Nigeria

A Political Stillbirth

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Didn’t we warn about the roles of political prostitutes in Nigeria?  The generational bastards-who are carbon copies of their criminal fathers-are now gradually taking control of the change machinery.

A Political Stillbirth

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Though many will continue to argue that APC or the new government headed by Buhari should be given time to adjust and get to work, still the situation at the end of June 2015, one month after the new government was inaugurated, is simply unacceptable.

One of the consistent arguments in recent essays l’d written is the suggestion that Nigeria needs a political solution to most of the problems that plague her.

Political solutions can be taken from different perspectives. For example, the biggest transformation will be to overhaul the system and bring governance to the grassroots so that the people can closely monitor their politicians, scrutinize them and boot them out of office for corruption, non-performance and inefficiency.

An argument for regional government has been rife for many years because of the failure of the pseudo-federal system that is practised in Nigeria. The Senate and the House of Representatives in Nigeria still represent a watse of money and something many regard as senseless organs of govenrment.

The likely stillbirth of the APC government has also now brought into focus another missing link in the physiology of the various political parties in Nigeria.

This missing link is so bad, and in fact so sad it is hard to deny that Nigeria is in the hands of a bunch of opportunists and dunces. I mean that after one month, it is still impossible to consitute a functional government. How else can one qualify those on whose shoulders or laps the mantle of rulership just fell?

This also reminds me of a few lines in some previous essays where l dismissed the campaigns of both the APC and PDP as mere charades.

In the course of building a political party, the starters need to find intellectuals who will drive every relevant question relating to politics, the economy and of course social issues among several others that (should) usually steer the outcome of elections.

In all political parties, there should be departments that represent every facet of governance. The implication is that every political party owes itself a shadow government.

The electorate or a voter should be able to make phone calls to the APC headquarter and request to speak with the department of power and steel, or the department of youth and development or the department of economy and social welfare.

Invariably there should be an expert or a group of experts within the party who manage all the issues and questions affecting the party and the citizens as a whole.

The importance of the hierarchy among these experts cannot be overemphasized.

It should be based on merit, experience, loyalty and service to the people and the community. It is such structures that make the emergence of a new government stress-free in what we called the advanced countries or countries with functional democracy. Such is the reason why the opposition party/government is ever ready to take control of governance when the ruling party collapse.

When Buhari emerged as the APC presidential candidate, why did the officers or experts in the various areas (economy, power supply, transport, youth affairs, justice, and so on) not emerge parallel at the same time based on merit, knowledge, experience, loyalty and political pedigree?

Why is the emergence of this think-tank taking more than one month to be constituted? No one should blame it on restructuring or resizing. Those are useless excuses.

Some of the real answers are not far-fetched.

Buhari was definitely not prepared for office. The hallmark of his campaign was silence but the APC social media prowess propelled him to fame and eventual victory. We have been cornered into forgoing the rigging that went with the elections.

Apart from Buhari’s lack of preparedness for office, there are other factors, some of them as old as the Nigeria that emerged in october 1960. There is always a constant force (many call it the cabal) that usually derail Nigeria just when you think there is a new hope.

Then on her own part, the APC will provide a lot of explanations and reasons why Buhari’s ministers may not emerge until a certain date. They will not tell the world how many variations of ministerial lists that are being submitted by various interest groups, persons and organisations whose sole interests is to continue to profit from Nigeria as the people continue to suffer and wait in vain for the dividends of democracy.

Nigeria is at a standstill. She has been at this point several times before. The present disgusting political scenario is an avoidable stillbirth.

Between 1999 and 2015, 16 years was wasted as corruption occupied Nigeria and PDP sent Nigeria and Nigerians down the drain.

The opportunity to compare what the APC government has to offer between now and 2019 is already been wasted. The PDP infiltrated the change movement through the fake latter days converts like Saraki and co..and it appears that the APC is now in disarray because of the ambitions of some fools in power and the continuous adoption of political criminals and political criminals.

Didn’t we warn about the roles of political prostitutes in Nigeria?

The APC change partially appears genuine but it was not going to be perfect because of the criminality of the politicians. However it is now too easy to condemn the APC altogether already just one month after they emerged. The fears that politicians do not change or that they are the same is being tested.

In any case, if the nonsense that has happened in the last one month remain the characteristics of the APC, if the APC does not find a way to uproot all the vagabonds and traitors in her midst, it means that they have already failed in advance before the examination day.

For the future, even as a lasting political solution is being pursued, the political parties need to put their houses in order, properly.

As they set to campaign, they need to have their officers and ministers in place. It is these officers or ministers (to be) who should be campaigning and answering all the political and economic questions at rallies. Just as VP Osiyemi was known during the campaign, all the other likely emerging people should have been visible and presented.

They are the ones who should be facing the multitude and telling about why they should be voted for and what their political parties have to offer.

In that way, the people already have an idea of who and who that are coming on board. It also provides a way to look at the characters and nature of a government that is emerging or the one that intends to continue in office.

I do not want to agree that Buhari was a bait provided by Tinubu/APC to continue the business of looting at the Federal level. Rather what l see now is a group of people denying Nigerians the completion of a process that would have been easily evaluated for continuity say in 2017 or 2018.

Many people condemned the PDP for 16 years for the ways they ruined Nigeria and Nigerians. Why is it too hard to try a complete turnaround process of 4 years? How can we access the APC government when it has already been hijacked at this stage?

I think Nigerians need a series of massive demonstrations/rallies that will force the resignations of all those who have forced themselves into offices through crooked means. Transparancy and fairness should be encouraged.

The people who are obstacles to the change Nigerians are waiting for need to be confronted head-on right away. The bastard politicians, some with the carbon copy traits of their fathers are becoming generational obstacles.

Some people stood up for 16 years and masterminded the change of 2015. Why should they suddenly be pushed under? If Nigerians allow the generational bastards to take control of the change machinery, then the pages of change as a process should be closed forever.

By 2017 or 2018, if the real APC government must be accessed for performance as a party that is actually ruling, Nigerians must help them bring down all those who are already strangulating the baby before the naming ceremony. This perpetual political stillbirth is dangerous. For the good of all, the political stillbirth must be aborted once and for all.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Above The Law

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I stated that those who will capture Nigeria in 2015 will continue to destroy Nigeria if the people continue to look the other way and condone madness in high places. The Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives are among the high places where plain criminal activities take place.

Above The Law

By Adeola Aderounmu

Which Way Nigeria?

In the last one to two weeks the social media was again set agog with matters relating to change in Nigeria.

Nigerians need to understand that the majority of the politicians irrespective of their political affiliations or parties still carry criminal tendencies. Looting is criminal!

No one should forget that many of the serving politicians are allegedly corrupt and have been living above the law for a very long time. Until they are served justice, they won’t understand their crimes against humanity because it appears that they are dullards.

On May 31 2014 l wrote a piece titled Looters In Government Are Not Distracted. This means that Nigerian politicians will always serve self first and country last or not at all.

Sadly the change slogan provided them with newer opportunities and also a camouflage to do what they have always been doing best-stealing and looting.

Earlier February 22 2014, l wrote an essay on The Nigerian Syndrome And Criminalities ln The Nigeria government. I stated that those who will capture Nigeria in 2015 will continue to destroy Nigeria if the people continue to look the other way and condone madness in high places. The Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives are among the high places where plain criminal activities take place.

So whilst the conquerors of Nigeria in both the APC and the PDP are at it, the people decided to raise their voices against the criminal allowance that the bench-warming lawmakers have been awarding themselves since 1999.

If a stop is not put to all these nonsenses, Nigerians may want to start to think of not just occupying Abuja or the Eagle square but also moving on to the systematic processes that will initiate the final revolt to actualise the freedom that has continue to elude them. Nigerians must stop all the gangs that want to continue to live above the law.

I mean the Nigerian senators are among the categories of politicians who have been stealing and looting the Nigerian treasuries since 1999 and no one has questioned their audacity in awarding themselves outrageous salaries and allowances.

No one has shut down Nigeria to ensure that the Nigerian lawmakers/senators, executives and elected/selected people are placed on regular civil service wages/allowances. To make matters worse, these gangs operating in a fashion similar to organised crime have not delivered to the people.

So since 1999, crooks continue to loot Nigeria blind through undeserved allowances and outright self-enrichment. To place these atrocities side-a-side the fact that some of the poorest people in the world are domicile in Nigeria make these crimes punishable.

To make things right means that justice must be served, no matter how long the injustice has lasted. The wealth that has been stolen and wrongly allocated to senators under the supervision of criminal minds like David Mark ought to be recalled and recovered.

Nigerians must not forget that the war on corruption and criminals parading themselves as politicians needs a holistic approach. The governors and former governors who have awarded themselves mouth watering pensions and emolument must be on the radar as well. The nonsense pensions that have awarded themselves must be cancelled with immediate effect.

Those former governors who have wriggled themselves into the Nigerian senate must be told that their pensions are no longer valid in general. How can they eat their cakes and still be having it?

The central government under the leadership of APC and Buhari as the helmsman will continue to be under scrutiny. We are watching to see how they pursue their change agenda and how they lead from the top. They need to help themselves by putting a control on the fake ”official” news flooding the social media.

To remain silent in the face of the persistent and monumental corruption, self-enrichment and massive social injustice will be the height of both hypocrisy and deceit.

As l have pointed out in a previous essay the change slogan will now belong to the dustbin of history in Nigeria. The wasted generation has these 3 to 4 years to show that they mean business of equity both in wealth distribution and providing a level playing ground for all Nigerians to reach their potentials and achieve happiness.

For too long Nigerians have been at home with a system that was not working. They have been at ease with corrupt people and corrupt government. They have all been waiting in line for their turn to dive on the national cake and take what they think belongs to them rather than thinking of what can be done in the best interest of everyone alive and the unborn generation. That mentality ought to be corrected.

Above all of these problems is tha fact that Nigerians are shying away for the political solution to some of the problems facing them. The centralised government is too powerful and too unconscious of the problems at the grassroots. The local government are too weak to carry out life-changing functions as their funding and directives are dependent on higher powers that be. Corruption and ineptitude are common denominators!

The eradication of corruption in Nigeria, the ultimate change that will bring about social justice and the possibility of having a worthy existence full of human dignity are inseparable from finding a stable political solution that will work for Nigeria.

Some experts continue to advocate for devolution of power and the re-instatement of regional governments that will bring governance back to the people’s doorsteps.  These are issues for the lawmakers or senators who prefer to share money than to serve motherland. What a bunch of mediocres!

The committment of everyone, unflinching patritotism to country, the elevation of institutions above people and the submission to the rule of law are some of the other ingredients that will bring about the change that the people keep yearning about.

aderounmu@gmail.com

2014-2019: The Last Show Of The Wasted Generation?

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Those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

2014-2019: The Last Show Of The Wasted Generation?

By Adeola Aderounmu

wasted generation

Some of the early indicators from the Buhari-led APC administration are negative. Many supporters of the administration have been responding to the criticisms against the APC government by asking for time.

It is a genuine request to ask for time because time is the indicator and revealer of all things.

But the argument for more time in the Nigerian context needs to be understood and well-defined.

The endless resiliency of the ordinary Nigerians have made nonsense of the principle of time and performance as well as accountability and probity in Nigeria.

By sleeping away mentally while living in a country devoid completely of social justice and equity, the ordinary Nigerians have been as guilty as the marauders who raped the land and cart away the treasuries for themselves and their children.

Passive citizenry contributed largely to the wasteful years that befell Nigeria from 1960 to 1999.

In that time frame of more almost 40 years, the value, meaning and the quality of life in Nigeria degenerated to one of the lowest in the world.

To make matters worse the PDP-led government unleashed another complete 15-years of waste on Nigerians. The Obasanjo-Yar’Adua-Jonathan administrations of 1999-2015 impoverished the lans and left majority of Nigerians poorer than before.

These rulers and their precedessors bled Nigeria to the point of an almost irreversible damage.

The recent climax was when a country that is almost devoid of electricity claimed to be the largest economy in Africa.

It is still so bad that the suffering in Nigeria (for the ordinary, struggling masses) is comparable to the situations faced by people living under war situations or the threats of it.

The wait for change has been an endless one.

Hence, the category of people who are in a haste to see the Buhari-led government properly hit the ground and running after barely one month have genuine concerns.

They are the people who know that time is now a luxury that Nigeria can no longer afford. They are the ones who abides by the principle of ”the morning shows the day”.

However the proper function of time in the entire scenario needs to be highlighted.

Change is a process and not a single event or an isolated occurence. Therefore there will be a need to re-educate the rest of us who think that a Buhari presidency under APC is the antidote to all of Nigeria’s woes.

Indeed the gradual change in government and governance are parts and parcel of the processes that will bring about the conditions that are needed to bring back living in Nigeria to what it was in the 1950s and early 1960s.

In modern times, those years before l was born were the paradise years of the Nigerian life.

There was an early warning that Nigerians ignored during the run up to the recent elections of 2015. It wasn’t new but it was phenomenal and rampant.  Some people continue to dignify political prostitution by calling it carpet-crossing. This permissive madness in the Nigerian political arena made popular by this wasted generation is about to ruin the traces of hope.

It has a lot of implications too. The most revealing is that irrespective of their political parties, Nigerian politicians are always after their own selfish interests. To a very large extent, it shows that politicians do not believe in the change that the ordinary citizens are clamouring for.

For them, politics is business as usual. Politics remain the easiest way to stolen wealth because the winners take it all!

Some brilliant minds continue to emphasized that until the political parties are separated ideologically, there will be no difference in what they bring to the table. Moreso tragic is the situation where the institutions that should check accountability and probity have been put in a state of permanent coma.

The sad situations from the past and present dispensations means that the strengthening of the institutions and their independence can no longer wait.

Changes may fail to happen as expected if the status quo of the various institutions remain the same. It means that the politicians will continue to steal, loot and propagate inpunity as if these ills are their birthrights.

In the same vein, there won’t be visible changes in Nigeria if the people do not understand that their own attitudes, their behaviours at their offices and in the society at large are also ingredients of the changes that everybody is talking about.

It is so disheartening to see that everybody is talking about change whilst nobody is changing the ways they have been doing things.

There is a lot of work to be done Nigerians!

The people must do what is needed of them as citizens and they must embrace patriotism.

The government must meet the people halfway to make the change cycle complete and running.

Buhari must appoint his Ministers before the end of June 2015 to redeem what is left of an already faulty start.

At this moment in Nigeria’s history-with APC-led central government-is what appears to be the last chance for the wasteful/wasted generation of Nigerians to redeem its name.

Politically conscious Nigerias and the people who will live in Nigeria by 2019 would be lost forever if they ever use the change slogan again.

In today’s Nigeria those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

This type of nonsense must not happen again.

By 2019 one expects that the citizens must have played their parts. One expects that the government would have played her parts through exemplary leadership, total war on corruption, economic programs design to lift human dignity and political reforms to correct the sources of instability and mediocrity.

There are many more ways to know and measure performances. By 2019 the people must know if a new drastic measure will be needed and the awareness for that must begin in earnest.

If the tool of (last chance) change fails, the upcoming generation of Nigerians must begin to organise to weigh their chances of living a fulfilled life.

There is a tool that remained unused and that is a riddle that need to be solved. It is a two-edged tool. The more potent edge leads to a total generational shift and it will be wonderful to rid Nigeria of the wasted generation and their offspring that still loom large.

No matter what happens, Nigeria needs a functional political structure and system. Things cannot continue the way they are now.

Regional government and devolution of power are remedies to both the federal character system and the impotent geo-political zonings that have drained Nigeria of creativity and development possibilities.

A lasting change that will favour the people from the top to the grassroots will be very useful in evaluating the PDP- infected, power-hustlers APC government of Buhari.

The APC government has less than 4 years to rescue and redeem Nigeria’s wasted generation in what may be the final chance or opportunity.

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Corruption Ring

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

When those in the corruption ring start to sing and tell, we must not let their revelations and confessions go with the winds the way Atiku-Obasanjo open trials of each other were overlooked by EFCC under Mr. Ribadu.

The Corruption Ring

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

The change slogan that was the hallmark of the APC during the recent elections in Nigeria may bring a lot of wahala in the days ahead.

Buhari is not yet sworn in as the president of Nigeria, yet people were already expecting some actions that will change things around overnight.

During the campaign many people interpreted the change slogan to mean the same as miracles. They will be disappointed if they don’t wake up to smell the coffee, and quickly too.

On a global scale, political campaigns are loaded with promises the same way several chewing gums are coated with sugar.

When the sugar is dissolved or melted, the task of chewing the gum starts. The real work or change for Nigeria will start when the sugar coating melts away on May the 29th.

There are loads of hindrances in the way that should wake everyone up to the realities of the Nigerian calamities brought about by more than 50 years of misrule.

On the economy, unemployment, infrastructure, population distribution, population growth control, education, health, social justice, political structure and reform, you name it, Nigeria is saddled with uphill challenges.

Nevertheless the APC government must bring hope and visible developments clearly befitting the change slogan. The APC dispensation must bring success over time or pack up.

On the anti-corruption front, it appears that the wheels are getting oiled already. It is gathering momentum at a time that the true state of the Nigerian economy is becoming obvious.

The consensus now is that Nigeria’s economy is in a mess. It lies prostrate.

In the hands of Mrs. Iweala Nigeria was dished to the world as the numero uno economy in Africa.

But now she says that Nigeria is borrowing to pay salaries of civil servants. I have always thought that Mrs. Iweala is a crook and on my blog (and probably here) I have repeated calls for her to resign.

Even in 1987-1989 when I studied economy in class 3-5 l knew it would have been criminal if any teacher told me within this short interval that the biggest economy in Africa is that which borrows money to pay salaries.

This sad but realistic revelation heightened the call for the prosecution of Mrs. Iweala, Mrs. Diezani Alison and many actors in the Jonathan destructive and wasteful government.

But trust the theatrics of the Nigerian political space where there are no dull moments and no saints. The revelation of some of the corrupt activities of Olusegun Obasanjo suddenly emerged.

There are some many things in Nigeria that many people regard as coincidences.

I prefer to see the connections between the disgraceful identities of Mrs. Iweala as the woman who now borrows money to pay salaries of civil servants and Obasanjo whose rags to riches story was neglected since 1999.

How Mrs. Ezekwesili’s defence of Obasanjo in the infamous May Day interview adds to this sequence of events is also interesting in the political games in Nigeria.

At some point even before the start of the useless and corrupt regime of Jonathan, a certain civil right group in Nigeria challenged both Obasanjo and Iweala to produce one of the Abacha’s loots that was returned to Nigeria. After some foot-dragging, Mrs, Iweala produced a fabricated financial report of some expenditure that was supposed to have been in the budget.

She invariably was trying to say that Abacha’s loot was used for payments of some projects that were already provided for in that year’s budget.

What this means in simple language is that substantial parts of Abacha’s loot or all of it was re-looted under Obasanjo using Iweala’s fraudulent double cash book.

Criminals in Nigeria’s political fields come in different shades, sex and sizes.

During the Jonathan oil subsidy scam and the occupy Nigeria struggle Mrs. Iweala threatened to resign and I urged her to do so in one of my blog posts. Nigeria can never miss looters and liars. They are the ones who need Nigeria to sustain their evil ways.

I congratulate Mrs. Iweala in her roles in the sacking of Mr. Shuaib. What are we going to do about her lies about Nigeria’s economy and wealth now that the truth is known?

At this point when change is the slogan, many politicians and Nigeria’s fair-weather friends (like Obasanjo) are trying to associate with the slogan. Many are trying to paint themselves as saints who should be considered in the unfolding political scenario of the APC dispensation.

One day Mrs. Ezekwesili responded to one of my blog posts-Thy Glory O’ Nigeria-where I stated that all Nigerian politicians are criminals and that while she served under Obasanjo, she had also been a part of the corrupt people that destroyed Nigeria. She came on, defending her integrity and stance.

I am not about to change my mind about my conclusions on Nigerian politicians. Not even now when Mrs. Ezekwesili tried to defend Obasanjo’s corrupt regime.

These people don’t understand that while corruption may be relative, the consequences are the same. Nigeria as a country suffers for it and the people, more than 90% of the population, continue to live from hand to mouth. The consequences of corruption and negligence of duties to people and country are not a joke!

Every N1 stolen or taken from the Nigerian treasury at the federal, state of local levels without accountability contributes to the demeaning of the lives of the people. Hence it is not a matter of whether corruption is relative or not.

In public service people should be content with their take-home pay and allowances which in Nigeria is probably already the easiest route to wealth and prosperity. Therefore when people have taken N1 from the Nigerian treasury without probity, they are criminals just like the one who has taken N1 billion. A thief is a thief!

In a recent article I had suggested that it was not Buhari’s job to prosecute people who are corrupt or criminals. Such a task is for the institutions that are saddled with such obligations.

Indeed the APC regime must be seen to allow such separations of powers and independence of various institutions and arms of government. The judiciary and the police must resurrect to perform their obligations as part of the change slogan.

What we are witnessing in the past few days and that which will shape the nature of the change that was promised are the true situations in Nigeria.

When those in the corruption ring start to sing and tell, we must not let their revelations and confessions go with the winds the way Atiku-Obasanjo open trials of each other were overlooked by EFCC under Mr. Ribadu.The anticorruption agency blew away the chance of a life time letting 2 criminals with publicly published facts about each other go free.

The corruption ring in Nigeria that exists among the politicians and political appointees is a type of organised crime. It is crime against humanity because of the overwhelming consequences on the quality of life in Nigeria.

To take down corruption and corrupt people in Nigeria will be an enormous challenge.

When losers and political criminals from the PDP were decamping to the APC en masse it appears that what it takes to be righteous in 2015 was to disown the PDP and become a hanger-on in the APC.

The unfolding revelations about Obasanjo whose roles in promoting corruption and social injustice in Nigeria has been neglected since 1978 will partly help to destroy that myth forever.

In addition, let us constantly remind ourselves that the original APC is also full of political criminals and dubious characters.

Hence there are several reasons why Buhari must not be seen as the prosecutor and the judge in an attempt to bring back the glory of Nigeria and to rid the country of corruption.

The best he can do is to provide leadership by good examples, allow the institutions to run independently and transparently. He could also watch as the anticorruption agencies pick up men and women from the PDP, APC and other places across Nigeria.

This is one of the rare ways that change can come to Nigeria. So, when the Buhari days are over, it would be good to also serve him with justice. For in principle, no one is above the law.

Change is the result of collective wills. Change is the result of collective responsibilities.

Change will always be in the hands of the people and how they use the power that always belong to them to steer governance.

The people must put pressure on the politicians and always demand openness, probity and accountability. They must ensure that the institutions are strong, independent and functional.

Nigeria’s corruption ring ought to be broken once and for all. All the arguments and unfolding revelations in recent weeks will help to contribute to the change that may steer Nigeria to a better place.

A lasting political solution that will ease the political tensions in Nigeria and one that will ensure the devolution of power away from the centre (such as in a regional government) will be integral in steering Nigeria forward.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Buharism

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

The success and future of Nigeria lies on the shoulders of all her citizens. It is a collective national assignment to ensure that the institutions are sane and functional.

Buharism

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

It is worrying when people start to think that what is needed to clean the political and economic messes in Nigeria is just Buhari alone.

There is no doubt that there is a need for people who are upright in character in public service.

There is no doubt that a country like Nigeria with many bad people in government since 1960 and corrupt people everywhere needs a fresh breathe of life.

A lot of people are expecting that Buhari will prosecute all the Jezebels and Judases in Jonathan’s regime.

There are even expectations that only saints will be able to govern alongside Mr. Buhari.

The euphoria of the different miracles that General Buhari will perform has brought Buharism back to life.

For many people with this ideology, Buhari is like the messiah. For them without Mr. Buhari, there will not be discipline and accountability in the Nigerian society.

These-Buharism and the corresponding ideology-if sustained may spell a doom for the future of Nigeria

What is at stake for Nigeria and Nigerians is beyond one man. The prospects and the hope that Nigeria will rise again is not in the domain of either the APC or the PDP. It definitely cannot rest on Buhari’s shoulders alone.

It will be too risky to hinge the next 4 years and even the next 8 or 10 years on Buhari, APC or the undesirable return of the PDP.

It is not Buhari’s job alone to fight corruption. He is not the court of law. He cannot be the prosecutor, the judge and the jury at the same time.

Personally this should sadden all sane minds-to see the hope of a country as big as Nigeria hinge on one man only.

I am aware that one man must lead. I know that one man can make a difference and that the people who lead or who run political institutions and other institutions are important.

However, the hope of a country cannot be on one man or a small group of people alone because they will not always be there. Life is a passage and human existence is transient in nature.

It is the institutions and the general population that will always be there. It must be possible to always have the people that will lead the institutions in the best possible ways among the population.

For more than 50 years the key institutions in Nigeria have been in disarray and dysfunctional.

Among the dysfunctional institutions in Nigeria today are the police and the judiciary.

If they had been properly maintained and functional, the call for Buhari to arrest and prosecute politicians for example would not have arisen. Buhari is not a policeman and he is not in charge at ICPC or EFCC.

By default, when the useless immunity clause falls off criminal-politicians, it is just proper that the police, the anti-corruption agencies and the judiciary do their jobs. Unfortunately Nigerian politicians disrupted the flow of separation of powers and the Nigerian people got used to a system that is totally malfunctioning.

What the APC mandate can do is to restore proper governance and work hard to enforce the political changes (especially looking into the need for regional government) that will return the glory of Nigeria politically and economically.

The APC mandate can also ensure that powers are separated and that all government institutions (political, economic and all others) start to fulfil their mandates without hindrances and undue interference.

Leadership by example will avail much, definitely. Let the executive, the legislature and the judiciary play their roles according to the laws and the constitution of the land.

Corruption needs to be tackled by the appropriate institutions. It is everybody’s responsibility to ensure that criminals and dubious characters don’t run private and public institutions.

The role of the media and information outlets in this regard is full of several shortcomings.

Sincere and purposeful journalism is lacking in Nigeria, mostly. The media is supposed to be part of the control mechanism for the heartbeat of the nation but unfortunately the brown envelope syndrome is still common and rampant.

Bias news, misinformation and favouritism are common in the Nigerian media.

Another factor that paves the way for corruption and ineptitude in Nigeria’s public institutions is the zoning of appointments and political posts.

Closely tied to the useless federal character system, this zoning will remain a huge clog in the wheel of progress of Nigeria. For as long as these anomalies exist, Nigeria under the present faulty political arrangement will never enjoy the benefits of the best men and women for the positions that duly suit them.

Zoning is part of the national tragedies and it underscores the need to constitutionally adjust Nigeria’s political system. Each region can make use of its best human resources for the benefit of all and sundry. It is better than a central system where it is easy to idle away and sustain corruption.

In the background of Buharism, one must not forget that APC is now loaded with PDP dropouts. PDP ruined Nigeria since democracy returned in 1999. Also there are many cockroaches and skeletons in the cupboards of the APC. There are no saints around Mr. Buhari and he is not going to be a miracle worker.

Nigeria’s rescue mission does not rest on Buhari alone. It is far beyond the APC mandate. It is the people who have waited this long under oppression and useless governments that should get themselves checked.

If governance is built on institutions and of course good people, the system will run itself and things will eventually iron out even if the start is rough and untidy.

Nigeria will not be rebuilt in one day. It will not be rebuilt in 4 years. To maintain and rebuild are constant processes. These are the secrets of the developed countries.

The imperfect APC mandate provides a new chance for Nigerians to think and start again. It must be repeated that the success and future of Nigeria lies on the shoulders of all her citizens.

It is a collective national assignment to ensure that the institutions are sane and functional.

Nigerians must always demand for, and elect men and women who can uphold the virtues associated with civil rule and the common good of all Nigerians.

Buharism in 1983 and Buharism in 2015 is a sign that Nigeria is not producing and nurturing good people for political assignments. It is a fundamental flaw on the overall mentality of the citizenry. It is a sign that Nigerians are not sincere with themselves.

I will state this again: Nigerians should look at themselves in the mirror and take away their garments of evil. For any government in Nigeria to succeed, it is not enough for the people to shout change or (Buharism again). It is very important that people become the change that they want to see.

aderounmu@gmail.com