Ahoy Nigeria: Buhari or Jonathan - Part 2

If this troubles comes to pass, the indiscriminate rights of suffrage bestowed upon the masses will be dangerous weapon in their hands. - Honore de Balzac.

I really pity Nigerians, especially the poor masses of Nigeria; they have earned themselves another 4 years of hardship by presenting President Jonathan and General Buhari as the presidential candidates for the next election. 

Let me put it more succinctly; we are in a ‘big mess’. 

The manipulation of Nigeria in recent years have reached a dangerous crescendo, but things is about to get messier. The cabals manipulating Nigeria are about to be given another 4 years to exercise their open-air criminality.

Nigeria is a mad nation, a country of people with very short memory, who can call somebody a villain today and change the person to a hero the next day. Not only do they change the person to a hero, they also make up stories to justify the persons villainess. This has happened over and again. They justify this by saying things like; ‘if God can forgive us, why can’t we forgive others’, ‘we are all human, even if this man has killed my father intentionally yesterday; he is my friend today,’ ‘who I’m I to judge’ and many other ridiculous aphorisms to justify why an offender should be forgiven and given another chance to re-offend.

I do not understand how Nigerians have come to trust General Muhammadu Buhari and think he is now our new messiah despite his antecedents over the last 30 years of surfacing as the military administrator of Nigeria. Are we so peremptory that we keep recycling same individuals who have gotten Nigeria this far? Are there no young, intelligent, vibrant well educated Nigerians who are up to date with current world trends and can steer the ship of our nation? Why do we keep going back to where we came from?

How can we entrust our seriously sick nation to a retired 73 years old man with long history of human right abuse, religious extremism and superstitious sarcasms?  I do not understand how over 30 years later, a once bad man, a coupist military dictator is now a saint. This is happening within the same generation. It can’t be anything else but madness.

The wages of sin, they say is death, but in Nigeria, the wages of sin is glorification. We are looking to vote into power a man who has clearly lost touch with the present age, a man already retired to his village. I can’t stop wondering how a retired man is going from retirement to treat a severely sick country, what he could not do when younger 30 years ago.  All what this means to me is that the younger generation of Nigerians have failed woefully.

How can a man Nigerians rejected in 3 different polls now become the hero and the sole opposition to a docile incumbent? Rather than help the nation to grow, Nigerians are scattered over the world, helping other countries to develop, while they continue to entrust the country into the hand of simpletons with no single agenda for the sinking Nigeria.

Many Nigerians are still locked in their perfidious religious and tribal superstitious beliefs. This is what God want for us they’ll say’, but I beg to defer; this is what we want for ourselves! This is why the best candidates Nigerians can produce are current clueless incumbent president and another 73 years old retired general.  How can our nation develop if we have to use the brain from 30 years ago today or let a non-PhD holder of nothing continue to paddle the nation to calamity?

The world has changed so much that this two presidential candidates does not fit into the agenda of current-world development and Nigeria’s future. 

Nigerians have shown over and again that we do not know how to choose a good leader, we choose based on sentiments and the chosen leaders over the years have demonstrated total-lack of grasp on how to lead a successful nation. 

I beg to defer from a few Nigerians who keep speculating that General Buhari is the only past Nigerian leader who have performed well, therefore will perform well this time, ‘perform well ke.’

Let me know if while he was military administrator you ever had 6 months of uninterrupted power supply in your locality, constant clean water supply and equipped government hospitals with all needed facilities and no need to go abroad? Was there adequate ambulance and emergency services? Did Nigerians live a good life devoid of poverty or full access to quality education, security and many other basic facilities? If your answer to one or two of the above questions is a no, then we have a long way to go.

Why do Nigerians like to deceive themselves? Instead of standing up to our leaders and make them accountable as is done in other parts of the world, we sing-praise them for nothing. This is why our leaders simply sit and enjoy ‘foreign Ashewos’ (Prostitute) and Aromatic Schnapps like Abacha. They loot, instead of working hard to develop the nation.

I remember the popular General Buhari’s War Against Indiscipline (WAI) scheme established to rid the country of various level of indiscipline while he was Nigeria’s military administrator. Although this was established with good intent, but the implementation of the scheme at the time was designed to intimidate in a militarised ‘obey before complain’ style. Human right abuse was at large scale and many died avoidable deaths in the hands of the WAI soldiers.

At the time, Nigeria had soldiers everywhere on the streets dishing out various levels of brutality to anyone who contravenes any of their WAI laws.  The offences you can be punished for ranges from gathering in front of your home with friends, wandering, littering the street, public disorder, and many others. Soldiers used the street of Lagos to practise using their new AK 47 all in the name of WAI. Our streets were at its 'unsafest' times.

Parents would often warn their wards not to play outside or gather with friends, as they might be killed, sometimes taken as member of a robbery gang for gathering with their friends outside of their homes, the outcome of this was that, many innocent Nigerian youths got killed and they are either written off as member of armed robbery or victim of stray bullets from a soldier.  Once this is the case, that is the end of the story, only the families are left to mourn their loss. No visits or any show of welfare from the Governments. No court will hear your case except your family have enough money to waste; such cases are concluded even before it started.

Ojuelegba in Lagos as a prime example comes as a daily eyesore. On daily commute home from school in Yaba going to Surulere, it was always a daily occurrence to see people being whipped with horse tail (Koboko) under Ojuelegba bridge. Many are made to lie on their back facing the sun on  the hot floor beside the roads and they face the sun at minimum afternoon temperature of 30 degree centigrade, without blinking their eyes, (a very close to impossible task), anyone who closes their eyes is helped to the 6 to 7 mouthed kobokos. 

Seeing this level of brutality from our soldiers, I would say to myself, any country, but Nigeria would do for me to be born, because I do not believe any other country can treat its citizen this way.  When people visits from America, Europe and Canada, I would say to myself that I am unfortunate to be born in Nigeria, seeing how good looking this people are, the clothes they wear, the way they speak, and the peace that radiate around them, which confirms they have not lived in fear and have not been brutalized as is the case in Nigeria. 

Most Nigerians around at the time are still traumatised today when they see soldiers as they’re still seen to represent same evil and brutality, even though things are a little better now.

Nigeria is a case of the Yoruba saying; ‘Ole gbe, Ole gba’, which translates to ‘A thief stole it and another thief rescue the loot. We are in a mess!

General Buhari’s political party APC are so happy to absorb rejected politicians from their opposition PDP and ready to give them unopposed sits in their various constituencies, clearly we know this people do not have Nigeria’s interest at heart, they are bad losers porting to the next available network only concerned about their pockets. APC are happy to work with rejected politicians from PDP who have shared in the looting of Nigeria to help achieve their aim.  This to me is the beginning of the end for Nigeria. I pity Nigeria .

What we need in Nigeria is a leader who can make Nigeria work, fight corruption to its root, respect the rule of law, provide Nigerians with their basic needs that have been lacking for many years. There is urgent need for a leader that can deliver this mandate. Can the current two candidates deliver these, not that I can think of.

I am hugely concerned about the current two major candidates for Nigeria President, but more appalled by Nigerians defending their cluelessness. However since we have put ourselves in this situation, we must vote for one of them.  As the election approaches, it is important for every Nigerians to weigh their options very well, have a deep thought for once without our usual sentiments and decides on ‘which of the two thieves we’ll love to see in the fathers house.’

Let’s all go out, vote with our conscience and make our votes count.

God bless Nigeria.

Abiola Olaifa writes from UK

Visit www.abiolla.com, write abiolla@gmail.com