to play safe, not wanting to be
tarred with the brush of partisanship. But, I ask: what is wrong with
partisanship in a country where you and your children have a huge stake? What
is wrong in speaking up and standing up for what your conscience tells you is
the right thing to do? What is wrong in being caught on the wrong side of the
government in the next four years, if only you would be caught on the right
side of posterity?
Except for a few class of persons like INEC
officials, security agencies and those on the Bench, every other Nigerian has a
duty - yes, a duty - to speak up now for our country, and to come down from
that fence on which they are sitting regarding the 2015 general elections.
Those elites who do not speak up now for fear of being branded partisan and
losing face upon defeat are enemies of the people who are looking up to them
for guidance.
My message to those silent elites today is that
whilst they are sitting on the fence, people are being killed like flies in
some parts of the country on a daily basis; whilst we are on that fence, our
foreign reserves are going down, corruption is growing like cancer, poverty is
growing even in the face of dubious economic theories and figures, and we
continue to live without adequate power supply. Yet, those who should speak
truth to power are sitting on the fence in anticipation of personal gains. I am
sorry, but today I have come down from that fence because my buttocks are
already hurting from sitting on it.
Do not forget that I am from the Niger-Delta
region and all my close friends and associates are the main supporters and
aides of Mr. President. Two or three Governors who are either my former classmates
or colleagues are the main backers of Mr. President. It is so easy, so
convenient and so seemingly logical for me to get into that political mix and
forget about the good of my country for personal gains. The disgusting message
we hear all over the streets of that region every day at this time - promoted
by the hirelings of the President – is that Goodluck Jonathan is “our son”, so
we have no choice but to support him. In fact, I see some of my “brothers” from
the Niger Delta region these days strutting all over the place, denigrating
people from other regions. It is typical of what the Yorubas call “omo oju ori
ola ri” (a person whose eyes have not seen wealth before).
But the question I ask those who tell me such
nonsense and behave in such a manner is that, after the next four years, what
is next for us? Is our entire future and that of our children dependent on a
South-South President for the next four years?
Kindly note that in getting down from the fence
and speaking up at this critical time, I do not mind if you speak up for
Goodluck Jonathan. Yes, you have a right to do so as a Nigerian. But, as an
elite, your stand must be known so that when the massacres continue because of
cluelessness, when the unrestrained stealing of our public resources continue,
when darkness continues to befall the nation because of lack of power, it is
important we all remember those who betrayed their conscience and the people
because of ethnicity and self-aggrandisement and for posterity to record it as
such.
We have a President who has no single appetite to
fight corruption – yes, none. Imagine a campaign that is dominated by the theme
of corruption, yet the President has decided to appoint a person facing trial
for money-laundering as his Director of Media and Publicity. If nobody would
say it, I will say it because I am the one prosecuting the fellow in court and
the case has been adjourned to February 23 and 24 for trial. Part of the lies
told is that the fellow has been freed whereas some of the counts in the Charge
were just struck out and the court held that he has a case to answer on some
other counts. Yet nobody is asking the President these hard questions.
The President only mouths anti-corruption. The
other day (December 23rd, 2014, I think) the President said he would like to
erect a Hall of Shame for Nigerians who engage in corrupt and unwholesome
activities that bring the country to disrepute. But he was the same person who
brought a convicted criminal, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, out of the Hall of Shame
to the Hall of Fame by misusing his power of Prerogative of Mercy when he
granted pardon to this self-confessed ex-convict. Imagine the pain, the efforts
and resources that go into securing a single conviction for corruption in this
our clime. Yet, the President decided to spoil the party for anti-corruption
campaigners. On top of that, he displayed corruption within corruption by
selective pardon when the likes of Tarfa Balogun, Lucky Igbinedion and others
who were convicted about the same period did not enjoy his Presidential pardon.
Yet nobody is asking these hard questions on the
campaign trail. The funny thing is that, nearly six years into his tenure as
President, Goodluck Jonathan said the other day that he is just coming up with
a plan to tackle corruption!! Haba, Jona !
To add insult to injury, President Goodluck
Jonathan decided to tackle the corruption of stealing of our resources in the
high seas by empowering small-time crooks and criminals to police our
waterways. This is because he has no idea as to how to revamp, re-organise and
re-invigorate the Nigeria Navy to perform its constitutional duty. These days,
it is an eyesore to see our military chiefs and officers kowtow to these
empowered small-time crooks and criminals for appointment and promotions and
other privileges. The disaster about this initiative of empowerment of crooks
and criminals is that crude oil theft has never been so high, so rampant in the
annals of this country than it is now. Why? Because the President has put a rat
as a watchman over a morsel of fish. It is sad to say, but the President, by
his actions, has shown no spine, no appetite, no nerve to fight corruption. He
just continues to sink into an abyss of moral debauchery.
The other tragedy of this President is that, even
as he is on the campaign trail, in the last one month, the omnipresent
insurgents have attacked towns like Baga, Damaturu, Biu, Askira-Uba, Konduga,
Marte and Gombe. Even as we speak, the Boko Haram insurgents are in total
control of the whole of Borno State except Maiduguri, Monguno, Dikwa, Konduga
and Biu. The insurgents are in total control of towns like Baga, Bama, Gwoza
and Banki.
Before Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Boko
Haram was nothing but a rag-tag group of extremists living in enclaves like Sambisa,
while our proud military boys patrolled the towns. Now, under Jonathan, the
reverse is the case. Our military boys are now in enclaves while Boko Haram
patrol our towns. Is it not shocking that insurgents have a free reign to enter
cities, abduct young girls like in Chibok, burn houses like in Baga, slaughter
people for hours like in Konduga, Gwoza etc, yet our military men are nowhere
to be found and they do not even give hot pursuit to the retreating insurgents?
What is really going on?
One obvious flaw is that our President has lost
control of the military and the top hierarchy of the military is merely feeding
fat on this unfortunate situation and the President seems to be totally
helpless in the face of this.
The only response the President and his handlers
can proffer is to hide this glaring and crass incompetence under political
gymnastics; they blame the opposition on the one hand and in the same breath,
they say it is a world-wide trend and Nigeria is just having its fair share of
a global malaise. Is this true? As President, you are the Commander-In-Chief.
If you have evidence against the opposition, just come out with it and arrest
the ring-leaders. Do not cry like a baby as Commander-in-Chief. Deal with the
situation. That is why you occupy that seat. Till date, no single evidence has
been produced against any of the opposition leaders linking them with the
insurgency. Rather, what we see is a President who is supposedly bent on
fighting insurgency but who is wining and dining with someone who has been
directly linked with sponsoring the insurgents and even traveling with such a
person to Chad at a time when the State Security Services officially invited
that person to answer questions relating to the insurgency.
Another calamity and embarrassment is that our
President, his Service Chiefs and security advisers were all led into wasting
public funds by entering into a phantom cease-fire deal with fake Boko Haram
leaders that left them with bloodied noses. Not to also mention the short-lived
public celebration of the supposed killing of the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar
Shekau, by the President and his security team, only for the outlaw to appear
in subsequent videos posted online, taunting the Nigerian government. Any four
more years of a Jonathan Presidency can only lead to more carnage by the
insurgents. He just does not have the requisite capacity to tackle this problem
of insecurity. The truth must be told.
Yet you hear the President say that the nation
will appreciate him better after he has left office. I am sorry, but we have
seen enough bloodshed and incompetence in the last six years to know there is
nothing more to expect the next four years and we have seen enough to do an
assessment right now and not in the future.
In all his campaign tours, the President is
already sounding like a broken record. He says he has made the rails to
function again. He mentioned this so much that you imagine that he was
primarily elected to revive a few train lines. It sounds very funny when you
hear such things, whereas the primary duty of government is the protection of
lives and properties. If that primary duty fails, then the government has
failed. It is like an undergraduate hoping to be promoted to the next level by
barely scraping through the ‘electives’ and failing the core courses. It will
never happen. So, is the President providing train coaches to be transporting
the dead bodies from the North to the South? Are the trains to be occupied by
living human beings or dead human beings?
Make no mistake about it, like the President
always says, it is true that we have a rise of terrorism around the world. But,
we have all seen how governments around the world respond quickly and
decisively to any attempt for terror to rear its ugly head within their society
and how they quickly crush it. We saw it happen in the United States after
9/11; we saw it happen in Britain after the July 7, 2005 bus bombing; in the
last few days, we have seen it happen in France and in Belgium. In all these
cases, all attempts were nipped in the bud. Even, here in Nigeria, previous
governments have nipped insurgency in the bud. The ONLY government that has
allowed it to fester, germinate and grow into a full-blown war leading to a
successful secession of some parts of the country is that of President Goodluck
Jonathan. It is so bad that hardly a day passes by without reports of one
insurgent activity or the other leading to loss of lives and limbs.
The President is also quick to mention that his
administration has made the Nigerian economy the number one in Africa. He
forgot to mention two things, though; one, that some of the major sectors of
the Nigerian economy, that is, the telecom sector, financial services and the
Nollywood industry that were taken into account to re-base the economy were
sectors not created or grown by his government. Secondly, he forgot to mention
that the so-called re-basing has no impact at all on the ordinary Nigerian as
the 2014 World Bank Survey still shows that Nigeria is ranked third among world
top five poorest countries with sixty-one percent (61%) of its citizens living
below $1.25 dollar per day. No government can boast of any economic growth or
theory that does not have a direct impact on the lives of its ordinary
citizens. It is like a father coming home to announce and jubilate about a pay
rise and promotion at workplace, yet the wife and children cannot eat or live
better many months later.
The Nigerian people have tolerated too much and
taken too much battering from the PDP-led Federal Government since 1999. Under
the Jonathan Government, the situation in the country has sunk to an all-time
low, except for the few benefitting directly from the government. They are
blind to criticism and blind to healthy opposition. They hurl abuses at anyone
who dares to point out these acts of maladministration. In saner societies, the
President will not be allowed to campaign in many parts of the country. The
people will rise against him and chase his convoy away.
The clear alternative to this monumental mess is
the person of General Muhammadu Buhari. Let us be clear that Buhari does not
present the total package Nigerians want at this time. He is human, he is not
perfect. But at this point in our history, at this time, at this moment, he
presents the only viable option and avenue for the people to vent their
frustrations and anger against an inept and clueless Federal Government. He
represents the rallying point for the frustrated and teeming masses of our
people. He reminds me of MKO Abiola (with some of his imperfections) who became
the rallying point in the struggle against military rule.
That is the change we are talking about. It is
not a change from imperfection to perfection. It is a change from hopelessness
and cluelessness to some hope and to some expectations.
All the personal attacks on the person of Buhari
in the last few weeks have only convinced me that he is the best available
option at this time. Anyone on the weaker side in any argument always resorts
to personal abuses and attacks. Have you noticed that on corruption, the only
accusation against Buhari is that, he was too high-handed in fighting
corruption in the past? In other words, nobody can/has accused him of lacking
the courage, zeal and will to fight corruption. On the other hand, the President
eats, sleeps and wakes up with corruption. In one of his famous interviews, he
did not even see stealing as corruption. That is why he does not see the point
why he should not appoint a person standing trial for corruption as his
Director of Media and Publicity. He just does not care.
So, Nigerians, we must decide what we want. When
Buhari fought corruption and was supposedly high-handed, he was ruling with
Decrees. Now, he has the Constitution, the National Assembly, and the Judiciary
without ouster clauses to guide him. It is therefore only an idiot that will
believe the propaganda that he would throw everyone suspected of corruption
into jail. I feel so sorry at times for the gullible masses of this country who
fall for such cheap propaganda. But it is his type of appetite and revulsion
against corruption that we so dearly need at this time.
You may say whatever you like about Buhari, but
in terms of the character, the steel, the competence to lead the nation out of
this period of insurgency, nobody can compare a Goodluck Jonathan to a General
Buhari. Just imagine the Service Chiefs (who were probably in secondary school
when Buhari and others fought the Civil War) sitting in front of Buhari to
brief him about the situation in the North East, and attempting to mislead him
about movements of artillery, brigades or troops and, the strategy against the
enemy!
The attack on Buhari’s certificate is most
unfortunate. Only fools can be deceived that a sworn affidavit in place of a
certificate that you cannot readily produce is not sufficient for certain
purposes. What is important is that the school(s) and dates are mentioned in
such affidavits which can be subject to verification. But unfortunately the
President’s team has carried on as if leadership is a function of academic
degrees and qualifications. This is so sad. Leadership is a divine quality,
almost always bestowed at infancy so much so that even in primary schools, we
see traits of leadership amongst pupils. If it were not so, then there would be
no need for elections. We should just look for the most qualified professor in
our Ivory Towers and make him President because that would be the best material
for President.
Besides, what moral right has Jonathan got to
discuss Buhari’s certificate when I have since informed him that his
Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko forged all his
certificates, yet the President has not even ordered a simple investigation
into the matter. He has turned a willful blind eye to the issue.
The orchestration of the age of Buhari is just
another mischief, symptomatic of the weaker side the President’s team find
themselves in the argument. Agility and strength and good health is not exactly
a function of age. Yar’Adua did not die in power because he was an old man. Abacha
did not die in power because he was an old man. Obasanjo ruled until he was
seventy (70) years and it is the same set of PDP big wigs that are now
criticizing the age of Buhari that were promoting and supporting the third-term
bid of Obasanjo that would have taken him to, perhaps, seventy-eight (78) years
as President. Today, Obasanjo still jumps about at nearly eighty (80) years or
perhaps more. Professor Wole Soyinka, at over eighty (80) years, still travels
everywhere, delivering lectures.
The relevant question here is that, is the age
more important than the character or the character more important than the age?
For those who are Christians, remember that the Bible says in Proverbs 16:31
that grey-headedness is a crown of beauty if found in the ways of
righteousness. It is idiotic to deride an elderly person who is still agile and
upright in character, instead of us praying that we live up to that age and we
are blessed with such strength at such an age. During the Second Republic, the
South-West and South-East massively voted for Awolowo and Azikiwe respectively
who were both over seventy (70) years old, yet nobody raised an eyebrow.
Finally, this is not the time to adopt the herd
mentality by joining the so-called “winning train” because the ruling party is
always expected to rig elections in its favour. What we are witnessing with the
large followership of Buhari is a revolution, a mass movement, a display of
anger by the people against Jonathan and his government. This is a time for well-meaning
Nigerians, the elites to rise up and speak truth to power, regardless of whose
ox is gored. We can halt the slide to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc by our
simple votes. We must vote out incompetence, cluelessness and corruption.
The epitaph that will be left for the
Presidential years of Goodluck Jonathan is this: HERE IS A PRESIDENT WHO
DESTROYED PDP AND ALMOST DESTROYED NIGERIA.
I have purged my conscience. Now, I can sleep.
FESTUS KEYAMO, ESQ.
