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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / ISSUE: Before They Misslead The President- By Dele Momodu (559 Views)
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ISSUE: Before They Misslead The President- By Dele Momodu by KissCODE(m): 12:13pm On Jun 11, 2016 |
Fellow Nigerians, let me say categorically and
emphatically that our dear beloved country is
dangerously haemorrhaging again and this
perfidious drift must be halted urgently
before we all end up in perdition. Anyone
telling President Muhammadu Buhari that all is
well or that his government is moving in the
right direction is either lying or pretending like
a rattlesnake. And there are many scorpions
around ready to mislead every government
and move on effortlessly when things fall
apart. For sure President Buhari possesses the
ability to move this country in the right
direction and lead us to where we want to be
but right now it is not happening and the soul
of the people palpitates! I’ve been on several
television and radio interviews in the past one
week and the commonest question is on the
performance of our President. The general
perception is that the change mantra seems
not to be working and the world is worried
because of the importance of Nigeria in the
comity of nations.
I hope our President will get to see this piece,
read it and ruminate on the points I will raise.
The Buhari government has lost a substantial
equity in just one year as I will try to explain
in the next few paragraphs. It must be noted
that Nigerians were happy with the election
that ushered in President Buhari. Even those
who did not vote for him accepted him with
unusual equanimity. Those we expected to
fight and throw tantrums simply vamoosed
into their bunkers. The expectations were
high then but I doubt if enough effort was
put into seizing the momentum and
translating it into a mass movement that
would have stood the test of time. It is not
too late to reclaim the moment.
The faith Nigerians had in the abilities and
incorruptibility of Buhari is mighty enough to
move mountains. But unfortunately, I think
the government took many things for
granted once it took over the reins of power.
The government mistakenly believed that the
support of the people was like several blank
cheques which it could cash at any point in
time. The general impatience of Nigerians and
their desire for progressive action were never
put into consideration. I remember writing
two memos to our President in quick
successions, when I realised that Nigerians
were getting restless and restive, one of which
was the desperate memo that earned me an
invitation to the Presidential Villa for which I
am so honoured and proud.
Still the government did not respond
appropriately to the yearnings of the
populace. The major problem is that the
priorities of Buhari were never palpable to
the general public as everything seemed to
operate in utmost secrecy. This is probably a
relic of the military days when surprise and
spontaneity achieved more. However,
democracy is an open book and it has
become even more so since the internet
turned the world into a global information
minefield. I’m sure it was assumed that the
people would never doubt or query the
sincerity of a messiah. So there was no need
to provide any real information about the
activities of government. That was the first
fallacy.
The second fallacy is that people would give
the President plenty of time to unfold his
change agenda. One year on, it is obvious
that this has not been the case. President
Buhari should have moved faster once the
people started grumbling about the apparent
sluggishness of his administration. The
selection of his cabinet was annoyingly slow
and by the time it eventually came it had
evaporated into a deja vu. There was no
element of surprise to elicit major excitement.
In fact, most people wondered why it took
so long to assemble his present team most of
whom he could have picked in two weeks or
even before he was sworn in. The
demystification of Buhari became manifest
from that moment not because the team he
picked is not worthy or creditable but
because the interminable delay in making the
choices cost the nation dearly.
The next problem was that the President
should have moved to unite and unify the
country immediately. It was clear that the
previous administrations had riven great
division into the Nigerian polity. A new
beginning seeking to heal the ulcerous,
cancerous wounds of religious and ethnic
disunity and disaffection was required.
However, starting with a war of attrition, it
was obvious our President would soon have
his hands full. Not that some of the wars were
unnecessary but the timing and methodology
should have been meticulously weighed and
analysed before launching into the requisite
offensive. There was a lot to learn from our
nascent democracy. It would have been
easier to embark on some of these wars as a
military ruler that the President formerly was
but not as a civilian leader which the
President now is. That realisation appears to
have been missed by some of our President
Buhari’s advisers.
For example, while the war against corruption
was desperately urgent, it ought to have been
known that it was intricately and delicately
tied to the economy. The need to recover the
looted funds as quickly as possible and use
them to reinvigorate the economy needed to
be balanced by the need to do so
expeditiously and tactfully so that the main
objective would be fulfilled. My humble
opinion and advice would have been to use
the carrot and stick method rather than the
kill and go style that has now exposed our
economy to grave danger and imminent
collapse. The angry mob of Nigerians goading
on our President has blatantly refused to
assimilate the magnitude of the resultant
repercussions. But it should be noted that
those who feel frustrated about a rotten
system can never be bothered if the entire
structure collapses. It is such acute
disillusionment that gave rise to the
ascendancy of a Donald Trump in America. It
is the duty and responsibility of leadership to
wear its thinking cap well and rise above the
giddiness of the baying crowd who have
nothing to lose and only wish to see the
spectacle of blood flowing without any
degree of humanity or compassion for the
impoverished masses that they claim to
represent. The same people who hailed Buhari
yesterday are the ones denigrating him today.
Once it was impossible to generalise the war
against corruption to engulf all politicians
tainted with corruption no matter their
affiliation the government should have
requested for a blanket return of government
booty via negotiation with all public office
holders. Those who failed to take up this
generous offer of recovery could then be
visited with the might and power of
retributive justice. An example of when this
great opportunity was missed was when
government unreasonably told Nigerians they
could no longer pay foreign currencies in cash
into their accounts. Perhaps government in its
naivety did not remember that politicians had
prosecuted the last election through the
almighty dollar because it reduced the
bulkiness of gratifications. Government should
have patiently waited for the dollars to come
in, whether in cash or not, before pouncing on
the owners. Once that opportunity was
missed, the next was to discreetly stretch its
tentacles across the world in search of thieves
and money launderers. Assets at home and
abroad should have been quietly traced for
possible confiscation. This could have been
done without all the present grandstanding
and hullabaloo. When you hear the elephant
stomping the ground behind you in a one
directional manner, you know it is time to run
and hide. In this period when we are
celebrating the life and times of Mohammed
Ali perhaps it is poignant to say that you do
not telegraph your punches rather you “rope
a dope”!
Also, the moment our President chose a
military style of operation he should have
known that corruption would fight back with
ferocity and velocity. For example, once it
seemed the former President, Dr Goodluck
Jonathan had been marked for humiliation
even demolition, I knew our President was
playing with the tiger’s tail and I sounded my
note of warning. Before we could say Jack
Robinson, the Niger Delta avengers returned
with a vengeance and brought us back to our
knees. Today our oil production has plunged
to an all-time low even when we had been
grappling with the nightmare of low crude oil
prices. The Niger Delta Avengers army seems
ready to make Boko Haram look like child’s
play as they strangulate the economy,
degrade the environment and decimate the
local population that they claim to be fighting
for. Is this what we need to add to our
plethora of problems at this time? The
answer is a big NO.
The militarisation of Nigeria has become very
suffocating. Shiites are being killed in droves
in the North West. Mass graves have been
identified and uncovered. The Biafra agitators
are being massacred in broad-day light and its
leaders detained indefinitely. Boko Haram
remains a monumental menace to society
despite the extra-ordinary efforts of our
military and Intelligence agencies. The Fulani
and or Libyan herdsmen have added to the
conundrum out of the blues. Different militant
groups are now armed to the teeth. Trust me
these guys don’t look like they are joking.
Nobody fights on as many fronts as this
government now seems to be fighting
without risking it all.
Many have argued that Nigeria should be
restructured. It is believed that its present
configuration is too artificial. Most of the
States are no longer viable while some fringe
or full-blown eccentrics are asking for more.
It is interesting that in the build up to
independence our leaders from the North,
Southwest and East were saying the same
thing in different words. Nigeria is peopled by
diverse nationalities and any nation must
recognise this diversity and give it voice and
room to flourish. A continuous denial of this
fact can only lead to self-destruction. One of
our erstwhile leaders in his wisdom foisted
unitary system on us when we had successfully
thrived under true federalism. That was a
mark of courage notwithstanding that it was
a totally flawed decision. Our President must
find a similar kind of courage to find and
examine all the previous recommendations
made during different and various
constitutional conferences and implement the
universal clamour for true federalism. There is
nothing new under the sun, as they say, our
President already has a rich reservoir of
knowledge deposited in some government
archives to reach the best decision and
modality that will achieve this end. My simple
solution, Nigeria must return to and embrace
and practise true Federalism. Not doing so is
like pushing our luck too far and postponing
doomsday.
What is of utmost importance in calling for a
political configuration that will meet the
yearnings of our people is the state of the
economy. My submission is that the economy
will never recover in an atmosphere of
tension, uncertainty and panic. The Federal
Government needs to tone down the
negative rhetoric about our country. That
unfortunate moniker of a corrupt nation that
has been hung round our necks is dragging us
down and denying Nigeria the investment in
its future that it requires. Our President must
make it clear that he is not the only saint in
Nigeria but that the majority of Nigerians are
saints and he is the leader who epitomises
that. This is why he was chosen by the
majority of good and well-meaning Nigerians
who want someone that would demonstrate
to the world that the generality of Nigerians
are decent, hardworking and honest and that
it is a small minority of Nigerians that are
crooks. We must begin to walk away from
our ugly past and work assiduously for a
beautiful future.
Every nation has lived through its terrible
moments but none ever cuddled the past
forever as we now seem to be doing. Nigeria
is richly blessed with human and natural
resources. There is always a new dawn
tomorrow and we must get ready for it,
embrace it and by so doing seize the
initiative. There would always be criminals in
every society but we must never allow them
to steal our future or still dominate our
narrative when we have so many great men
and women we can be proud of. Fortunately,
we have a President that stands head and
shoulders above all else and he clearly leads
the way. He must now show it by moving at
the fast pace that his country desires, nay
demands! |
Re: ISSUE: Before They Misslead The President- By Dele Momodu by KissCODE(m): 12:17pm On Jun 11, 2016 |
Source: http://www.signalng.com/issues-mislead-president-buhari-dele-momodu/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter Lalasticlala, mynd44, ishilove, Oga seun please help us to take this issue the president. Thank u |
Re: ISSUE: Before They Misslead The President- By Dele Momodu by Nobody: 1:07pm On Jun 11, 2016 |
Who is doing the leading? Who is leading who From where to where 5% 95% boko haram Avengers ND Militant I.p.o.b, Fulani cows brothers LONG LIVE |
Re: ISSUE: Before They Misslead The President- By Dele Momodu by KissCODE(m): 1:16pm On Jun 11, 2016 |
wolfslair:long live to who Dear sister? Which of the above mentioned has the long live? |
Re: ISSUE: Before They Misslead The President- By Dele Momodu by Nobody: 1:29pm On Jun 11, 2016 |
[quote author=KissCODE post=46476659]long live to who Dear sister? Which of the above mentioned has the long live?[/quote YOU WANT ME BANNED LONG LIVE |
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