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2019 And The Way Forward by chime8(m): 7:12am On Oct 15, 2017 |
Today, I have decided to treat one
serious matter with all the seriousness it
commands. It is the matter of who
becomes President in 2019. Muhammadu
Buhari , the incumbent is not saying
anything , either vocally or through his
usual body language . He is just quiet ,
leaving so much about his intention in
2019 to guess work and the antics of the
now celebrated cabal in Aso Rock Villa.
There is apparently no reason for this
numbness . The key issue of ill health
appears evidently settled and the
President has no other clear impediment
on the road to 2019, except himself .
He has been up and doing everything
presidential since his return from the
second medical vacation in London that
lasted 105 days. Also, no proposal about
another prolonged medical vacation in
London has been sent to the Senate . For
the first time in the last two years, it is
right to say President Buhari is hale and
hearty. On the whole, things are looking
up for the President . Nobody , except
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in the All
Progressives Congress (APC), is discussing
2019 seriously . Everybody is waiting for
the President to say something before
other things can come .
It is a legitimate aspiration if the
President who will be 76 years old in
2019 decides to stand for re - election. The
constitution says so in Chapter Six
Section 135 . But a cocktail of factors, one
of which is the alleged pre - 2015
agreement for Buhari to do one term and
then clear the way for others is causing
little unbelief in a 2019 Buhari project.
His new - found vigour and vitality
notwithstanding, health is also a factor .
Yet another is his inexplicable aversion,
even under a democracy and atmosphere
of geo - ethnic tensions, to engage to
resolve burning national issues .
And then in real governance, there have
been more reasons to doubt Buhari than
there have been to believe him . Overall ,
the integrity test is not adding up . People
are still cutting grass in the desert with
N250 million . Five hundred million naira
obtained in just one underhand deal is
regarded as chicken feed that shouldn’ t
attract serious attention from the anti-
corruption agencies . The story of
Nigeria ’s economic incapacitation after
the PDP years was believed until the
breaking of a fresh story only two weeks
ago of how Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC ) rapidly awarded
contracts amounting to $ 25billion in
about three months.
That sum is not chicken feed. It is about
25 percent larger than the national
budget of N 7trillion and about 85 percent
the size of the country ’ s external
reserves of $ 30billion . This has not made
President Buhari to issue any quotable
quote on the $25billion contract bazaar
at the NNPC , except his plea for the
matter to be taken off the public space
and settled amicably as it is done in
family disputes between the whistle
blower, Dr . Ibe Kachikwu , the junior
minister in the petroleum resources
ministry and the contracts giver, Dr .
Maikanti Baru , the Group Managing
Director (GMD ) of the NNPC .
Since then, Dr . Kachikwu has been
talking as if he was misquoted by the
press, especially after NNPC came up
with what looked like an explanation of
the deals . The man is disappointing me . I
had thought he was smarter. He has
abandoned the main matter and has
been beating about the bush. Five
percent of $ 25 billion is $ 1 .25billion . This
is the fee for blowing the whistle on Baru
and it is legitimate earning . Many of the
people listed in Forbes Magazine as
world richest do not have that kind of
money. Kachikwu should resign as a lame
duck junior minister and ask for his
whistle blower fee, which is more than
good to take home to Onicha - Ugbo .
Sorry for the digression . As I was saying,
on the matter of 2019, the odds against
Buhari are many and visible too .
Nigerians are looking for somebody with
a strategy to fix the economy, the skewed
polity , poor infrastructure and other
failed aspects of national life , not
somebody with a truck load of integrity
and good intention , both of which are by
products of a good strategy.
But we have to be fair to Buhari . If Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo , who is much older
than Buhari and a Yoruba man could
have his two terms and had even asked
for a third , why can ’t Buhari have his
own two terms for justice sake ? Can we
in all sincerity say Obasanjo was better
than Buhari ? The whole debate about
national question is also about perceived
injustices in the Nigerian system. I advise
therefore that we approach equity with
clean hands as we handle this delicate
matter of Buhari and 2019.
First, I am not persuaded by the
argument of Aisha Alhassan that there
was agreement for Buhari to do a single
term. Which agreement is she talking
about ? Even if there was one , it can be
broken to pieces and it will not be the
first time that it will be happening.
Obasanjo broke agreements and even
aspired to break the constitution itself.
Heavens did not fall . Goodluck Jonathan
also broke agreement . It was only Umaru
Musa Yar’ Adua who did not live long
enough to be tested on compliance that
did not break agreement.
Even before the recent series of
agreement breaking, General Yakubu
Gowon had broken one as far back as
1975 regarding transition from military
regime to a democratic government. Gen .
Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida was a serial
agreement breaker; so was late Gen . Sani
Abacha . Agreement breaking in Nigeria
is not a big deal . I think what we can do
is to work out a mechanism for Buhari to
break one more agreement with the least
uproar.
And this is actually the point I want to
make today. I have been listening to Mrs.
Aisha Buhari since she became First
Lady. She is always on point. She was the
first to draw attention to the existence of
complete strangers in Aso Rock, who are
causing her husband to do strange things
like abandoning trusted allies in the
battle of 2015 and vowed not to
campaign for his re- election in 2019 if
the trend persisted. This was before the
complications that precipitated the
prolonged medical vacations in UK . Upon
her arrival from UK in one of her visits
to see her sick husband , she noted
gleefully that at the appointed time,
which would be very soon , the jackals
and hyenas , in apparent reference to the
same set of stranger dwellers in Aso Rock
Villa, would be hunted and thrown out of
the villa. http://mobile.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Africa/Nigeria |
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