Buhari Vs Change: Only Time Will Tell
The observation of William Cox cannot be truer with the case of Nigeria and PMB. ‘’ in function politics, nothing can be said to remain statics because politics which entail, the behavior of people could change at the instance of minor or major social or political events not even conjectured by anybody including the most brilliant pundit’’. Truth be told, the moment PMB won election things changed in Nigeria. The fear of Buhari became the beginning of wisdom for the lovers of impunity who were king makers in the kleptomaniac and ruinous PDP regime. I saw sanity return to Nigeria, that I would on several occasions ask myself, is this Nigeria?
Sadly, not more than two months into the journey, the Buhari magical wand started loosing its potency and it is dangerously becoming business as usual. The bad eggs that made a hurried dialogue with their legs are back in town with magisterial arrogance and the message they are sending to the rest of us is clear as the tropical sun: your Buhari is not a saint you thought he was.
We don’t need a soothsayer to tell us that the cabals are back in full force. We voted for change but if care is not taken we will soon find ourselves with a government of cabals, by cabals and for the cabals. It is this ‘cabalcracy’ operated by PDP for the past sixteen years that thwarted the growth of Nigeria. Anything and everything ugly, messy and evil about Nigeria has a trade mark of these cabals that have vowed not to rest in their unholy mission of sabotaging Nigeria and Nigerians. Many believed that PMB was ‘Sans tache” but the unfolding political events especially his political romance with the ‘enfant terrible’ of Nigeria’s politics who have the PDP’s political DNA is beginning to make some of us think twice. Under the PDP, Nigeria was a near Hobbesaianjungle where the rule of law and constitutionalism were ‘Persona non grata” because the cabals could only operate in such a political climate. And, the return of these cabals speaks volume about APC and PMB.
Most patriots and some of us who endured insults and various forms of intimidation during the over ten years of Buhari’s political wilderness did so thinking Buhari was our own Julius Nyerere. Many thought that the ‘change’ PMB and the APC were heralding will change the evil system of political ‘wuruwuru’ and ‘magomago’ that was an article of faith in PDP but now, the more we look the less we see. Anthony Cardinal Okogie the Emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Lagos advocated for a paradigm shift by the APC government in a punchy interview he granted to the Sunday Sun Newspaper some months ago but pitiably, up till now, Nigerians have not seen, and many more are not optimistic about seeing the change from the era of looting and corruption to accountability and rule of law. Agree or disagree with me, the difference between APC and PDP for now, is the difference between six and half a dozen: ‘na dem dem’ as Nigerians say.
For sixteen years, the PDP could not provide solutions to problems confronting us as a nation despite the enormous resources at their disposal. Now the ball is at the court of the sheriffs of ‘Change-cracy.’ When will Federal roads and schools be restored to it lost glories, when will we stop going to India and Germany for medical tourism, when will Nigeria stop been the land of rotten infrastructure and abandoned government projects, when will the political atmosphere be favourable for economic growth and private sector investment, when will NEPA (Never expect light always) become NAEL (Nigerians always expect light), MTN is the pride of South Africa when will NITEL become our National pride, when will the Nigerian Airways, Nigerian Water ways, Nigerian Rail way Co-operation wake up from the state of comatose, when will PMB sale the over 12 Jets in the presidential fleet and toe the path of the Pope and other modest Head of states that make use of their national carrier for both local and international engagements, when will Nigerians begin to sleep with both eyes closed because Abuja has realized that her primary responsibility is the protection of lives and properties of her citizens, when will the DSS and NPF and their sister security agencies realize that in a democracy there is rule of law and respect for the fundamental rights of citizens, when will Nigerian graduates stop selling moi-moi in the streets of Ajegunle to eke out a living, when will we begin to enjoy free and quantitative education in this country, when will our economy move from petro-dollar based to agric based with the return of the groundnut pyramids in the North , Cocoa and timber plantations in the West and the Palm oil plantations in the East as it used to be in the first Republic?
Truly, the Buhari we knew before the Presidential election have changed. For now we only read about change in the pages of newspapers and lying mouths of APC politicians but this was not the type of change Nigerians stood under the sun to enthrone with their voters cards. Any change that will not make a cup of garri, basket of tomatoes, Fufu or Amala cheap for an average Nigerian is useless. Nigerians can’t wait any longer. We are running out of patience with Baba go slow and the earlier he starts working the talk the better for him and the APC because we still have our voters cards.
Martin-Hassan EZE (09056563790)
Free-lance journalist/Writer/ columnist