FRATRICIDAL POLITICKING

To say this state of affairs was totally unexpected is to push naivety to the extreme. What was totally unexpected was the deafening silence by Buhari that has greeted this unwholesome hijacking of the Legislature by Saraki and his abettors. Whether he is being measured in his response to the catastrophe threatening to engulf his government, or he is simply overwhelmed by the tsunami of political machinations in the Legislature, remains to be seen. Either way, Buhari is woefully under-performing; there’s no two ways about it.

Nigerians voted for what and who they believed would herald in the change they so desperately needed and wanted, they didn’t vote for a continuation of the disaster of the depressing past. Let the truth be told, one month on from the inauguration of the Buhari government, it has been nothing but a nightmare and a disaster. Within the space of a month, the Senate has gone on recess twice and no ministers are in place. Basically, as we speak, there’s virtually no government in place and the whole mantra of change is in absolute disarray. The buck stops with Buhari. Period!

Regular visitors to my blog might have noticed that I’ve gone back to the title I thought I would discontinue, but we seem to be back to the dark days of despair and desperation and I’ve had to revive it. I am seriously hurt and deeply saddened. What are we to make of this unseemly impasse in the affairs of government? Will Buhari prove the skepticism of some people right by being a toothless grizzly bear? Is this the same Buhari of old, and has he been pushed right into a corner from which he cannot extricate himself? Is he prepared, wittingly or unwittingly, to dash the hopes of Nigerians by wasting the golden opportunity they so gallantly fought for? The omens are not good, and the signs point to the fact that the PDP has hijacked the change agenda and the regime of impunity gathers pace anew. Right before our very eyes and under our nose, obnoxious carpetbaggers have torn our hopes to pieces and destroyed the very foundation of a new tomorrow. The APC, so far, has failed spectacularly in government and it would take a monumental effort, or even a miracle, for it to recover from this self-inflicted wound. The APC had two clear months before its inauguration as the party of government to prepare itself but allowed the euphoria of victory to blind it to the realities of government. We have been robbed, and not for the first time!

The APC campaigned on the basis of dismantling the corrupt edifice that was the PDP government and replace it with a conscionable and purposeful one that would do Nigerians justice and give them hope for a better future. Those campaign pledges have largely been forgotten and the jostling for influence in the new government has superseded the interests of Nigeria and Nigerians. In all these, Buhari hasn’t said a word! Buhari said he belonged to nobody and to everybody, but he is wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Buhari belongs to Nigerians and to Nigerians only. He should get off his backside and tackle these depressing issues head-on, and show Nigerians that we have not made a disastrous mistake in putting him in Aso Rock. It is true that one month may be too little to fairly assess him and his readiness to do proper business with Nigerians, but he has been too sluggish to respond to events of huge national importance. His reckless taciturn disposition so far is seriously unsettling Nigerians and angering them no end, making them wonder if they had traded zero for nought.

Where is the new way of doing things when Senators and Reps are being allocated billions and billions of Naira in insanely titled ‘Wardrobe Allowance’ while several States in the country haven't paid salaries to workers in months? Which other Legislature in the world has that? It is on record that Nigeria has the most expensive Legislature in the world, the least productive and the most corrupt by far. The brigandry Saraki is fomenting in the Legislature is designed to put a brake on the change agenda, undermine the Buhari administration and deny Nigerians the rights they overwhelmingly voted for. This budding bloc will have serious ramifications for the Buhari government and destroy the APC as a party of relevance if definitive corrective actions are not expeditiously taken. Saraki and his cohorts should be treated like what they really are; they are selfish and arrogant garbed leeches, and political opportunists that would stop at nothing to subvert a government that means well for the long-suffering people of Nigeria. Whatever needs to be done to stop this evil bloc from becoming a malignant cancer in the colon of government has to be done pronto, and reverse the slide back into the darkness of the recent past. Saraki must be stopped at all costs, and by any means necessary.

Buhari, Nigerians are waiting on you, and our patience is wearing thin. You’re the President and it’s about time you started acting like one, for goodness' sake!! The honeymoon period is over now. This fratricidal politicking has to be brought to an end, and fast. No more pussyfooting. No more dillydallying. You're not a tenderfoot and it's about time you stopped acting like one. The time is ripe to prove your worth.