Nigeria is at a crossroad, we didn’t get there today. We’ve been at the crossroads for quite a while but leadership at all levels politically and spiritually have failed to do the needful hence the protracted stay at the junction.
Nigeria as a fragmented and divided household as never been as clear as it is today under the leadership of President Muhammad Buhari. President Buhari was sold to Nigerians as a man of honesty, integrity, and one who truly cares about the masses. Everything said about him was just to propel him to the seat of power. The people are hoodwinked and now we are suffering. We wanted a saint but we are bestowed with a sinner!
The President might be forgiven for not being the cause of most of the problems facing Nigeria today. But he has made things much worse than he met it. For that, he will not be forgiven and he must take responsibility. The Buhari’s administration has not kept a single promise out of the many he made to Nigeria over 4 years ago. The country is going deeper into the abyss.
The much-touted war against corruption is now affirmed as a colossal failure due to its selective and biased process. Nigeria is now officially the most corrupt nation in West Africa despite the denial of the administration’s hirelings. The corruption tap is gushing as bribery, undue rent collection, waste and siphoning off government treasury through inflated or bogus contracts continue unabated.
The Buhari’s administration has taken nepotism to an unprecedented level in Nigeria. While successive governments have been guilty of the same crime, this administration has upped the ante. A cursory look at the structure of government and employment in the past 4 years will immediately affirm the lopsidedness. The President rather than be for all has stylishly turned himself to a propagator of Islam thereby being aseptic to the senseless utterances of organizations such as Miyeti Allah, MURIC, and so on. These are organizations that under normal circumstances should be proscribed and its leaders jailed for fueling anti-social harmony rather than having prime time on our television. Under Buhari, the line between state and religion is blurred. No wonder the opposition Peoples Democratic Party played the religious card during the last general election
The nepotistic disposition of President Buhari denied the administration the opportunity of having seasoned technocratic that might have helped to reshape the country. Rather, the President is kowtowing to the cabal who helped engineered his fathom victories at the elections. The President cannot even manage his household not to talk of a complex country nation like Nigeria. He lacks the will power to make important decisions. Our president is tamed.
President Buhari promised to end the Boko Haram insurgency in 6 months, it’s almost 5 years and we are still battling with the terrorist group. The mammoth investment in the military in the past few years has not produced commensurate results. In fact, the security situation is even direr. Today, Boko Haram has several mayhem acolytes in Fulani herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers, ritualists, armed robbers, street urchins, etc. It became so bad a state governor had to pay millions of naira to buy peace from bandits. The President speaks with so much insensitivity for the plights and pains of Nigeria; he is innocuous to our sufferings.
Is the economy better? The damage done to the economy will be brought to the fore by the next administration. The government is always reeling out statistical accomplishments in the face of staggering unemployment, protracted darkness due to power failure, food scarcity, bad or dilapidated infrastructure, refineries still below capacity, and disillusioned populace. The minute achievement of the past 15 years has been largely eroded due to the unwell thought out policies of the Buhari administration.
Rather than admit that it has failed to bring any of its promises to fruition, the government through its machinery of misinformation and deception is swift at pointing fingers, even for its self inflicted gaffes. The President during his campaign said he will end medical tourism by investing and revamping the Nigerian medical sector. The ministers of health and information on several occasions have repeated but their master said but the braggadocios on the revamping of the health sector never materialized. In fact, the President became the numero uno medical tourist in the country, junketing to the United Kingdom. And when his son had a motorbike accident, Mr. Integrity did not blink as he was ferried to Germany for treatment. Hypocrite!
Now, it’s Amotekun, which is a codename for the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) in a country where state police is a taboo and deemed unlawful. The south-west is merely re-enacting script written elsewhere in the country. The emergence of Amotekun will spell doom. The President in his usual lackadaisical mien has not said anything about this illegal organization because several are already in existence in many states across the country though not as grand as Amotekun. For those who are still being fooled, Amotekun is not established so that you can be secured. It’s for the game of power. Soon, other parts of the country will unveil their Amotekuns. It’s no surprise that the President cannot stand up to defend the constitution. A president that cannot guarantee the security of lives and safety of the properties of its citizens does not deserve to be in office. The total collapse of the Nigerian security apparatus under Buhari led to the emergence of such as aberration as Amotekun and the US visa ban on the country.
Is Buhari acting presidential? I really don’t think so. I have never seen a president as colourless and tamed as the Buhari. A virile, result-driven and deep thinking president would have sacked all the heads of the state’s security agencies long ago. Some ministers and heads of agencies ought to have been relieved of their positions because of their non-performance but they are there today due to favouritism and nepotism of the administration. If Buhari is too weak or timid to be the president, then he should resign and hand the reign over to Yemi Osibanjo. Nigeria’s next level of development should be geometrical, not arithmetical progression. Enough of caveman thinking in a digital age.
