By Ibe Pascal Arogorn
As insecurity continues to rage in every part of Nigeria on daily basis, many citizens slaughtered gruesomely, continued abductions yet the president sleeps on the bicycle, no where to be found.
Until the police internal affairs system starts prosecuting and firing a substantial number of corrupt and incompetent police officers, I will not be lighting it up blue. In a dictatorship, every election is faked and everybody seems to know it except for the dictator. In a democracy it is the politicians that are rigged.
There is gross and grotesque insecurity in Nigeria. Nigeria is not safe, and there is general hopelessness in the homeland. More than six hundred young boys with boisterous lives were kidnapped by hoodlums sometime ago in Katsina State, Nigeria, and there is no qualms and fury about the dreadful incident. It is ridiculous to note that the President was on a visit to the State at the time of the dastardly operation. Without mincing words or with no iota of reservations, Buhari’s administration is a failure of success, and successful loss in a country bedeviled with so many contradictions. My initial and unconditional support for Buhari’s Presidential candidacy was born out of love for a beleaguered country we all love. I have no apologies for wanting Buhari to succeed as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But I am also not ashamed to sincerely tender my unreserved apologies for those who, out of patriotism and love, periodically criticized and advised Buharists against being impassioned about Buhari’s inability to perform effectively as we had expected. Buhari is tired and devoid of ideas on how to rescue Nigeria. I am loud now in wailing to declare that Buhari doesn’t belong to everybody but belongs to somebody else in the Northern oligarchy and fouled Nigeria’s religious firmament.
President Muhammadu Buhari has more explainings to do for all Nigerians, NOW! There are more to recurring ugly news daily churning out of Nigeria. Those of us who were Buhari’s ardent and (un)repentant supporters have no moral justification to keep deafening silence while he fails us. All Nigerians are not safe under his administration. Buhari’s government is morbidly failing Nigerians. Mr. President should be told that this carnage, kidnapping, psychological trauma, and hopelessness are too much. If out of his old age, the President is unable to meet basic security needs, he should declare a state of emergency in Nigeria, NOW, and give power to capable young, vibrant, and articulate Nigerian to redraw our current famished road map. Daily killings and sufferings are too much for a nation in distress. The country Mr. President presides is under morbid siege. He should urgently do something, now.
Sadly, every day is a troubling day in a troubled nation——Nigeria. Nigerians are now numbed to killings, maiming, kidnapping, and destruction of lives and property. As a bruised Buharist, my advice to twilight President Buhari is to resign his Presidents and go home to rest in Daura. The present constituents of Nigeria is a colossal joke. Buhari has no clue on how to deconstruct the Nigerian generic and mystical sins. Nigeria is a “mere geographical expression” where injustices, inequities, unfairness, inconsistencies, iniquities, the hypothesis of hypocrisy, religious brigand, corruption, nepotism, deliberate ignorance, favoritism, etc., hold sway. Nigerian Constitution is also a mere paper shredder, and I am beginning not to believe in the “mere geographical expression” called Nigeria as espoused by the late sage Obafemi Awolowo. The more I look at the constituents of this contraption, the more I see great contradictions and injustices in the hypothesis of the current Nigerian constitution’s hypocrisy. Nigeria is a lawless country where the citizens. (e.g., politicians and religious leaders) daily pronounce laws and God but laced their behavior with insincerity and pretense. The rule of law and laws of God are mouthed every day with no recourse to moral decency, discipline, compassion, and uprightness.
Where is the Commander-In-Chief? The simple answer is I don’t know.
President Mohammed Buhari is a man that seek power for 12 good years, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. He wanted to be President by all mean yet he has become an empty vessel. Nigerians gave him a chance in 2015 and 2019 but today Nigeria is being ruled by proxy.
When last President Buhari openly addressed Nigerians openly even without pre recorded speech? Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina continued to issue out hopeless statements everyday as if the President is incapacitated. Where is the President of Nigeria because when Governor of Zamfara, Matawalle Bello made a tensive comment saying that if he tell Nigerians who are behind the outrageous abduction banditry activities in Zamfara then hell will break loose, was not even interrogated at least for security reasonn. Even when this govs pretend to be helpless in the fight against insecurity and terrorism, where is the President? We saw how 8 air force men perished in a crash about 2 week ago, they were buried in agony yet the President was not there. Our troops are being slaughtered in the north everyday by the insurgents, the President is not there at their funerals .
When last did the President talk to Nigeria, ? When did we see the President grant a media chat? When last we see the President speak with the kidnap victims? If somebody tells me that I have a President I will raise an objection to that. The President shouldn’t be a decorative President nor a portrait President just to have some prove of life that he is not dead.
When Governors are making this provocative comments, the other time, Bala Mohammed, Bsuchi gov came out to say that herdsmen can carry arms(Ak-47s) , Zamfara gov continuing to say that he will go ahead and dialogue with bandits even when over 300 jangebe girls were abducted in Zamfara. What you are seeing is a nation in crisis, a nation in peril, a nation that is lacking in direction and leadership. As at today, nobody will tell me that I have a Commander-In-Chief, you can’t be commanding from your bedroom. It is not possible.
In 2015, the President said that he will lead in front now in 2021 he is not even leading from the back. Look the one that call himself an Islamic scholar Sheikh Gumi, for weeks he has made a lot of statements that us capable of setting Nigeria on fire yet has DSS invited him for questioning?
Academically, President Buhari’s leadership should be a case study on how not to misplace priority and an excellent opportunity for success in a contentious society. President Buhari’s incapacitation to meet people’s expectations is the bane of his administration. Consistency and enforcement of expectations provide the basis for effective governance. Where Buhari’s administration has made a quantum leap, Buhari’s handlers have ruined his unannounced and unsavoury successes. Nigerians from all walks of life have offered their genuine advice for Buhari’s victory. Still, he has gently brought his reputation to the slopes. With sustained leadership of the past, President Buhari’s administration has sadly drained into a considerable number of doubts, turning Nigeria into a morass of corruption, hopelessness, and insecurity. Buhari’s failure is solely premised on his recalcitrant attitude of putting the round pegs in the square holes—-a recipe for failure! Nigeria has continued to drain its best brains and human capital to the advanced countries in the world.
Unfortunately, while Nigeria is brimming with vibrant, jobless young, and impeccable human resources, President Buhari’s gerontocratic government is entwined with sluggishness, deliberate indifference, and nepotism. Buhari’s gerontocracy is a system whereby the old group of senile leaders with no clues about how government functions are administering a virile society like Nigeria. This has destroyed the remnants of his frugal and hyped integrity and ultimately fizzled out his moral conscience and consciousness. People’s hope and aspirations in the President have dwindled. Nigeria is now a country in the graveyard of horror. Our leaders have turned a potentially great nation into a potential mortuary where talented citizens are morbidly deposited daily with no hope on the horizon.
President Buhari must wake up to the cries (wailing) of the genuine people who want the best for Nigeria. The President should resign for his wellness and well-deserved rest in Daura. But after Buhari’s imagined resignation, what is next? This is a contentious question that no one can adequately answer because of Nigeria’s lineage of corruption. Corruption is a culture in Nigeria. And the culture of bribery entwined the two most prominent religions (Christianity and Islam) in Nigeria. As Nigeria is bleeding profusely into the abyss of time, the resilient spirit of Nigeria is being bludgeoned by the proponents of these two principal religions, in collaboration with the political elites. Nigeria’s ailing body must be rescued from the intensive care unit—–ICU of the oligarchs and religious bigots. Otherwise, we are all going to be bereaved of Nigeria’s comatose entity and structure in no distant time. The time to rescue Nigeria is now!
Ibe Pascal is a journalist writer and public affairs analyst
Writes from Owerri Imo state.
