By Erasmus Ikhide
President Muhammadu Buhari’s infant Presidency is on trial. On trial also
is former President Goodluck and the Nigerian people who have been damaged
heart and soul, over time. The cynicism that the earth might be cut once
again under their feet, couple with the despairing feeling of possible ill
grace by the present dispensation is gaining grounds.
I was promptly routed from deep sleep with text message a few days ago in
the middle of the night with several conundrums: “What if Buhari fails?”.
It followed with other double-barrel questions: “What if he fails to
appointment the right folks and like minds? What if he fails to deliver on
his electoral promises, namely: to rescue the Chibok Girls within 100 days;
stamp out Boko Haram militias; stabled power supply and creating of jobs
for teaming Nigerian youths?”. The question is endless.
It has been one call after another by patriotic citizens to me to set
agenda for President Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidency. These calls seem
necessary because of my stoic defence and principled support for Buhari’s
Presidency and the fireworks that ensued between me and a number of other
interested Nigerians who didn’t want to give the 72 years old man a second
chance.
The hopeless expressions, especially from the likes of Dr Akhibi Onoke,
Prof Chibuzor Umezeoke, Dr Okeke Friday, Chief Chris Wale Ogunmuyiwa, Iria
Fredrick Asekhamen and a host of others too numerous to mention, is part of
responsive governance Nigerians crave from Buhari administration. The
interrogation is necessary, if we must extricate ourselves from the
precipice and emerged in an orderly country, surmount economic and
political woes bedeviling Nigeria.
All the calls came with the accusation of failure to set similar agenda for
President Buhari so as to disentangle myself from being hold on to them if
Buhari strays away from the doted lines. Their proposed agenda, for sure,
is not different to everyone’s expectations. It ranges from stamping out
Boko Haram militia as well as rescuing the Chibok Girls, stable power
supply, the rule of law, job creation, infrastructure development and of
course, probe of previous administration.
If President Buhari succeeded in crushing Boko Haram militias and “Bring
Back Our Girls” in months as he has promised, he will automatically become
the Nelson Mandela of Nigeria. His name will not perish or be found in the
hall of infamy and amongst those who bestride Aso Rock recesses drunkenly,
without vision and mission, without morality and blueprint for actual
leadership and without balls to confront treasury looters in different
guises.
If the Boko Haram’s savage campaign continues in their quests to inflict
mortal harms on the nation by maiming hapless citizens in broad day light;
burning cities, towns and villages uninterrupted, slitting the throats of
hundreds of thousands of innocent victims unchallenged in their bid to
create an Islamic State, then President Buhari’s place in history would
have been worst than that of President Goodluck Jonathan who simply idled
away in feat of drunkenness while the nation burns.
The charges that Buhari hasn’t made any significant dent on the war against
the savage beasts called Boko Haram is hardly misplaced. More also that,
defeating Boko Haram is not rationally achievable under the same military
command he inherited which have been largely accused of aiding and abetting
the insurgents group.
The argument of developed nations also suggest that no supersonic
government on the planet earth could have grounded such a sophisticated
murderous asymmetric militias like Boko Haram with the speed light in less
than three months on assumption of office. That’s why the sacking of the
service chiefs is a welcome development.
“How about the constancy of power supply, job creation and the promised
prosecution of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s criminal government,
they queried?” No doubts, Buhari’s Presidency was actualised on the grounds
that the long suffering Nigerians would found solace in these areas. It’s
also not because those promises have never been made before, but because
Mr. Buhari’s concrete puritanical integrity was factored into those
promises.
While job creation and power stability efforts could take some time to
yield results, no excuses should be made about the immediate prosecution of
former President Jonathan administration. The fuel subsidy scam, Ms.
Diezani Allison Maduekwe, Dr Okonjo-Iweala, Mr. Mike Olonememen, Mr. Abba
Moro, Ms. Stella Oduah, and all the ministers under President Jonathan as
well as all the Service Chiefs, NSA and other ministries and parastatals
must be probed, they insist.
But this is not the position of some aberrant faceless group. While
reasonable Nigerians, including the befuddled PDP leadership are calling
for cautious, assertive and unbiased probe, tasking Mr. Buhari government
to fulfill his promises to Nigerians, which includes prosecution of those
found culpable of looting the nation’s treasury under President Jonathan
administration and Jonathan himself, a group on the auspices of Vanguard of
Nigeria’s Democracy has raised the alarm. They alleged moves by President
Muhammadu Buhari to “investigate, malign and imprison” ex-President
Goodluck Jonathan on trumped-up charges.
The group accused the President and his All Progressives Congress-led
administration of anti-Niger Delta tendencies. “We the members of the
Vanguards of Nigeria’s Democracy, are aware of some clandestine moves made
by the APC-led government to probe, investigate, malign and imprison
ex-President Jonathan. We are already aware of the trumped-up charges the
APC government is leveling against a man who has diligently served the
Nigerian state at the highest level of government”, the group leader, Mr.
Osaghae Ogiemudia, said.
The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was a little
miserly when said that the Presidency was free to probe past
administrations but warned that the exercise must not be carried out with
malice, designed to witch-hunt some persons who worked under Dr. Jonathan.
“It is the right thing to probe and investigate but there must be respect
for fundamental human rights of the people. It must be carried out within
the confines of the law, there must be no witch-hunt. There must be plans
for the future, the government can go ahead with the probe, but must put
forward those things that will move the country forward because very soon,
Nigerians will be asking questions on insecurity, incessant arrest, the
state of the dollar, among others”, Olisah Metuh said.
The point to be made is that a fraudulent and bankrupt group like Vanguard
of Nigeria’s Democracy and its minders oughting to be telling Nigerians how
well former President Jonathan used his six years in government to better
the lots of Niger Delta citizens. If the group worth its name in gold, it
should be calling on Mr. Jonathan to account for his misdeed in office,
after personally admitting that he thought the people of Niger Deltans and
Bayelsans would stoned him for not developing the zone after leaving office.
The travail of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was his
vague and nebulous and thoughtless agenda, called “Transformation Agenda”,
(TA) which became “Transformation Paralyses” (TP). Worst still, the Otuoke
born former university teacher became encircled, enslaved and ultimately
looted the country blind by those he appointed to lead the nation out of
the woods. He was not left out of the frolic looting. Now, he has left
without being able to make any significant impact in any sector of the
economy. He left Nigeria worse than he met it!
We can only hope that President Muhammadu Buahri escapes such political
elite of doubtful value who glory in sadism and the destruction of the
nation and hitch his star on the masses’ resolve for a better country. That
way, President Buhari, a man of sterner stuff to the very depth of his soul
would have erased the deep gloom that hung over us.
*Erasmus Ikhide writes in from Lagos Nigeria
Follow me on twitter @ErasmusIkhide