Columns

Drumbeats of Fear in the Giant Walk to 2019

September 11, 2017

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The gang of our political pasts are out, already, beating the drums for 2019. The individualists’ believe in their corrupt abilities will never give up personal ambition for anything. Atiku Abubakar and the woman are only examples God decides to let us know how the idea of individualism is rampant in our midst and still recalcitrant, making huge waves against national, collective interest and goodwill of the majority.
They will deny any truth and ignore any fact to push for their old ways of misleading the people. They don’t believe that change has taken effect and the typical mind of the poorest voter has developed beyond their ploys to swear lies into some truth that can help them in their callous, blind, desperate ambition. How poor students of history since 2015 campaign they are? It is a pity.
Part of the bastardisation of the ruined Nigeria we are collecting back today is the destruction of Institutions and the rise of individualism. The State institutions have been weakened over time, by some deliberate government policies shielded with the cruel whims of the individualist at the helm. It began in the mid-eighties and has run across the decades that followed up to the bus stop of 2015.
Individualism has been the silent thorn in the flesh of the nation ever since and it is the sole menace that instituted corruption in our personal and public lives. Individualism has placed the self above any other consideration of anything relating to our collective living. It has crept selfishness and greed into matters of the State, of common interest, and of public concern. And it was an accepted norm even to the oldest living Nigerian. Sad.

The institutors of the self against common interest have gained much from it. It has made them rich, powerful and revered at any level of the nation. They have also built a chain of loyalist who benefitted much from the outright theft of public assets and rendered the public and the nation itself to be at their own mercies. They have killed our hearts and souls and arrested our collective will to do anything on our own. And we had come a long dirty way here.
With democracy, gradualism was expected to correct much of the ruins but unfortunately, our type of democracy and its practices have, instead, reopened another era of more theft to build more powerful individuals and plunge the State to a level that was unbearable even to the enemy. Because of our number, we should be powerful and rich. But then even the enemy thought that if we break down, the world would witness a humanitarian crisis that cannot be managed by nations of the west and east put together.
Thank God we passed that stage and with a renewed hope of changing government from the hands of the wicked destroyers to a more responsible group that can work for the collective good and public interest. The ascension of PMB gave everyone, at least at the beginning; hope that the nation can at the least continue to remain intact. To the obedient follower, collective fate and unity in stress and distress are not negotiable again.
And thank God, all the tests of national jeopardy orchestrated by the same individualist power losers and their cohorts, have failed. The first two and more years have been characterised by different calamities and challenged our collective will but failed because God’s Will for Nigeria cannot be changed by any individual, group or institutional interest and greed, no matter their strength. But why all the renewed insecurity in the name of one clan, national jeopardy, the hate speech, the curses, intimidation, and frustration? What for?
First, PMB has earned his name and standing in the public’s eye by remaining himself, calm and committed to work. Those who expected to see a renewed democratic Buhari that could be shaken have been disappointed that the man doesn’t even care about whatever immaterial to the nation. His commitment and dogged pursuit of national duty has earned him more public acceptance and goodwill, to the sadness of the individualists who expected him to be tamed by the rules of their prejudicial democratic arrangements to their advantage
Second, the man has made promises and kept them. He has tamed the insurgency, initiated and consolidated youth engagement with social welfare to them, to the aged, and the unemployed. He has also redirected the cause of national electricity generation and distribution and that has enhanced power supply to make visible differences between then and now. These are enough offences to the wicked public enemy.
The promises of the government were great landmarks that removed our youth and the handicapped and other marginals from the shackles of abuse by the individualists who enslaved them and all of us to their whims and caprices. Now, the achievements have changed the idea of the youth who were born into a corrupt society and held corruption as a normal way of life to see the real right way. And that exposes them and puts their evil plans in danger.

Third, the promise of the war against corruption was kept to the tune of indictment and arrest of the guilty, mainly the stooges of the glorified individualists, who are biting fingers to witness judgment day unfold before their very eyes. It is still happening and the President is not making noise about that, this and all of the successes as points to his credit. He aspires even more.
Fourth, the loopholes, conduit pipes that outlaid corruption into the hands of the custodians of corruption are now blocked, making them poorer by day, and by implication, they are fast losing loyalty to the new leader of everyone who was a victim of individualist cruelty, greed, and theft. They have lost grip on any State asset and cannot tap any more resource from the coffers of the now safeguarded public treasury.
Fifth, the politician/business men among the individualists have suffered a loss of impossible profits in their businesses which were hinged above the economic interest of the nation all the years. Their ways have been detected and arrested by the new idea of ‘nation first.’ New policies and redirected ways of doing business, has put all legal business interests below the dues for the State.
That has weakened their grip on the industries and markets and most companies working at the mercy of individualists’ abuse of State apparatus for personal, overriding interests to the detriment of the disadvantaged, the poor and the godfatherless have long been out of business. The key recent drum beater is a victim of ‘nation first.’
Sixth, all their treachery, plots and wicked actions, wishes and hopes have failed to the open understanding of the public. The lies have finished and even if they create more, the market for stupid ideas and public enemy cruelty isn’t here again. The issues have widened the public’s eyes and oriented large part of the populace about the single man fighting a silent but hot war against a collection of once who is who, mighty, and defeating them on every attack.
Seventh, public awareness about deaths of past leaders has redefined the truth and now unearthed and understood the types of killing the godly politician on behalf of God, disgracing them at every point or level of their fake influence. But the worst for them is the fact that no campaign in the years ahead will work with deception because the elements in the system working on behalf of their godfathers have shown themselves to the public and to their constituencies, dimming their chances for return or imposition
Eighth, 2019 is inching close to the advantage of the incumbent due to public goodwill, acceptance, and sympathy for the travails the President had to go through on their behalf, weighing the risks and calculated quantum of public time and resources abused, hijacked and wasted so much for cruelty and public enmity. They hold the promise to remove the bad elements from the system by disgracing them at the courts of public opinion and choice, across the nation.
Atiku Abubakar’s die-hard ambition and plots to be president have long been known to even the least likely Nigerian. His coming through the mouth of a woman may not be expected but his interest has been waiting for time, and by his new plans, it is either 2019 or never. Both the woman and the former Vice President were part of the camouflage that was popularised by the popularity of PMB and APC but they were never in any frame of the leadership.
But along the way, the new government policies shutting every corruption loophole and mitigated every opportunity or chance for inflation of contracts, over withdrawal, reckless expenditure without accountability have frustrated the corrupt among the ministers. Sincerity and honest service anywhere in the world never pay in cash. They pay in kind only and to the bad eggs in the political basket of this part of the world, anything cashless is not worth going.
For not getting extra money, and since all the ways of intimidation and blackmail of the nation, the government and the President failed, it is better to rethink, because if we continue like this up to and after 2019, every iota of corruption will no longer remain in the system and public ownership and determination of public affairs and what should be, will be in the hands of the public, who will take custody of matters that affect common interests and common problems.
If we continue to 2019 like this, some of the laws the Senate and the House dumped and denied because they would help the President against them will definitely be out to work against the guilty and give the public good judgment. Institutions may have been strengthened and made effective with high efficiency by then; non-oil revenue will increase; and since we are now producing more food than we need, we will be at high prices in the foreign markets with different exportable. And that is their problem.
So, it is all about getting to 2019 and you have to pity Atiku and his likes. Don’t blame them, he has suffered much looking to be president against the Will of God. They will never succeed. But they will not believe me. For now, at least, what is going well for the nation is not in their interest and that is why we should expect many more of such bastard behaviors from others in government.

Their chain of loyalty to corruption was the reason that smuggled many of them to resurface in the new government. Many of Atiku’s boys/loyalists are in high places around the Presidency. They have used PMB’s nationalist orientation to allow anyone from any party work for the nation, his tolerance and accommodation, his simplicity and humility to chain or derail the government but to no avail. And they can continue but will never succeed.
The President knows their minds and plots but will never make reference to them. That is the least that the President will think about. But they think that their plots will yield by the might of the doctrine of their individualism. The big lesson of all is the clash of interests/ambitions of sons and their fathers among them.
And that portrays their cries in many ways and the President only watches while we speak to the people about the truth and the desirable free of any charge of the nation. Every Nigerian is presumed good and able and they are entitled to fair judgment and confidence until they prove otherwise. Among those they implanted around PMB, there are those who have changed hearts out of the President’s preachment by doing and have surrendered their loyalty to the nation and to them.
They believed their boss and took account of the truth about the country. They have seen, heard and witnessed much on first accounts. They realised that what the President is and what he is doing is the mere translation of the lessons of their faiths in life. It is a religious belief at work, not by lip service.
They now practice their Qur’an and Bible lessons and can see the much difference so they cannot afford to continue idling on deception. They also realised they are aging, no less than the President, and with the low expectancy of life, personal overriding ambitions are not worth any pursuit against the interest of the people Baba is working for.

President Buhari has influenced reshaped and changed hearts and minds from a past of meanness to a new state of contentment and peace of mind away from the burden of looking after stolen money. PMB has done so by his example of self-discipline, truthfulness, humility, and apathy to any form of corruption, strict management of public resources and trusted custody as well as his patience with the enemies of his government and his person.
He has won admiration from many right thinking Nigerians who are well educated and who understand the working of their education in the conduct of their lives. I know about families which are working to discipline members to the national example of PMB. This is a gift from the Lord Who Gives it to who He wishes. But I am also disappointed in many persons I know personally, friends even.
They are still recalcitrant, denying anything good in the man, about his government and the public acceptance, goodwill and love. They talk change and praise PMB in the public, but their habits of short-changing the public and using/creating stealing opportunities to override the public interest is the secret behind their show of shame.

For them, 2019 must not come and PMB must not proceed, using same ideas to continue to push for the public interest. And for both PMB and his voters, lovers and loyalists, the few years in government have opened much more things than expected, and with the attempts to reverse the polity by the wicked individualists and the godfathers and cohorts, the decision about 2019 and whether or not PMB is running is too early to make and too reckless to open this early.
And I know like many do that the decision does not, finally rest with PMB or even his Party. No. It rests on the owners of the mandate and of the government – the populace, the voters who first voted him and kept their promise and will to this point. It is their own thing
And even if it has to be with the President himself, his graceful exit can only be accepted by the people if a trustworthy person can be found to consolidate, build and fight the public enemies by holding the State and its laws above any myopia, personal greed, individual interest or power.
Anything less will not be in anybody’s interest. And the people will finally determine who will be in charge: either PMB or PMB loyalist without any iota of doubt. But it will, never, be Atiku or Atiku cohort. We cannot afford to sell Nigeria to anyone. Not with the much we have achieved now. No. Not now. Not again. Never.