The cat was bound to come out of the bag sooner or later. And now, having done so, its message is clear. The change that Chief (Dr) General Muhammadu Okechukwu Buhari long promised to bring to Nigeria is simply one of personal political misfortune.
This means that he will do everything in his power to secure reelection on the blood of the innocents who are daily being maimed by herdsmen and on innocence and insecurity of little school girls in Dapchi. And it is certain that sections of the citizenry will be damned.
The APC appears to be riding high on the chest of religious heatwave and the bubbling business of ethnocentrism. They have taken governance a notch higher by negotiating with terrorists, funding them with millions of dollars and aiding their expansionist jihad.
The target of which are all of the Nigerian defenseless minorities who are killed daily in their farms and their hamlets. And none of these bothers the president more so than elite children’s weddings.
For if it did, he would never have entertained admitting the obvious that Nigeria placed under his control is not truly under his control. It does not matter how much his spokesman tries, although unsuccessfully, to engage the country and inform us that the president has us at heart. Buhari is a prisoner in the ship where he ought to be the captain. The outcome is the theater of absurd and the conflagration threatening the very fabrics of the new Nigeria.
But how do one deal with a character like Buhari without being charged by his amarda of low IQ supporters? Even the the democratic process of voting people like Buhari out seems unattainable as assault upon assault is launched on the conscience of the nation.
Talk is cheap and there is talks about everyone deserving a second chance and wiping the slate clean if the guarantee of positive change is there. Not when the person in question has much blood on his hands and constantly claims not to know anything or how his hands have come to be dripping with blood.
For this is the same General who, in his previous reinvention as a man of integrity, nodded along in silent approval as his friends pilloried the past administration with accusations up accusation of insecurity. He promised to do even better by leading from the front as an Ex-General and termed the military leadership of the time, anti-North.
It is the same Buhari who refused to see any linkages between this blatant incitement to religious hatred and the gunning down of more than 800 people during the 2015 election, mostly youth corpers who had pledged to serve their country.
It is the same Buhari who put the lives of 100 school children under further threat and when he visited the school, did so in red carpet treatment.
There have, of course, been whisperings that none of this should come as a surprise. Meaning that Mr. Integrity is simply following the instructions delivered by those who continue to support him from behind-the-scenes. Indeed, such rumours have spanned the last 3 years or so. Yet this alternative twist on ‘mainstreaming’ could prove to be his undoing on several fronts.
First and foremost is that this association with “I am not aware syndromes” signals the APC leadership’s non-serious attitude towards notions of collective responsibility.
It was the same story back then when the party policy supported military dictatorship by supporting motions to set aside the constitution so as to allow the president function effectively. One would argue, however, that for a man who claims to be a converted Democrat to have heard such from his supporters without raining in on them shows clearly the fraud that we are meant to contend with.
Yet APC was never able to explain to its vote bank the process of ideological reconciliation that absolved the good general of his original claims of being a reformed Democrat who plays with the idea of subverting the Constitution.
Presently, however, there are already reports of intra-party dissent over this latest unilateral moves.
Secondly, Buhari needs a reality check. In the run-up to the last elections, he was full of talk of having the country’s youth with him — by which he meant those attending elite private universities in urban centres and not, you know, child labourers. Yet lo and behold, the electorate had different ideas. They brought him to power because of his talakawa ideology but they have been simply disappointed by his perchance to dine with his elite friends.
In other words, Buhari , like most politicians here in Nigeria , do the citizenry the greatest disservice when they rob the latter of agency when it comes to independent thought and decision-making. Yet given that the rise of the religious war is a very real and frightening agenda for many — the pushback by progressive forces is real. And while this may be limited in outreach, it will, nevertheless, be strengthened by those who see mainstream political parties as the enemies of the people of Nigeria.
Mr. Integrity! Be warned!
