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.
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.
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