BusinessDayNigeria:
Government of criminals, by criminals, for criminals!
My fellow indulgees! My fellow indulgees! My fellow indulgees!” How many times did I holler you? It’s three times, and no one can claim not to have heard me. At this Square Table, you know that anytime I holler you more than once, then something must be amiss. Yes, indeed something is more than amiss. That is the more reason why I have had to holler you guys three times. Our country is in trouble. We are in such big trouble that it is difficult to say when this trouble will come to an end.
About 105 years ago, during the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, then the President of the United States, stood in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the dedication of Soldiers’ National Cemetery, and declared: “… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” This was the part of the Lincoln speech that many began to claim, adopt, and ascribe as the true meaning of democracy. It made sense to them that this should, indeed, be the case. After all, what is government, if it is not of the people? What is government, if it is not by the people? And, ultimately, what is government, if it is not for the people?
Fellow indulgees, when our country began another experiment with democracy in 1979, not a few of us real Nigerians looked forward to having a “government for the people”. But we know how that experiment was cut short in 1983 when Buhari and Idiagbon plus colleagues cut it short. After those tortuous journeys with them, Babangida, Abacha and Abubakar, no one was in any doubt that we needed “a government of the people, by the people and for the people”. It was for this reason that many people lost their lives during this dark period of Nigeria’s history. While those who wanted to fight for freedom took positive steps to achieve it, some laying down their lives in the process, there were others who made it a point to fight differently, not involving laying down of lives, but with eyes focused on an Obama-style ‘audacity of hope!’
This was hope that they would be alive to experience in this country that Abraham Lincoln’s oration about “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. So when Abdulsalam Abubakar decided to be reasonable and allow the wish of the people to reign supreme in 1999, the relief could be heard across the land. Although we can now rightly say the rest is history, the truth is Nigerians have been at the mercy of politicians, especially Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) politicians, since that time. It is difficult to connect the dots, to adequately reconcile what PDP politicians have been doing with this country for all of 14 years now. Clearly, indulgees would easily agree that we are all suffering from PDP-fatigue. But whereas ordinarily this should lead to an easy decision to seek genuinely to change and try something (another party) new, PDP will not allow this to happen. And this is the pattern they have entrenched in this country. They have turned democracy on its head! No one, genuinely, trusts the PDP to be honest, to be fair, to do the right thing in their governance of this country, at whatever level! Which is rather sad; even sadder too, that they don’t give a damn what you and I think or feel about it!
What Nigerians have found out in the last 14 years is that Abraham Lincoln’s admonition of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” has been turned upside down here in our country. What we now have is a country that is being overrun by criminals. You are on your own if you consciously decide to trust anybody without checking them out. It doesn’t matter who they are – government officials, armed forces, the police, the customs, politicians, including your representatives at the state and federal assemblies. How did we get to this low? Nowhere is safe. No one is safe, except, perhaps, those who are temporarily so because they occupy positions that allow them to fortify their security using state funds to do so. If you are a private citizen and you are able to hire your own security, including having to ask the police to provide escorts for you occasionally, as easily happens in this country, then you can be sure that your heart will still be in your mouth because you can’t trust even those you have paid to protect you! They can easily be paid twice or three times what you pay them and they will turn their backs on you. That’s our country… that’s the country PDP has spent 14 years giving to us and they are not ashamed about it.
My fellow indulgees, it is now clear to all of us, including those who are in government but are in the periphery and not in the centre of where things are happening, that we do not have government of the people, by the people, for the people. What we now have is GOVERNMENT OF CRIMINALS, BY CRIMINALS, FOR CRIMINALS! Do you want to know how I know this? Well, the PDP 14-year rule has brought out the devilish creativity in citizens. While official looters of the treasury continue to thrive with impunity, ordinary citizens, whom the PDP 14-year rule is not able to provide jobs for, are resorting to creating jobs for themselves. In such a record time, kidnapping has grown into such a huge industry that in every part of the country, kidnapping factories are being set up all around – on highways, in bushes, in villages, in townships, in state capitals. It is a business that finds economies of scale everywhere, defying all the laws of economics!There are also criminals prowling in the oil industry. We have a country overrun by oil thieves and is being presided over by the PDP government of criminals, by criminals, for criminals! You will easily know this by the absolute silence that attends their attitude to what is going on. You see that your country is being overrun by kidnappers; you see that your country is being overrun by oil thieves; you see that you country is being overrun by agencies who shamelessly buy cars at inflated prices for their principals; you see that no election is held without the PDP being accused of rigging in a manner that makes what Houdini the famed magician did pale into insignificance, under the watch of your party and you keep quiet! Hmmm! Instead, you engage in a fight to finish, in a very undemocratic manner, over trivial pursuits or things to secure your position in government. The PDP is also presiding over what easily can be interpreted as a thieving National Assembly whose members are collecting obscene salaries and emoluments and leaving the rest of us impoverished as a result.
Fellow indulgees, need I say more on why I think that this country is in a deep crisis? A country where people are helping themselves to the largesse of office, stealing from every available means; a country with a PDP government that is presiding over a country where crime and criminality have become a business, where everybody is chasing money in their different ingenious ways, including kidnapping, armed robbery, bursting crude oil pipelines and sucking out their own share of the national cake, is a country with a government of criminals, by criminals, for criminals. And PDP has created it in its 14 years of misdirected rule! God help this country.
By: PHILLIP ISAKPA
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