THE DAMP SQUIB REBIRTH

Is there a more severe form of man-to-man cruelty than that of the annihilation of hope? Human existence is replete with all manner and forms of cruelty, but I am yet to learn of one more total in its devastative effects than that of the destruction of hope. Without hope there's no optimism; without optimism there cannot be confidence; without confidence there can be no achievement. Thus, with hope destroyed, the reason for existence is absolutely shattered. As that most beautiful of poets put it, "Not without hope we suffer and mourn." (William Wordsworth; April 7, 1770 - April 23, 1850)

In war, there must be hope for peace; in famine, there must be hope for rain; in strife, there must be hope for rapprochement; and in poverty, there must be hope for prosperity. In the context of my manacled country, we can only hope for hope; the sure manifestation of mental and emotional devastation; the result of man-to-man injustice. Where else in the world is money interred like cadavers? When in human civilization was money used for roofing support, or as insulation in attics? My dear country holds the record for innovation in thievery and skulduggery, a record that can, and will, never be surpassed. If you think this is hyperbole, you don't live in Nigeria!

It pains me no end to infer that the state of affairs (or rather, of non-affairs, as nothing is working, in a positive sense) we are currently enduring has been largely self-inflicted, and I have no shame (as a former ardent supporter) in declaring that Buhari has single-handedly re-delivered Nigerians to the unrepentant destroyers of hope, and to the cabal of insatiable peculators of our commonwealth. Buhari showed he lacked the political nous to deal with the socio-political and economic malaise that has burdened Nigerians for many a year. It is one thing to be well-intentioned, but an entirely different thing to match those intentions with the requisite political know-how and operational intelligence. Buhari lacks both, to the detriment of Nigerians who were solidly behind him, myself included. So much trust and belief was invested in Buhari and he has criminally squandered it all. The messiah has turned out to be more lame than a lame duck, and the tiger has been tamed by the marauding herd of obnoxious career thieves. If you think I'm being overly harsh, go and endure just a couple of weeks in Nigeria!

The hope of a national rebirth proved a damp squib and the high expectation of a new dawn has become a nightmare of unimaginable proportions. All blame is attributable to Buhari and the reason is obvious and simple. The very moment Buhari acceded to that insufferable Bukola Saraki's dodgy emergence as the Senate President, Buhari's, along with Nigerians', fate was sealed. Buhari, for reasons known only to him, sold out and enslaved Nigerians in the process. All that nonsense about him being for nobody and everybody is now haunting him and Nigerians. Whatever political capital he hoped to gain from this eternal folly has gone with the wind and Nigerians are on the high seas with no lifeboats. What on earth was he thinking of when he gave such a committed aginner so much leeway? Buhari's current state of health has nothing to do with his failure; he failed long before he became ill. Frankly, if he were to sufficiently recover now and regain the mantle of leadership, nothing of meaningful tangibleness could ever be achieved by him. He has welshed on his promises to Nigerians and has now enabled the shysters to rule the roost.

I never imagined the day would come that I would finally turn my back on Buhari, but my loyalty and sympathy are with my fellow Nigerians, first and foremost. Buhari is best advised to concede defeat, attend to his failing health and leave Nigerians to lick their wounds while they work out a way out of the cesspit he has dug for them. Surely, there has to be a way, and we will find it even if the 'how' is a bit fuzzy right now. Nigeria will not go down, despite Buhari's best endeavours!

It is fitting to end this piece with another soul-searching observation by William Wordsworth, and see if it rings in the ears of the purveyors of evil: "Rapine, avarice, expense: this is idolatry, and these we adore. Plain living and high thinking are no more."              

FLAILING, FAILING AND AILING

As we approach the ‘half-time’ of Buhari’s presidency and government, it is worth taking the time to take stock and carefully, and dispassionately, assess exactly where we came from, where we are at, and where we expected to be at. It is no use rehashing the usual mundane narrative of politicians destroying the very fabric of our national existence and relevance. We’re past the time analyzing and/or rationalizing the very root of the rottenness in our political and socioeconomic life. The time for asking questions about how and what got us into the messiness that has become an albatross round the neck of our collective hopes and desires as a sovereign nation, and united federal constituents, is long gone. The time for serious answers has come. Nigeria is bogged down by an albatross of corruption, insecurity, hopelessness, political disarray, and the incongruities of politics and service delivery. Hyperbole this is not. Each and every one of us knows our history, and no matter our individual political colouration, we know we are better than this and we can do better than this, and do, we must..

So, before we come to any conclusions as to how our expectations of Buhari's two years in office have panned out, we should carefully consider our own level of expectations in line with the tons of promises made by the APC in the run-up to the 2015 elections. I reckon we, the ordinary Nigerians whose votes were being canvassed for, were unforgivably gullible in allowing ourselves to be herded like cattle into the political nirvana espoused by the APC. This herd mentality, I dare say, beclouded our collective ability to be sensible in discerning what was realistically achievable and which promises were the proverbial pies in the sky. Some may now come forward, triumphantly beat their chests and say 'I told you so', but no one should be fooled by such puerile show of triumphalism, because those kind of people had their own ulterior motive for the steadfastness and unmitigated bile with which they turned their noses up at the dizzying and dazzling array of promises. The truth of the matter is if the APC had made even half the promises they made in their electioneering campaigns, the outcome of the elections wouldn't have been any different. People just wanted a departure from the PDP's way of life.

All over the democratic world, political parties of all hues make desperate promises at election times. In all of human history, not a single political party in power, has gone on to fulfill every single promise made at election times, and to have expected so much of Buhari has been our Achilles' heel. However, all said and done, we fell under the spell of the APC mainly because Nigerians were sick to the back teeth of the blatant and unchecked level of corruption that pervaded the PDP's government of Jonathan Goodluck, such that we were more than prepared to change the trajectory and direction of our national travel. The unraveling of the level of inhumanity, culminating in the discoveries of unimaginable amounts of money stashed in people's houses, gardens, graveyards, and suchlike is actually a validation of our fury. All of these taking place in a country where access to adequate, and timely, medical care is an impossibility; education, an absolute shambles; unemployment figures, off the scale; infrastructural development, non-existent; salaries going unpaid for months, and pensioners unjustifiably, and undeservingly, dying in penury. A country in which social media is rife with arguments about the origin of 'gbegiri' and 'amala', rather than celebrate technological advancements and political solutions to the myriad of ills afflicting us! Is that the Nigeria to be proud of? Is that the Nigeria many in the diaspora aspire to go back to? Why are we so adept at shooting ourselves in the foot? 
What could be more befuddling than the fact that Buhari, with his acclaimed intolerance to corruption, being blindsided, outfoxed, outmaneuvered and sideswiped by the corrupt cabal he so passionately and vehemently promised to eradicate? How many cases of corrupt prominent politicians and officials have been successfully concluded? It may be unfair to put all of these failures solely at Buhari's feet, but he must bear some measure of responsibility for the judicial fiascos that have so inauspiciously defined the corruption-fighting agencies like the ICPC and, more pointedly, the EFCC. They have blurred the line between prosecution and persecution.

Not only that. Even within his own whiter than white cabinet, there are unrepentant and incurable fraudsters and hoodlums that have been, and being, exposed with frightening rapidity. Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Federal Government is currently under investigation (the report into the allegations are due out today, incidentally) for defrauding PINE (the Presidential Initiative for the North-East), which was set up by Buhari to facilitate relief, and rehabilitation, efforts for IDPs. What could be more evil than defrauding desperately needy and helpless persons who have been devastated by Boko Haram, and most of whom have lost the little they ever had? Thank goodness, more than eighty of the poor girls were released over the weekend, but with over a hundred still unaccounted for, what more should concentrate the minds of those charged with their welfare and rehabilitation? Still, they loot the very funds that were set up to aid their resettlement. What of the inordinate influence of Abba Kyari has on the administration of Government in Aso Rock? Didn't even, Aisha, the wife of the President, decry the serial failures and insensitiveness of her own husband's government? What a conscientious, classy and brave woman!

The economy has nosedived, while the CBN woefully failed in its constitutional responsibility to promptly implement monetary measures to alleviate the human suffering and corporate discomfiture that resulted from the depression of crude oil prices. The Senate and the House of Representatives are populated by proven thieves, uneducated opportunists, clowns, downright incorrigibles, with a bunch of hillbillies, whose only qualification is their mastery of thuggery, thrown into the mix. You had a particular Dino Melaye sarcastically singing "A je kun iya ni o je...." in mockery of severe allegations against him! What a classic example of the perversion that our so-called elected representatives so effortlessly and perfectly embody! Oh, Nigeria! They are more of lawbreakers than lawmakers. States' Houses of Assembly are just there to rubber-stamp whatever the ravenous State Governor opts to do. Local Government Chairmen are appendages of their governors and serve no discernible useful purpose. The judiciary is obscenely infested with God-forsaken rotten characters whose only concern is the dollar, and truckloads of it. Openly and happily selling justice to the highest bidder, and screwing innocent citizens whose only 'crimes' are poverty and deprivation, foisted on them by the very injustice being perpetuated and propagated by the perfidious and venal judiciary.

Yes, the problems are too many and they run too deep. To expect Buhari to confront so many and so much in so little time is insanely unreasonable and patently unkind. However, Nigeria is made more moribund by Buhari's erraticism in application, lethargy in motion and confusion in thought. Right now, we are at a crossroads: Buhari is flailing, his health is failing and Nigeria is ailing. According to Femi Adesina, the President is now in London for follow-up treatments. We can only pray and hope that he gets well soon, both for his sake and Nigeria's because the hawks are circling and the sharks are plotting. The brigade of recreants are now making frantic moves to position themselves for the possible eventuality of Buhari's long-term indisposition. Prevarications emanating from Aso Rock are not helping matters. Why should the state of the President's health be shrouded in so much secrecy? Nigerians deserve, and expect, to know the truth about their President's health. Haven't we learned our lessons from the Y'ardua's soap opera of not so many moons ago? These are worryingly ominous and acutely depressing times.  

All of these point to the sad reality that we are nowhere near where we ought to be; we are, as a matter of fact, a million miles away from the starting grid. The all-conquering Buhari has been reduced to an all-wavering Buhari and sadly, Nigeria and Nigerians are the losers. The slogan of 'Change' has been all but drowned out, but we must be careful not to fall back into the arms of the very evil cabal that brought us, in the first place, to this rather fraught moment. As the eminently erudite John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 - June 4, 2010) said, "Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be." We all have a responsibility to reignite the flame of change and prevent it from flickering and petering out. Our political differences, which incidentally are not based on any concrete readily identifiable ideologies, must not preclude our togetherness in the face of adversity, nor must they usurp our common resolve to face down the common enemy of our collective destiny. Some so-called educated and supposedly enlightened folks just can't see past the politics of hate, and deep down, they stand for nothing but pretend they care about everything. Silliness and pettiness must give way seriousness, and energy dispensed on working together to help improve our lot, and move Nigeria forward. It's time for us to detach parochialism from realism, decouple cynicism from sincerity, and be better educated and more mature, politically. This is at the very core of change, and I have never seen progress where there was no change. Change has to begin with the self, in an honest, deliberate and thoughtful manner.
There has never been a better time than now for us to stand up and be counted, otherwise what has gone on before would be a garden party compared to what may yet come as a result of our apathetic response to the perilous state of our national affairs, well-being and global relevance. I may be denounced as a wooly Pollyanna, but I make no apologies for having an unswerving trust in the readiness of Nigerians to rail, and rally, against any insidious attempt by the gross and contemptible goons that pollute our political ambience to make a U-turn to the politics of the past. We must map a new way to the future, conscious of the price of failure to do so in a timely fashion.
Herd mentality might have been our undoing in 2015, but that would be small beer compared to what would happen if we all became lemmings and fell off the cliff edge. Our collective thinking cap has to be slapped tightly on. History doesn't make men; men make history. If needs be, we must make the Arab Spring look like a picnic, make the Venezuelan uprising seem like a tea party, and make the South Korean riots akin to a peace conference! These are desperate times that call for desperate action. We must all play our part to rescue our country from the unapologetic troglodytes in the corridors of power. The torch of justice must be shone into all the nooks and crannies of our national life and the stain of corruption expunged from our social fabric once and for all. Yes, this sounds extravagantly fanciful, but it's certainly not impossible if the desire is real and the will is strong. We must shout in their ears 'JUSTICE IS BLIND', and chant in their faces, the uncompromising motto of The District of Columbia, "JUSTITIA OMNIBUS" (Justice for all)

We must draw strength from the ever-encouraging and sagacious words of a former POTUS, Harry S Truman (May 8, 1884 - December 26, 1972), "Men make history and not the other way round. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."
May the good Lord bless the beautiful Federal Republic of Nigeria and its extraordinarily resourceful citizens, now and always.

THE PERFIDY OF 'CONSTITUTED AUTHORITY'

Something I never thought would ever seriously cross my mind, not to talk of revealing such dark thoughts. We have, however, reached a point of no return such that verbalizing such a thought is most definitely not out of place, nor is it out of sync with the direction of travel most Nigerians would wish our country to take. My confidence is certainly not misplaced if I opined that most Nigerians would, today, not resent an enforced hiatus in the way our country is being run to the ground. Be honest with yourself, how would you react if you were to wake up in the morning and realized there had been a military takeover of government? Simple question. I understand the difficulty inherent in the contemplation of such a scenario, but being bombarded daily with an unimaginable barrage of impunities calls for a different approach. Anyone that suggests we’re in a democracy must either be out of kilter with reality or complicitous or both. Nigeria is a textbook example of a kakistocracy, laced with not a small dose of theocracy. Some might say, with some justification, that armed rebellion isn’t the solution to our man-made troubles. I have no issues with that at all. However, it has to be said that Nigerian contemporary history isn’t exactly replete with successful acts of peaceful civil disobedience. Our oppressors hold all the levers of power and they deride even our most cherished privileges of freedom of speech and of expression.

The court system is no longer the last bastion of democracy, but the first defender of tyranny and oppression. Corruption cases involving the robbing elite go on for years without resolution and if or when such are resolved, they are invariably in favour of the corrupt. The common man on the street has his case expeditiously resolved and in most cases end up with a guilty verdict. When you have ill-gotten wealth to burn, justice is inevitably skewed in your favour; to be poor in the Nigeria of today is a capital offence for which there can be no mitigation. When you're with people unjustifiably feeling the pressures of life, then you realise no amount of sermonizing about a better tomorrow would soothe. One doesn't need to have an Einstein-type brain nor be blessed with the mind of Socrates to come to the conclusion that the proliferation of churches has a direct correlation with the level of poverty in our society. It is exactly this that unscrupulous figures masquerading themselves as pastors are tapping into. When poverty bites real hard, cognitive thinking is the first casualty as people desperately look for ways to break out of the cycle, and what better way than to hide behind the cloak of religion? It's a double-whammy. Being screwed by politicians and mercilessly creamed off by fake pastors. What an existence! The whole system is rigged against the common man.

The Constitution, in its present form, is working against the interests and protection of the common man and must be overhauled. To rely on this crop of thieves that hold the reins of power to rectify the deficiencies in our Constitution is tantamount to relying on a vampire to donate blood. The courts are on their side and the fake religionists are their bedfellows. For how much longer are we going to bear this suffocative stench of inhumanity?

As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't be at all sorry to see the back of these ungodly oppressors and I would welcome a respite from their unspeakable acts of inhumanity, recklessness and stupidness. If an armed revolt is what it takes then so be it. I'm willing and ready to play my part. To die for a cause is preferable to dying from a curse. This curse on our nation has to be exorcised.     

THE LAST CHANCE SALON

First and foremost, I wish each and every one a much happier, healthier and more prosperous 2017.

I’d just like to use this opportunity to share my opinion on the state of play, as far as our collective destiny is concerned. This will most certainly not be a lengthy piece, but will just touch on the three most important aspects of our personal and national lives as we enter into yet another uncertain year. However, amidst the uncertainties, a certain pattern is emerging which should be of serious concern to all well-meaning Nigerians. The three areas I alluded to earlier are: the economy, unemployment and the much-vaunted war on corruption. I deliberately put them in that order, as I believe that the focus of this government's actions need to reflect their relative importance in that exact order.

The phrase "it’s the economy, stupid", attributed to the quondam President of the United States, Bill Clinton, has been oft-quoted. Considering the economy as the backdrop to any meaningful development and progress is kindergarten stuff. We all know it. The longanimity of Nigerians has been taken for granted, and ignored, for far too long by those invested with the authority to bring about a positive change in their fortunes. It was our largely collective belief that Buhari represented a welcome departure from the abnormal norm that we put our hope in him to herald in a new era of accountability and performance. The question most Nigerians now ask is ‘was that hope chimerical?’ The answer to that question depends on who you ask, but the consensus is, even among the staunchest of Buhari supporters (of which I was one, no shame in that), Buhari has so far miserably failed to deliver on the economy. Without a positive turnaround in the economy, other aspects of national life suffer. The tohubohu within the economic team has wreaked havoc on the already-suffering populace and there appears to be no respite in sight. 2016 was a complete miss; let’s hope 2017 fares better.

The big problem of unemployment is no nearer resolving than that of the economy. How could it be in any case? A sick economy bears no good fruit, and high unemployment is a direct result of a good-for-nothing economy. With all the promises and various initiatives aimed at the tens of millions of unemployed people, albeit with admirable intentions, the problem of unemployment has got rather worse, not better. This is not heaping the blame on the current administration, as the problem is long-standing and rather complex, but workable solutions are not impossible to device and implement. Of course it will take time for any solution to even begin to scratch the surface of the problem, but the slowness of the already-announced initiatives compound the problem rather than solve it. Unemployment isn’t a problem to be politicized, as lives depend on its resolution. Headline grabbers don’t help anyone, least of all those whose lives and livelihoods are seriously impacted by it. The government’s scorecard on this problem makes for a grim reading.

As far as the war on corruption is concerned, it’s fair to say Buhari is fast losing credibility, if he hasn’t already lost all. This so-called war on corruption is now so farcical it’s beyond belief. If anything, Buhari was voted in on the promise of cleaning up the system and ridding the administration of government affairs of unchecked graft. One can only imagine how many cases are ongoing that are not mired in one judicial logjam or the other. In all honesty, the war on corruption could now better be described as a romcom! Serious probeable allegations inside the Presidency itself have gone unprobed. Credible allegations against government cabinet ministers have been swept under the carpet. You see, inconvenient truths have to be said if one was to be an objective participant in this democracy of ours. The EFCC Chairman is even under fire and no one knows whether he’ll be in the post for much longer! For the life of me, I don’t know where all this would lead. He who wants to lead such an important war, as that on corruption, must demonstrate his intolerance of it regardless of who is involved. Buhari has demonstrably failed in this singular regard, and in the process, has lent credence to the claims of many that this is a phoney war, waged for political reasons. This is a sad indictment on Buhari’s sincerity of purpose, and Nigerians are perplexed, and vexed, by it.

The above are views held by many as of December 2016, but what turnaround there might be in 2017 depends on the Buhari’s government's willingness and readiness to make corrections and the necessary modifications relating to the issues that directly impact people’s lives. 2017 is Buhari’s last chance salon, because 2018 will most certainly be dominated by political jostling for 2019. So, to redeem himself and his reputation, Buhari has to make seriously great inroads in 2017. History, and posterity, would judge him by 2017. He should not betray the trust and goodwill of Nigerians.

Once again, Happy New Year to all, and God bless the Federal Republic Of Nigeria.