RANDOM MUSINGS ON JONATHAN, BUHARI, NIGERIA, AND 2015

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Luckily for the Ijaw man who had no shoes but managed by a combination of hard work, a studious mind, the cunningness of a boa constrictor – many thanks to his adept study of zoology – and of course, a large dose of divine intervention which many ignorantly like to pass off as good luck, he is today, arguably, the most powerful man in the black world.

No doubt, he has his negatives (but then, who does not have, especially in the murky world of politics where men will sell anybody or anything to taste the crazy aphrodisiac-power). However, over the years, he has managed to keep Nigeria together in spite of hydra-headed monster, dubbed Boko Haram, which continues to ravage most of the North-East and is inching to the west of the north.

It appears the creators of the monster, or those who fertilized its growth, can no longer dismount the monster, and have found a ready fall guy in the federal government in the hazy world of blame-storming. In ferocious anger, the monster appears to be turning on some of its own, even as it continues to bring old Kanem Bornu empire to its knees. The evil that men planted in human blood and needless sacrifices is now on a backfire with its litany of uncovered, and at other times, careless collateral damages.

In this knotty situation enters General Muhammadu Buhari, himself a target of the daring monster from the North-East. It does not matter that the retired and somewhat aging and tired General has the Kanem-Bornu blood flowing in his veins, just as he has the Ba Haushe (Hausa) blood, and the pre-dominant Fulani blood, according to him. In Boko Haram's medievalist-idiotic war, apologies to Governor Shettima, anyone who breathes a word or threat against it, even if he is an emir in far-away Kano, he must be dealt with.

It does not matter to the “mad men” from the east if anyone was previously a sympathiser; once he spoke against them, he must be mowed down. Buhari has been a target; Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been one, yet some warped and wicked thinkers still do not see the wisdom in keeping President Jonathan away from Borno State. With these mad men who could turn on anyone, bomb anyone, even former friends, kidnap women and children, and have no respect for even their own respected and venerated persons and institutions; some still think the President should travel that way. Well, as commander-in-chief, he is free to do so as long his Defence Minister, security and service chiefs as well as head of the Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) agree to be on the same flight and convoy with him. And on the day he goes, none of these men must fall conveniently sick or travel elsewhere for other official duties. To make the pack an interesting one, he should invite Buhari and Sanusi along.

When Mr. President returns from such a trip, he should consider dressing up like Abubakar Shekau for political effect and to win the votes of the terrorists, because these days, that seems to be the vogue. The handlers of Buhari don't seem to find anything wrong in altering his identity by dressing him up in Niger Delta attire since the man desperately wants to be in Aso Rock Villa. He looked comical in the delta attire, though in suit he looked a little better, even though unfamiliar. In the 11years he has been seeking the highest political office, this writer cannot remember seeing Buhari in anything other than his Babanriga, but the handlers of Buhari, including that one who used to think the man was unelectable, but now needs him and his blind and unthinking followers to begin his journey back to Abuja through Kaduna, have to be more ingenious to sell him to his fellow countrymen.

They must also come up with an ingenious way of distancing from his new “Oga at the top” from Lagos, because anytime they are seen side by side, it looks like a ravenous wolf and hawkish lamb are having a tango. For a man like Buhari to be seen as the puppet of the Lagos chief is nothing but an unmitigated political disaster.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was right when he suggested that it amounted to an insult to think the General was his lackey, but he did not help matters when he let it be leaked that he was interested in being number two to Buhari.

That singular act showed Nigerians for seven days that the Katsina-born patron of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) couldn't make up his mind on a simple matter of who his number two man should be. Many suddenly began to remember that the General had never been a man of his own. They recalled that in the heady days of his administration three decades ago, he could do nothing without Tunde Idiagbon; and when Idiagbon travelled out of the country, he lost power to his ambitious subordinates.

Also, many began to recall that all the mess that was spattered on him after his days at the Petroleum Task Force (PTF) was simply because he could not rein in his boys who fed fat on him. Such a man, without a mind of his own, can surely not be today's alternative to Jonathan. Many who are thinking that the naturally arrogant Fulani man is kowtowing to conquer are simply mistaken, because some of those he is stooping to just conquer are not as stupid as he thinks. They know that if he gets to Aso Rock Villa, he will not only alienate them, he will send them on exile. Even Tinubu, who needed the number two slot to protect himself, will now work hard against him, Osinbajo or no Osinbajo.

Some of the General's former buddies in and outside the Army have heard him say he has forgiven but not forgotten those who did him in three decades ago; and knowing soldiers as we do in Nigeria; knowing Fulani men as we do in the north; and knowing Muslims as we do, an eye must either go for an eye or for the two eyes, including all the teeth. Moral: they don't believe he has forgiven any bit.

Written by Abba Adakole.
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