By Adeola Aderounmu

In some way, we are all like Tinubu, we cannot give what we don’t have.

I had described Tinubu’s government as a Jaguda government. A Jaguda government is a criminal government, simple. I have seen outcry over the 2024 Tinubu’s budget. I have not expressed any outrage because there is none. Though a lot of government in the world are criminal organizations, the pattern of it in Nigeria is disturbing.

If someone had told you that Tinubu is a hungry man or a hustle before he became the president of Nigeria, you would have dismissed the allegation just the same way his wife Remi did. She said Tinubu does not need Nigeria’s money. She is a blood liar. Everyone lies at some point, but some lies are entrenched in some people’s DNA.

Have you seen how much Tinubu is taking from the National treasury to feed his hungry family? I don’t care about the amount because he did not start the madness. Buhari and Baba kekere-Osinbajo did not start it either. Hungry families have been moving in and out of government houses since it’s creation. Nigeria fed the hungry brits. Now she will feed the hungry Tinubus. It is called heritage. If you wanted a one Nigeria, your ancestors may punish you if you complain about the 2024 budget because the 2025 will not be different.

A few people have cornered the goodness of the land. They have stopped the flow of milk and honey to more than 180 million people living in poverty,

Tinubu cannot give to Nigeria that which he does not have. Let us be clear for the umpteenth time. The problem is not Tinubu. The problem is Nigeria. The country was manufactured by the rogues of England. The profits of the “lands” or “nations” entrapped within Nigeria are shared mostly among foreign criminal governments, foreign criminal organisations and the “Nigerian” elites that have perpetuated and perfected the process of neo-colonisation.

The only thing that still speaks against the highly placed criminality of the Nigerian elites is the confession of a Nigerian politician in the late 1970s that there is enough to go round even if Nigerian politicians and the people are greedy. There is enough for everyone’s greed. That is how “rich” Nigeria is even under the biggest management. But the goodness does not go round because for example we are being told that a man like Emefiele has 4 banks. We also know that Tinubu stole money and gave his son to buy an expensive house in UK. I mean there are uncountable reasons why there is not enough today for everyone’s greed. A few people have cornered the goodness of the land and have stopped the flow of milk and honey to more than 180 million people living in poverty.

In the 1990s, I read a story that I believed so much. That if the resources of the Niger Delta were properly managed, they are enough to sustain the entire Africa continent. I believed the narrative because in Europe, there are countries that have inadequate resources, but the people are living good, most of them.

Therefore, the problem is not Tinubu. The problem is the existence of Nigeria. The problem is the extinction of the nations that competed during the early years of Nigeria. The problem is the extinction of the Western Region, the Eastern Region and the Northern Region. The problem is the lack of determination of the people entrapped in Nigeria to seek freedom and pursuit of happiness in independent nations. The people chose slavery – they chose Nigeria – the modern slave ship.

Tinubu cannot give you what he does not have. The 2024 budget is what he has. A criminal will always make criminal documents to keep himself in business. A criminal will surround himself with loyal criminals. That is what government in Nigeria has always been, that is what it will always be. Again, I must remind you that most governments in the world are criminal organisations. The most distinguishing element of the criminality of the Nigeria government is not giving a damn about consequences.

What Tinubu can give you is a cosmetic fight against corruption. He will choose his fight carefully because if a criminal steps on the wrong toes, he would be burnt, brutally. Tinubu can drag Emefiele. The former central bank rogue is an easy target. The man who employed him or the government he served can breathe. They have a scape goat. Everything about Tinubu is fake. You know the stories. You want a good life from a man who made fortunes through a fake life? You are the biggest joker.

The redemption of the people trapped in Nigeria can never come from a man whose hands are soiled in blood. The redemption will not come from a bloody liar who made a living and a curious life out of lies and deceits. Tinubu will almost pursue a unilateral line of anticorruption: Emeliefiasis. Emeliefe served in a corrupt regime. Corruption has been the national anthem since 1960 and the amplification of corruption between 1999 (when Tinubu himself became a rogue governor) and today is unprecedented in the history of mankind.

Every now and then, one way or the other, there will be cheering news. Something like the railway line evolving. Remember that these rail lines are very old inventions and that the side cuts in terms of corruption are massive and unspoken. Every now and then, there will always be a silver lining somewhere. That is how Nigeria was built to function.

The playground for success will never be level. The opportunity to succeed will never reach every corner of Maiduguri or Badagry. A unilateral system of government is not for the benefit of everyone. It is for the selected few, their families-when they find harmony within, and their business friends-locally and internationally. What about the lobbyists and the PR machines always making sure that the public spaces and the media you consumed fill you with hope that Nigeria will be better in your lifetime? My grandparents were fed with the same message of hope. My parents died hoping for a return to the lives they had in Western Nigeria.

At some points, I thought it would come. But now, having been fortunate to cross middle age, I am sure the hope of unborn generations of Yoruba cannot be in the hands of criminals like Tinubu (or Obasanjo before him). No man can ever give you what he does not have. But gangsters and impostors will pretend to do so. I love the word “inexplicable”. It has helped me to describe the average mentality of the Nigerian hoping that things will get better and life will be good for more than 200 million people entrapped in colonial-made NIGGER AREA.

In all honesty, all a typical Nigeria seek is better life for himself/herself. That hope is a selfish hope and has nothing to do with the rest of us. If we care for one another, our thoughts of freedom should be unanimous, our quests to live happy and to find peace with man and nature will be unquestionable. We would be in our nations building, inventing, investing, and making a better world ready for our children and the generations unborn.

But we can’t give what we don’t have, can we?