The sins of Muhammadu Buhari are many. They are so many that they may cost him the elections in a few weeks time. Many people are worried that the n0-smiling septuagenarian still has dictatorial tendencies and may stifle free speech if he succeeds at the polls. Another crucial grudge many have against him is that of his choice of association. While the APC sings 'Change, Change, Change', many are quick to point to the politicians who surround Buhari as being fruits from the same tree that gifted Nigeria with talents like James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion. The perception is that you can't preach change when the APC seems to be an extension of PDP given the number of defectors. Besides the seemingly disgruntled PDP elements, there are others from the ACN who flock around Buhari who appear to tarnish his 'clean' record.
Nigeria has over 200 ethnic groups and remains the most populous black nation in the world. One can only imagine the diversity of interests and interest groups. Many people berate Ibrahim Babangida for a lot of things but do not give him credit for the two-party political system he instituted before the 1993 general elections. This 'forced' Nigerians to align their interests regardless of ethnicity and religion. Since then, we have returned to the multi-party system and the PDP has held sway at the Federal level for the last 16years. There were regional powerhouses like the former ACN in the South-West, APGA in the South-East and CPC and ANPP in the North but following the merger that produced the APC, the PDP has faced its sternest test yet. Another peculiarity of Nigerian politics is the role money plays in electioneering. You just must have a fat purse. This is because of the depressing levels of poverty and illiteracy in the land. We have now perfected the art of stomach infrastructure. So much so, that some states now have advisers to the Governor on stomach infrastructure. Our politicians are smart. They know hunger clouds judgment so they make people poor and hungry so when they appear with bread, they suddenly look like angels to the populace.
With these in mind, you can begin to understand how political parties aggregate and operate in the country. In 2011, Mr Nuhu Ribadu emerged as the presidential candidate for the ACN, a party led by Bola Tinubu. It was no secret that Nuhu Ribadu had investigated the latter who governed Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 for financial misappropriation. Here was Ribadu, a man with pristine character and anti-corruption crusader who allegedly turned down a cash bribe of $15million from James Ibori. But when it crunch time, he weighed his options and realized he didn't have the financial muscle to prosecute an election and shook hands with 'villains'. Does this make Nuhu Ribadu suddenly corrupt? I do not believe so. Today, that same Nuhu Ribadu is a gubernatorial candidate in Adamawa on the platform of the PDP. He is now in the same party with legends like James Ibori, Peter Odili, DSP Alamiesiegha, Buruji Kashamu and Olabode George! Has he now become a thief? Of course not. He is doing the needful. A means to an end. Realistically in Nigeria, any 'good' person who aspires to serve sincerely must associate with the seemingly corrupt crop since such a person is not likely to independently possess the financial and political requirements for such an Herculean task.
In 2007, Mr Jimi Agbaje contested for the prime job in Lagos on the platform of a relatively unpopular and now defunct party called DPA. Guess what? He lost! In the upcoming elections, he will be contesting on a PDP ticket. He hasn't automatically been transfused with Bode George's pilfering DNA but he has come to the realistic conclusion that if he stands any chance at all at winning then he must do the needful and align with some 'villains'. It's a means to an end. Mr Agbaje launched his campaign with a catchy slogan that subtly tried to explain this. 'I am not one of them'. I have listened to Mr Agbaje speak and I was very impressed by the lucidness of his thought process. He talks like a professional who can assert himself in any intellectual gathering. He may not necessarily like the people he dines with at the moment on a political level but there's a Yoruba adage that says 'eni t'oba fe mu obo a sebi obo' (he who wishes to catch a monkey must occasionally behave like a monkey). My assessment of him and Mr Ambode following a debate the two of them took part in is that in an 'ideal' world, Mr Agbaje would defeat his opponent by three planets. Mr Ambode sounds like a stooge. He talks like he's not entirely clear what governance is about. Yes, he is intelligent but that's not enough to make him a good leader. You need to have an aura of strong character; your body language and your ability to capture the attention of an audience when speaking publicly tells us. With all due respect to Mr Ambode, I honestly think he is unfortunate to be coming after a character like Babatunde Fashola. But that is for another forum.
Now, Buhari is communing with Bola Tinubu, Rotimi Amaechi and Abubakar Atiku. Seemingly corrupt men with very questionable pasts and previous association with the PDP. Again, the question is has this association suddenly conferred corruption on Buhari? I do not believe so. If Buhari desires to lead a country like Nigeria without getting his hands soiled by association then he isn't serious yet. That is the simple truth. The man isn't defined by his associations, especially in a complex country like Nigeria. He is defined by his character. Buhari's single selling point is his probity. Till date, nobody has successfully accused or investigated him for corruption even in the midst of all his other blemishes and sins. He certainly comes with a lot of baggage but he should not be judged based on his 'goons'. This is why I find it nauseating when people shout and scream 'vote for APC' or 'vote for PDP'. Parties are not people. Parties cannot be held responsible! Parties don't resume in offices every morning. People do and people are held responsible. Assess each man on his own merit. You can't vote for PDP or APC across board simply because of a party. You'd end up voting for imbeciles like that. What each man has to offer on a personal level should be the cogent question.
They say birds of a feather flock together and that by their fruits you shall know them. In an ideal world. Nigeria is far from ideal. If we continue to cast aspersions on credible people based on their 'goons' then we will keep going round in circles. As long as the PDP and APC exist with the current crop of politicians with no constitutional allowance for independent candidacy, nobody will get into power simply because he is 'good enough'. In Nigeria, you may have to dine with the devil as long as you do not relinquish your soul to 'him'. That is our reality. Any aspirant who thinks otherwise is obviously a landlord in Fools' paradise.
If you disqualify one man because of his 'goons' then we should hold the other man to the same standard. But we don't. Why one man can fondle Kashamu, Alams and Bode George publicly and the other can't beats me.
What is permissible for A should also permissible for B. After all, 'ninu ikoko dudu ni eko funfun ti jade' (It is out of a black pot that white pap emerges).
Friday 27 February 2015
Wednesday 4 February 2015
Clueless? Forgive them Mr President...They Know Not
A lot has been said, shown and read in the polity since my last post some months ago. The Nigerian political space has become a theater of the absurd as well as the hilarious in the last few weeks owing to the fast approaching elections. I tried so hard not to jump into the pool of politically inclined articles being churned out on a daily basis as we build-up to the elections. First, because I recently became someone's father and between feeding vigils and soiled diapers, time has suddenly become golden and finding hours to write extensively has become even harder as the days go by. I have therefore, albeit painfully, restricted my ruminations to a few lines on Facebook when the little one snoozes for a few minutes. The other reason is hopelessness. A little part in me is quite frankly resigned to fate about Nigeria's prognosis. As cynical as it sounds, I am starting to seriously entertain the grim thought that maybe this is our 'last bus-stop' after all. Maybe we cannot really be better than this? Maybe this is our normalcy and what we are agitating for is the real aberration and not our current steady-state.
Today however, I would like make a humble submission to my very learned and amiable incumbent President. Dear Sir, I honestly commiserate with you concerning this quagmire called Nigeria you have found yourself. I have a lot of pity for you because you would have had considerably less headache if you had ruled this great nation before this nuisance called social media pervaded the land. I cannot imagine how much resentment you now have for Twitter and Facebook as 'uninformed elements' keep hurling stones in the form of abuses at you via these platforms. It can't be easy. Offline, they hurl real stones when you go round to intimate them of the bright plans you have for them during campaigns. Online, you try peacefully to follow Kim and Kanye and the stones still find a way into your timeline. Bear with them Sir. Most of them are unemployed young people who have now become useful tools for the 'opposition'. But Sir, have you stopped to wonder what changed between 2011 and 2014? You ran a successful social media campaign back then. So successful was it that it was even mouthed in some quarters that you brought Facebook to Nigeria. Young people identified with you. These days, all I see are tweets, retweets and shared posts all clamoring for your exit. What has gone wrong my dear Sir?
Let me quickly digress Sir. I heard the PDP Chairman address you as Dr Goodluck Ebele 'Mainassara' Jonathan during the recent rally in Niger State. It is also common knowledge that you answer 'Azikwe' to carry the South-East of Nigeria along. I am, however, yet to find your Yoruba alias. I believe you should, for robustness, also adopt a Yoruba name. Permit me Sir to suggest a befitting one you my wish to consider. 'Oluwabamise' isn't bad at all in my opinion.
Anyway, let me get back to the essence of this post. I am worried about your body language Sir. Each time you say something, your body language says other things and I find this emotionally confusing. Many brave people who have defended you believe you are only being victimised because of your orijin...sorry, I meant origin (autocorrect yi sha...). They say you have made giant strides but the 'opposition' calculatedly paints you black with propaganda. They say people intentionally sabotage your efforts and I can imagine how frustrated that must make you feel. One undeniable fact however Sir is that your body language doesn't come across like someone who is anti-corruption. Permit me to use an analogy. Imagine Sir, an 'agaba'...the local masquerade. It is seated in the market-square with candy floss and popcorn machine with Teletubbies theme song in the background and it has a bag filled with toys. To the local children, the masquerade is Barney and they'll flock around it. Now Sir, imagine this same masquerade without the paraphernalia of kid-friendly things but with two long fresh 'kpankere' and amulets tied around its neck and waist. That same masquerade begins to invoke fright and trepidation in those same kids. That is what you have done with the people you have surrounded yourself with.
Were you serious Sir when you said a former military ruler jailed Jim Nwobodo for stealing money that was not even enough to buy a Peugeot 504? Sir, does it matter how much was stolen really as long as there was theft? It is hard to convince anyone you want to fight corruption when you talk like this. Did it occur to you Sir that thieves are like small kids. They will keep pushing their luck till they are reprimanded and even come back again to test your resolve. In my opinion Sir, anyone who steals even one kobo of taxpayers money must be brought to book. This serves as deterrent to others who are studying your body language. The danger is that if you let some get away with it, it gets harder to caution others tomorrow because you are now likely to be accused of nepotism.
Were you also serious Sir when you said in Ibadan a few days ago that if you arrest all the corrupt Nigerians, who will be left to run the country? Sir, again, this statement sounds awkward. You are the Commander-In-Chief of Nigeria! Start somewhere and see if others won't fall into line. While I honestly want to avoid mentioning any other candidates apart from you throughout this post as I have come to find that a mere mention of a certain opposer immediately evokes hate and bile from your acolytes. The thinking is that this is the main edge 'they' have over you. The will to start from somewhere no matter whose ox is gored.
Were you serious Sir when you said also a few days ago that we should reelect you because governments perform better in their second term? Let us take a minute and think about this assertion which I believe you thought through before uttering. You mean if I get a contract job that is renewable in a year, I can 'faff' for nine months knowing fully well my continued employment will be based on my appraisal and then submit to my employer that they should overlook this first year and renew the contract for another year? Hell NO! In the real corporate world where performance is everything, you probably won't even complete the first contract before you are sent packing Sir.
I also saw a video where you referred to the late Mr Patrick Sawyer as a 'crazy man' for bringing Ebola to Nigeria. I didn't believe it when I was told. Such insensitivity wasn't a mark of a responsible and responsive leader. He was sick Sir. He just wanted to get better! And he eventually lost his life. Put yourself in the shoes of his mourning family. He has kids! To hear the President of a country call their father a crazy man for being sick isn't proper. That is conduct unbecoming of a President. Like it or not, Mr Sawyer didn't ask to be infected with the virus. It happened and he tried to deal with it to the best of his ability. Nigerians ought to apologize for this your indiscretion and pay condolences to his family. A human life is a human life after all. Liberian or Nigerian.
I watched a video also where you said your government was concerned about getting the Chibok girls back and rebuilding their destroyed classrooms and building 'high fences' to protect the girls. Again, I must ask if you were being serious. High walls? Like the Berlin Wall? Interestingly, Francois Hollande of France was seated next to you when you said this. He must have choked on his own tongue laughing. Sir, security isn't about high walls. When you are less busy Sir, look up a picture of the White House or 10 Downing Street on Google. Security is more about the unseen than the seen. Security is about intelligence gathering not high fences. That Aso Rock offers a false sense of security because it has many walls doesn't make it the norm. It only makes it a maximum penitentiary.
Some weeks ago Sir, you attempted to defend your government's seeming somnolence against corruption by saying that what most people shout about isn't actually corruption but mere stealing. Sir, your're a practicing Anglican Christian. You know the Bible too well as you have been to every renowned congress and revival in the land. Even the Bible admonishes us not to steal. There is no such thing as 'mere stealing' Sir when we are talking about $20billion (according to Sanusi Lamido), or N30trillion (according to Chukwuma Soludo), or thousands of barrels of crude oil daily. Call it whatever name. The bottom-line is that your people are being deprived of appreciable development by not having access to these monies.
I like you Sir. I really do but it gets harder and harder to defend you. Again, were you serious when you said corruption is not tackled by sending people to prison at one of your rallies? I immediately agreed for a minute because I assumed you were talking about the Chinese way of tackling corruption where people are sent to the gallows. I hoped you meant the Jerry Rawlings style of tackling corruption. But then, you continued by saying technology, rather than imprisonment, was the appropriate way of tackling graft. I was not quite clear Sir. Do you mean like Twitterjail? Or like poking them on Facebook to stop stealing? Or did you mean like locking them up in a Microsoft Cloud? You must bear with me Sir. I am hopeless when it comes to technology so maybe I need it broken down to my level.
The whole world may call you clueless Sir but I do not agree. You may not be a first class student but you are not clueless. Professor Oyebode and other sound scholars have given their verdict on your intellectual capability so I will leave that to them being professional teachers . You are many things but you are not clueless Sir. Could it have occurred to you that a calculated decimation of the Northern population by Boko Haram could translate to fewer votes for your contenders? Could it have occurred to you also that persistent insecurity and instability in the region could disenfranchise many voters and cause voter apathy? Who would queue publicly to vote when and where life expectancy is two and a half minutes? Could this be why the government has spent so much on security yet the body counts mount? After all they are 'killing themselves'? Could this be why Nigeria's once-revered military in the days of ECOMOG now seems helpless and hapless in the face of internal insurgency? Do you by chance Sir have any clue what the latest figures are of internally displaced persons in Northern Nigeria. Could it have occurred to you Sir that Asari and Tompolo are threatening fire and brimstone on your behalf and since you didn't say those things directly, you can't be held liable? You, my kind President, are everything but clueless. You know exactly what you want and what you have to do to get it.
Dear Sir, as you jump from city to city trying to sell a product that is non-functional, I hear Chadian troops are hoisting their country's flag within Nigerian borders. If this is true, then we should be reflecting on why we are where we are today. Your lobbying for votes would have been easier if you were telling people how one pound trades for 100naira, how Nigerian businesses have cut their overheads as they now have constant electricity for sixteen hours in a day, how the textile, rubber and cocoa exports earned Nigeria trillions of Naira in revenue, how the industries now work with many young people gainfully employed therein, how you can walk in and out of Yobe, Maiduguri and Borno at anytime of the day with all your limbs intact, how every of the 36 states now has ten functional teaching hospitals each where groundbreaking medical interventions are being carried out and how parents are withdrawing their kids from private universities and Ghanaian universities and enrolling them in federal universities that now rank high like Imperial College and MIT in research. But since you can't boast of these, you resort to distractions. You tell them the other person is an Islamist. That he got F9 in Mathematics in 1961. That he can't jog round the stadium because he has some ailment. That he will stop Facebook and Twitter and close down all the newspapers. That he will make Fulani the new lingua franca. That his late children died from sickle cell disease (I'm not still entirely sure what that has to do with giving me stable electricity). You tell us everything apart from what you've been doing for the past six years. You show us locomotives as the new hallmark of good progressive governance. I commiserate with you Sir. As an intellectual, it must sadden you indeed that this is all you have to base your thesis on after 6 years in the driving seat. It must sadden you that intelligent young people like Feyi Fawenhimi and talented ones like Don Jazzy all regret casting their votes for you in 2011. It should make you wonder also, if you had any insight, that men like Tunde Bakare who stood up for you when the cabal blocked you out following late President Ya'adua's demise decided to run against you and now back your 'opposition'. Think Sir....Think!
Perhaps I should advice you Sir as we approach the elections. Quickly, and I mean quickly, send the State Security Service after the militants threatening war if you lose. Ping Femi Fani-Kayode and ask him never to show up at your doorstep again. Drive Doyin Okupe to Sambisa Forest and leave him there,(maybe he'll get to lose some weight if he is dodging rocket fire!). Open a printing house for Abati and wish him well in his future endeavors. Stand up to Boko Haram and stop condemning 'dastardly acts'. Shake up the military and renew the morale and vigour of our soldiers and go after these people. Stop campaigning in Churches and along religious lines. Shake up the NNPC and let some people go to jail. Equip the Navy sincerely, crude oil isn't stolen with canoes and 20liter cans, it is moved in vessels. We know! Allow Diezani go to OPEC full time and review the Petroluem ministry yourself. Send Okonjo-Iweala back to World Bank or better still Ogwuashi-Uku and get serious with plugging holes. Offer Fayose to Sango or Obatala as living sacrifice. Step on toes! Fight for Nigerians! Be a Commander-in-Chief!
History won't forget you Sir. You had such a huge opportunity to take your place in our annals as the most learned President we ever had who 'changed' our lives. We know the rot didn't start under you. We haven't asked for utopia in 6 years. We have only asked you to step on the brakes while we try to find the reverse gear. Instead my dear Sir, you seem to have floored the throttle. How very sad indeed!
#VoteNotFight
#ElectionNoBeWar!
Today however, I would like make a humble submission to my very learned and amiable incumbent President. Dear Sir, I honestly commiserate with you concerning this quagmire called Nigeria you have found yourself. I have a lot of pity for you because you would have had considerably less headache if you had ruled this great nation before this nuisance called social media pervaded the land. I cannot imagine how much resentment you now have for Twitter and Facebook as 'uninformed elements' keep hurling stones in the form of abuses at you via these platforms. It can't be easy. Offline, they hurl real stones when you go round to intimate them of the bright plans you have for them during campaigns. Online, you try peacefully to follow Kim and Kanye and the stones still find a way into your timeline. Bear with them Sir. Most of them are unemployed young people who have now become useful tools for the 'opposition'. But Sir, have you stopped to wonder what changed between 2011 and 2014? You ran a successful social media campaign back then. So successful was it that it was even mouthed in some quarters that you brought Facebook to Nigeria. Young people identified with you. These days, all I see are tweets, retweets and shared posts all clamoring for your exit. What has gone wrong my dear Sir?
Let me quickly digress Sir. I heard the PDP Chairman address you as Dr Goodluck Ebele 'Mainassara' Jonathan during the recent rally in Niger State. It is also common knowledge that you answer 'Azikwe' to carry the South-East of Nigeria along. I am, however, yet to find your Yoruba alias. I believe you should, for robustness, also adopt a Yoruba name. Permit me Sir to suggest a befitting one you my wish to consider. 'Oluwabamise' isn't bad at all in my opinion.
Anyway, let me get back to the essence of this post. I am worried about your body language Sir. Each time you say something, your body language says other things and I find this emotionally confusing. Many brave people who have defended you believe you are only being victimised because of your orijin...sorry, I meant origin (autocorrect yi sha...). They say you have made giant strides but the 'opposition' calculatedly paints you black with propaganda. They say people intentionally sabotage your efforts and I can imagine how frustrated that must make you feel. One undeniable fact however Sir is that your body language doesn't come across like someone who is anti-corruption. Permit me to use an analogy. Imagine Sir, an 'agaba'...the local masquerade. It is seated in the market-square with candy floss and popcorn machine with Teletubbies theme song in the background and it has a bag filled with toys. To the local children, the masquerade is Barney and they'll flock around it. Now Sir, imagine this same masquerade without the paraphernalia of kid-friendly things but with two long fresh 'kpankere' and amulets tied around its neck and waist. That same masquerade begins to invoke fright and trepidation in those same kids. That is what you have done with the people you have surrounded yourself with.
Were you serious Sir when you said a former military ruler jailed Jim Nwobodo for stealing money that was not even enough to buy a Peugeot 504? Sir, does it matter how much was stolen really as long as there was theft? It is hard to convince anyone you want to fight corruption when you talk like this. Did it occur to you Sir that thieves are like small kids. They will keep pushing their luck till they are reprimanded and even come back again to test your resolve. In my opinion Sir, anyone who steals even one kobo of taxpayers money must be brought to book. This serves as deterrent to others who are studying your body language. The danger is that if you let some get away with it, it gets harder to caution others tomorrow because you are now likely to be accused of nepotism.
Were you also serious Sir when you said in Ibadan a few days ago that if you arrest all the corrupt Nigerians, who will be left to run the country? Sir, again, this statement sounds awkward. You are the Commander-In-Chief of Nigeria! Start somewhere and see if others won't fall into line. While I honestly want to avoid mentioning any other candidates apart from you throughout this post as I have come to find that a mere mention of a certain opposer immediately evokes hate and bile from your acolytes. The thinking is that this is the main edge 'they' have over you. The will to start from somewhere no matter whose ox is gored.
Were you serious Sir when you said also a few days ago that we should reelect you because governments perform better in their second term? Let us take a minute and think about this assertion which I believe you thought through before uttering. You mean if I get a contract job that is renewable in a year, I can 'faff' for nine months knowing fully well my continued employment will be based on my appraisal and then submit to my employer that they should overlook this first year and renew the contract for another year? Hell NO! In the real corporate world where performance is everything, you probably won't even complete the first contract before you are sent packing Sir.
I also saw a video where you referred to the late Mr Patrick Sawyer as a 'crazy man' for bringing Ebola to Nigeria. I didn't believe it when I was told. Such insensitivity wasn't a mark of a responsible and responsive leader. He was sick Sir. He just wanted to get better! And he eventually lost his life. Put yourself in the shoes of his mourning family. He has kids! To hear the President of a country call their father a crazy man for being sick isn't proper. That is conduct unbecoming of a President. Like it or not, Mr Sawyer didn't ask to be infected with the virus. It happened and he tried to deal with it to the best of his ability. Nigerians ought to apologize for this your indiscretion and pay condolences to his family. A human life is a human life after all. Liberian or Nigerian.
I watched a video also where you said your government was concerned about getting the Chibok girls back and rebuilding their destroyed classrooms and building 'high fences' to protect the girls. Again, I must ask if you were being serious. High walls? Like the Berlin Wall? Interestingly, Francois Hollande of France was seated next to you when you said this. He must have choked on his own tongue laughing. Sir, security isn't about high walls. When you are less busy Sir, look up a picture of the White House or 10 Downing Street on Google. Security is more about the unseen than the seen. Security is about intelligence gathering not high fences. That Aso Rock offers a false sense of security because it has many walls doesn't make it the norm. It only makes it a maximum penitentiary.
Some weeks ago Sir, you attempted to defend your government's seeming somnolence against corruption by saying that what most people shout about isn't actually corruption but mere stealing. Sir, your're a practicing Anglican Christian. You know the Bible too well as you have been to every renowned congress and revival in the land. Even the Bible admonishes us not to steal. There is no such thing as 'mere stealing' Sir when we are talking about $20billion (according to Sanusi Lamido), or N30trillion (according to Chukwuma Soludo), or thousands of barrels of crude oil daily. Call it whatever name. The bottom-line is that your people are being deprived of appreciable development by not having access to these monies.
I like you Sir. I really do but it gets harder and harder to defend you. Again, were you serious when you said corruption is not tackled by sending people to prison at one of your rallies? I immediately agreed for a minute because I assumed you were talking about the Chinese way of tackling corruption where people are sent to the gallows. I hoped you meant the Jerry Rawlings style of tackling corruption. But then, you continued by saying technology, rather than imprisonment, was the appropriate way of tackling graft. I was not quite clear Sir. Do you mean like Twitterjail? Or like poking them on Facebook to stop stealing? Or did you mean like locking them up in a Microsoft Cloud? You must bear with me Sir. I am hopeless when it comes to technology so maybe I need it broken down to my level.
The whole world may call you clueless Sir but I do not agree. You may not be a first class student but you are not clueless. Professor Oyebode and other sound scholars have given their verdict on your intellectual capability so I will leave that to them being professional teachers . You are many things but you are not clueless Sir. Could it have occurred to you that a calculated decimation of the Northern population by Boko Haram could translate to fewer votes for your contenders? Could it have occurred to you also that persistent insecurity and instability in the region could disenfranchise many voters and cause voter apathy? Who would queue publicly to vote when and where life expectancy is two and a half minutes? Could this be why the government has spent so much on security yet the body counts mount? After all they are 'killing themselves'? Could this be why Nigeria's once-revered military in the days of ECOMOG now seems helpless and hapless in the face of internal insurgency? Do you by chance Sir have any clue what the latest figures are of internally displaced persons in Northern Nigeria. Could it have occurred to you Sir that Asari and Tompolo are threatening fire and brimstone on your behalf and since you didn't say those things directly, you can't be held liable? You, my kind President, are everything but clueless. You know exactly what you want and what you have to do to get it.
Dear Sir, as you jump from city to city trying to sell a product that is non-functional, I hear Chadian troops are hoisting their country's flag within Nigerian borders. If this is true, then we should be reflecting on why we are where we are today. Your lobbying for votes would have been easier if you were telling people how one pound trades for 100naira, how Nigerian businesses have cut their overheads as they now have constant electricity for sixteen hours in a day, how the textile, rubber and cocoa exports earned Nigeria trillions of Naira in revenue, how the industries now work with many young people gainfully employed therein, how you can walk in and out of Yobe, Maiduguri and Borno at anytime of the day with all your limbs intact, how every of the 36 states now has ten functional teaching hospitals each where groundbreaking medical interventions are being carried out and how parents are withdrawing their kids from private universities and Ghanaian universities and enrolling them in federal universities that now rank high like Imperial College and MIT in research. But since you can't boast of these, you resort to distractions. You tell them the other person is an Islamist. That he got F9 in Mathematics in 1961. That he can't jog round the stadium because he has some ailment. That he will stop Facebook and Twitter and close down all the newspapers. That he will make Fulani the new lingua franca. That his late children died from sickle cell disease (I'm not still entirely sure what that has to do with giving me stable electricity). You tell us everything apart from what you've been doing for the past six years. You show us locomotives as the new hallmark of good progressive governance. I commiserate with you Sir. As an intellectual, it must sadden you indeed that this is all you have to base your thesis on after 6 years in the driving seat. It must sadden you that intelligent young people like Feyi Fawenhimi and talented ones like Don Jazzy all regret casting their votes for you in 2011. It should make you wonder also, if you had any insight, that men like Tunde Bakare who stood up for you when the cabal blocked you out following late President Ya'adua's demise decided to run against you and now back your 'opposition'. Think Sir....Think!
Perhaps I should advice you Sir as we approach the elections. Quickly, and I mean quickly, send the State Security Service after the militants threatening war if you lose. Ping Femi Fani-Kayode and ask him never to show up at your doorstep again. Drive Doyin Okupe to Sambisa Forest and leave him there,(maybe he'll get to lose some weight if he is dodging rocket fire!). Open a printing house for Abati and wish him well in his future endeavors. Stand up to Boko Haram and stop condemning 'dastardly acts'. Shake up the military and renew the morale and vigour of our soldiers and go after these people. Stop campaigning in Churches and along religious lines. Shake up the NNPC and let some people go to jail. Equip the Navy sincerely, crude oil isn't stolen with canoes and 20liter cans, it is moved in vessels. We know! Allow Diezani go to OPEC full time and review the Petroluem ministry yourself. Send Okonjo-Iweala back to World Bank or better still Ogwuashi-Uku and get serious with plugging holes. Offer Fayose to Sango or Obatala as living sacrifice. Step on toes! Fight for Nigerians! Be a Commander-in-Chief!
History won't forget you Sir. You had such a huge opportunity to take your place in our annals as the most learned President we ever had who 'changed' our lives. We know the rot didn't start under you. We haven't asked for utopia in 6 years. We have only asked you to step on the brakes while we try to find the reverse gear. Instead my dear Sir, you seem to have floored the throttle. How very sad indeed!
#VoteNotFight
#ElectionNoBeWar!
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