Mr. Buhari changed the NATIONAL CHARACTER to the NORTHERN CHARACTER. He has no regards or respect for the other nationalities within Nigeria.

The Nigerian law system, one that makes it impossible to throw criminal politicians into jail during their service years and even after, is a mockery of civilization.

Buhari and the failed APC Mandate

 

By Adeola Aderounmu 

 

It is amazing and shocking that Mr. Buhari is considering standing for elections in 2019. There are several reasons why he should not have given that a thought. 

 

It is definitely one aspect of the agenda if the APC as a political party thought that it could still rescue Nigeria and another aspect if the party or Mr. Buhari himself thought that he is still the person to stand for election in 2019.

 

During the home run to the 2015 elections, the frailty of Mr. Buhari was obvious. He hardly spoke or expressed himself. The longest speech he gave was probably in London where he floored the Jonathan administration, promising reforms and changes.

 

In any case soon after his victory at the polls (Jonathan had no chance once key former military rulers and powerbroker-politicians took hold of the electoral machinery) Mr. Buhari headed for a London hospital and spent more days on a sick bed than at the office in Abuja during the first year of his regime. Mr. Buhari continues to be under the watchful eyes of the doctor.

 

All the promises Mr. Buhari made in London prior to the election have gone unfulfilled. He talked about reducing the number of jets in the presidential fleet and a possible revival of the Nigerian Airways. It is not clear if Mr. Buhari’s frailty or the long medical treatment he received in London have any connection to a likely memory lose.

 

One of the factors that have hindered Mr. Buhari, surely, is his health status. However there are other factors that have had even larger consequences. For example, it is clear that the promises that Mr. Buhari and the APC made were clearly lies. All they sought was power, all they got was power.

 

Mr. Buhari has since turned Nigeria to the Federal Republic of Northern Nigeria. Since the re-emergence of Mr. Buhari as the president of Nigeria, he has turned governance of the country to government of the Northerners. Buhari has no regards or respect to the other nationalities in Nigeria. He is more concerned about the welfare of the Northern elites and how the resources from the various parts of the country can be used to sustain the insatiable appetite of the North.

 

A lot of Nigerians working with Mr. Buhari are aware of this and they have surprising kept mute or have been intimidated into ordinary dummies and puppets. Nigerian politicians have a long history of caring about their stomachs and bank accounts than reasoning using common sense to address common issues.

 

It is enough that the federal character system in Nigeria is defective, dysfunctional and retrogressive, Mr. Buhari had taken it to another level making mockery of the entire concept. It is now the Northern character.

 

After 2 years of taking over the reign of governance, the country and the people of Nigeria are going through the worst era of their existence. The APC continues to blame the PDP but the fact is that if you cannot correct a problem, it is imperative that you do not make it worse.

 

Nigeria got worse in 2 years of the APC and it doesn’t appear that there is an end in sight for the destruction that the APC is bringing upon the system. It is obvious that Mr. Buhari has no idea of what he is doing. He has been there before as a military ruler which makes the entire scenario laughable and disgraceful. It’s like repeating a class and still failing. Extreme measures then have to be put in place. 

 

In that sense, the solution means that Mr. Buhari needs to step aside and let us get some brilliant minds on the block. Sadly too, Nigeria has never been lucky to get a good person to lead the country. All the good people and all the sensible people have been boxed out of Nigerian politics and some even out of the country.

 

The political scene in Nigeria is largely populated by criminal minds and people whose interests is solely money making because they can steal and get away with it. The Nigerian law system, one that makes it impossible to throw criminal politicians in jail during their service years and even after, is a mockery of civilization. The country is all but messed up intoto.

 

The solutions to the problems facing Nigeria are beyond the 2019 elections which the politicians are already fighting about now. For them, it is all about the personal gains and selfish interests. They have completely lost sight of what the modern world has to offer or what it demands of them.

 

Nigeria is light years behind her mates in the comity of nations. This is sad because the reverse was the case more than 50 years ago. Nigeria must be rewind to the years when things worked. We need to look at what worked and the mechanisms that supported them.

 

The journey back in time will be rough and it may look almost unassailable with the present crop of thoughtless and heartless politicians and rulers that are spread throughtout the country. Still, it is a journey that must be taken.

 

All the problems of terrorism from Boko Haram, the herdsmen, looting of the economy, unemployment, stale educational system and a disgraceful health system (where the president, and other well placed Nigerians continue to seek health tourism abroad) are all hinged to the wrong political system and bad rulers.

 

It is amazing how Nigeria, the self-acclaimed leader of the African race, has refused to see that when something is not working, you need to discard it and use the one that works. 

 

The Unitary system of government in Nigeria has brought us shame and disgrace, yet we stick to it. It is amazing how we think. It is part of the shame that has resulted to the unstable minds like Trump calling us a shithole country and that we live in huts. There is no smoke without fire. We brought it upon ourselves.

 

The Unitary system is the reason why Libyans turned our people to slaves. The slavery itself started in Nigeria. The way Nigerian politicians loot the treasury and deprived the citizens of the good life is a form of modern slavery in itself.

 

It is violation of human rights of the highest order and no greater form of modern slavery exist than when you take and steal from the people and the people look like zombies, even praising and worshipping you for stealing and looting from their commonwealth. It is slavery when a politician can steal 10 billion dollars where there are people without breakfast or lunch. Dinner is a dilemma.

 

It is slavery when fools, nonentities and complete nuisance are given charge over the people and thereby leading them to perdition and sorrow. There are uncountable situations in Nigeria that are direct consequences of the unitary system of government that have ensured the more than 100 million people are living hopelessly in poverty and penury. 

 

Libya therefore was a child’s play, though equally condemnable.

 

I have for more than 10 years argued that there is no worse form of slavery on earth today than the fact that Nigerians are not liberated. They cannot pursue happiness and they cannot live a life where the state guarantees their education, safety, health and employment.

 

Two years into its mandate, things got worse. It was preferable that still either stay the same or improve. Getting worse was totally unexpected and the APC-Buhari mandate therefore need to step aside.

 

In several essays since 2007 l have argued that Nigeria does not need elections. But we kept conducting them and we kept diving deeper into hopelessness and doldrum. 

 

The country needs to travel back to the time when there was healthy competition for development between the major regions. It was the competition that brought the first tv station in Africa to western Nigeria. It was the competition that made several west Africa countries to send their citizens to Nigeria to study.

 

We had a competition that ensured that royals from around the world came to Nigeria as health tourists. We were world leaders in education, science, medicine and arts. We flourished because we did not have a unitary system of government.

 

It is that time in our history that we must return to. We can keep deceiving ourselves that we don’t need to. The implication is that even after we die, our children and children’s children will inherit the poverty that pervades the land. If we don’t revert now, the people who would be called Nigerians more than 50 years from now will be miserable too and the cycle will persist. If we continue to live for now, the essence of our existences diminishes further.

 

Mr. Buhari should prepare for an exit plan and we don’t need an Obasanjo to know that. They are both parts of our problems. The young people need to rally round and force the implementation of the regional system of government and the separation of powers. They should ensure that all the criminals in Abuja go back to the regions to fight for developmnent at that level. Enough of making money at the regions and sending to the federal for embezzelments. Let the regions develop themselves and this is beyond both the APC and the PDP.

 

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Mail to aderounmu@gmail.com