I never, not even once in my
wildest imagination, thought I’d be driven to write in this fashion about this
Nigerian government. A government in which I had placed a total faith in its
roadmap for the revitalization of the country and had sought to defend all along
the way despite its missteps and palpable vapidity. I’ve now reached the stage
where I’m no longer prepared to pretend things would get better under this
Buhari/Osinbajo government, with all the jobbery (and
frankly, robbery) in the political establishment that the
duo of Buhari/Osinbajo undertook to deracinate.
It’s a straight choice between
my loyalty and love to Nigeria or continuing with my obviously blind loyalty to
the never-ending promises of this government; choosing the former is, for me, a
no-brainer. It may come as a rude shock to some of my friends and colleagues
that I felt obliged to air my utter disgust for, and distaste of, this
government, but turning a blind eye to the suffering of the vast majority of
Nigerians in these desperately uncertain times would have been the apogee of
ignorance and epic evilness.
No, I neither thought nor
hoped this government would magically turn Nigeria into an Eldorado of sorts
out of the ruins of foregone misrules. I, nonetheless, hoped it would augur a
turnaround in our fortunes as a country and people or at least usher in a
revival of hopes so long ago dashed. Is Buhari evil? Not at all. Is Osinbajo a
bad guy? Not in a million years! Doesn’t it then beggar belief that these two
top guys have been distinctly incapable of wrestling influence from the wreckers
of our commonwealth? At the end of the day, the buck stops with them,
especially with Buhari.
Without running the risk of
turning this sober writing into a philippic or a vituperation, let me state
clearly the last straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Actually, there are
two straws!! The first is the management (or shall we say the mismanagement?)
of the CoVID-19 health crisis. It’s all perfectly cool to issue stay-at-home or
shelter-in-place orders so as to slow the spread of this virulent novel disease.
Governments all over the world are doing it or have done it. These orders are
not the panacea, and this obvious fact has eluded the government for far too long.
Without the goodwill and the implicit support of the people, these orders solve
nothing. Now, answer me this question: what mitigative efforts have been made
by the government towards securing a high enough level of cooperation of the
people. The vast majority of Nigerians rely on daily trading to survive and
feed their families and you’re asking them to stay at home without making
provisions for their sustenance for the period the order would last. All we
hear is unhelpful propaganda about smidgens of hardly esculent food items being
handed out while others complained of long expired food products being
distributed in ever so tiny amounts. Where then is the humanity in this crude indifference
and sheer callousness? I can bet the farm not a single Nigerian politician or
any of their family is going without, and they have more than an adequate supply
of food and drinks at this crucial time!
The second straw, so to speak,
is the proclaimed intention of the government to use the billions donated by
well-meaning individuals and corporate bodies for the so-called Supplementary
Budget! What on earth is wrong with this government? Would there not have been
a Supplementary Budget without those donations? Weren’t those donations made to
alleviate the suffering of the people in their hour of need? If the government
wouldn’t cater for people’s needs, why go on to rob them of the vast sums
donated? It’s all so morally wrong and so eminently unfair.
To Buhari/Osinbajo and the unisonous
political class of unedifying traits: when you eat, remember the tens of
millions starving or dying of hunger-related diseases up and down the land.
When you sleep at night, remember the starving children who are unable to get a
wink of sleep due to unmerited hunger and unwarranted ailments. When you meet
to discuss the direction of this dear country of ours, remember the judgement
of posterity. It’s not too late to right the wrongs done to the people and it’s
not too late to refocus attention to the promises made to the people when you
were asking them to trust you to do the right things.
Believe me, it’s not too late.
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