By Valentine Amanze
(10-08-2024)
Fool me once shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.
This Chinese idiom/ proverb captures the state of the nation today.
Never in the Nigeria’s history has the citizens suffered hardship as it is presently. The civil war period was not as bad.
Nigerians have been so much decived by their leaders to the extent that one doubts their sense of reasoning.
It is only in Nigeria that corrupt and incompetent leaders emerge as lawmakers, governors, presidents and judges.
Even at that, their incompetency is tolerated on the basis of tribe/ethnicity and religion.
I feel bad when I hear their syncophants and accomplices sing, “Let us be patient with them; they will parform; they are not as bad as their predicessors.”
It was on this premise that Nigerians were deceived that Muhammadu Buhari was the most sought after messiah after vilifying President Goodluck Jonathan.
Buhari, for eight years, failed them. Not only failing them but destroyed their economy.
President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria (file image)
Also read: Nigeria sitting on keg of gunpowder – Obasanjo
He was errornously loved, trusted and voted into power on ethnicity, religious and military background.
The media that qurried his competence then was looked at as anti-people, even as he refused to show up on live programmes to convince the supporters that he was competent.
When his educational background was querried, his supporters said that it was not necessary.
After wasting the future of millions of Nigerians for eight years, Buhri handed over dubiously to a mystry man, whose only known history is that he was the Lagos State governor and a former senator.
His only ticket to the government house was, “It is my turn.”
Yes, it was his turn to continue Buhari’s blunder that put us where we are today.
The judiciary must be blamed for the state of the nation. It knew the truth and decided to work against the will of more than 200 million Nigerians during the 2023 presidential election.
If the judiciary had looked at the merit of cases before it most of those in power today would have been in jail.
A tribe under extinction is known when its women stopped given birth to female children.
Nigeria nolonger produces nationalists as leaders. Cultists, selfish and “anyhow leaders” have taken over in the midst of poverty. Their mantra is “be patient with us things will get better.”
We waited for Buhari’s magic for eight years and got worse.
I have followed the Bola Tinubu regime since inception; it is just the continuation of Buhari’s administration.
It cares less about the subjects, and respects no law.
The president, who never visited states hit by violence to condole relations of victims, is incapable of handling a burning nation.
In Bangladesh, its president quickly threw in the towel when he was overwhelmed by protests against corruption and hardship. It is different in Nigeria, where the leadership would prefer their subjects to die of hunger than to quit office on incompetence.
It is unfortunate that the president surrounded himself with birds of the same feather, whose interests are selfish.
How would one see tribal bigots like Bayo Adenuga and Reno Omokri continue to manage the image of the president and the nation.
Uche Chukwumerije, Lai Mohammed, Reuben Abati and many others once managed the image of the nation’s presidency at various times without causing ethnic tension.
If the president is not enjoying their rantings he would have called them to order. If there are no Nigerians – Igbo, Hausa Fulani, Ijaw etc – who would the president rule?
The way and manner the president’s people are tackling the opposition including the youths who are on the streets protesting against hunger and bad governance is a pointer to the fact that the government has turned against the people.
Imagine a government ordering the military out of the barracks and rolling out amoured tanks against its subjects who are not rioting but protesting!
It is unfortunate the Senate and House of Representaives appear to have no input in Tinubu’s administration rather than approving anything brought to them from the presidency.
If the lawmakers do their constitutional roles effectively, the presidency would be careful before taking hasty decisions that backfire later.
The real job of any government is to provide, protect its subjects and their property. The government is doing otherwise. When will the Tinubu administration make Nigerian refineries work?
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently warned that the huge corruption in the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) will never make our refinery work.
He said that the Shell Company he contacted to takeover running the refineries when in government turned the offer down, citing unimaginable corruption.
Now that Tinubu is petroleum minister, will anything change I doubt.
When will Tinubu end banditry and other security issues? What about the exchange rate, high level corruption in high places, and the abuse of the judiciary?
Until the Tinubu administration gets rid of the above including ethnic hatred, falsehood and deceit, the government would not go far.
Until the refineries work and reduce the cost of living, let’s resolve not to be fooled and deceived again by them.
