OPINION: PRESIDENT BUHARI, ARE YOU PART OF THE PLOT TO DERAIL NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY? (PART ONE)
Read Time:19 Minute, 14 Second
By: Shehu Bashir Esq.
Election is not a do or die affair. Electoral process is just one of our ways of life, to transition from one layer of our governance to the other in renewal and it does not have to become a tool to be used to cause chaos in the country. Nigeria is a soul that we must protect to live longer than our temporariness. In order to protect our generational existence, it will require us to shield ourselves from the projectile of anarchy being fired at us (the ordinary people) by reactionary elements in the corridor of power. We either protect ourselves or we die in the hands of these social, political and economic shylocks. Therefore, keeping quiet in this circumstance will mean the submission of our souls to these scavengers to slaughter. God forbid the time when our desire for an ambition becomes a gag to our voicing out.
The strange developments in the last few weeks call for the attention of the heroes and champions of Nigeria’s democracy. We have been alarmed by the covert intention of various actions taken so far which can be likened to treason by all definitions. Using the instrument of governance to demarket Asiwaju’s chances in the election may be taken as a “normal power play” but grounding the entire system, enveloping people in sorrow, unimaginable agony and horrendous pains, destroying the entire system without qualms just to orchestrate electoral apathy, inflicting unbearable hardship on the people is no more politics, it is treason! Posterity will not forgive all those who are involved in these.
It is a fact that the system is trying to incite civil unrest for the excuse of emergency declaration, to justify extension of tenure of the current administration. No one is in doubt, again, of the sanctimonious posture of Mr. President in this circumstance. Swearing is no more convincing of your commitment when your actions are in tune with those of the people who want to take the power or retain it by fire by force.
Diplomacy should be thrown to the garbage when our peace is under threat. We have fewer days left to know who is the true enemy of this country. We are waiting.
As asserted by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, it has now been undeniably established that there are fifth columnists who are hellbent on derailing Nigeria’s democracy and there are so much complexities to this. These complexities are in different sects based on their individual interest which are now being married as one, targeting one man’s ambition and inadvertently suffering the people and destroying the system. Below are those categories:
– We have those who are core beneficiaries of the current political arrangements, but who want to continue in office albeit through crooked means – they want the government to continue by creating crises to have excuse of tenure elongation.
– There are some, who are working for the opposition, to do everything to decimate the APC so that they can create apathy in the minds of the people against the APC. Some of them lost out in the last APC primary election and have vowed to frustrate the successful victory of the APC Presidential candidate. The heart of man is truly evil.
– There are some others, who have benefited so much from this “unaudited” administration such that they are afraid that all that they have acquired illegally, be it oil block, filling stations, questionable bank ownership, etc will be questioned and recovered under the Proceeds of Crimes Recovery and Management Act. These people are not even essentially well rooted, except for the temporary bubbles of the toothpaste currently in their mouth (their current positions as SAs, Ministers, and friends of the president).
Now, the question is, who are these people and what do they want from Nigeria?.
In order to answer these questions, I am going to tell you here what people are saying and what people are going through courtesy of this treasonous act by the combination of Mr. President complicity, with due respect, the cabal’s oligarchy and fifth columnists’ opportunity grabbing.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING.
Mr. President, because Nigerians are students of history, we are sharp witted and very discerning enough, we can relate based on antecedents which are sacrosanctly indelible. What we know about you, what you have done in the past and what you may do again. These are what the people are saying:
1) That you have never been a trustworthy person all your life. That all you do is to idiosyncratically and sanctimoniously fake integrity while you eat from the pot of hypocrisy. People have wondered how you campaign against corruption and claim you have not amassed wealth but the people around you are so rich in trillion value. They even assert that one of your wards is the sole owner TAJ Bank where he is hiding your money on your behalf. Or, Mr. President, are you not aware too that this same ward with no known business estate before 2015 now owns a bank? Haven’t you been told Sir that this same element has been taking the franchise of several downstream oil businesses, investing heavily in some petrol stations? You were not informed too? Some even said that this same individual has in his name raw cash far more than what any state has in their coffer, running into trillions? Can you in good conscience query this dude where he got such money from and direct any of the DSS, EFCC or ICPC to investigate this element? We are waiting Sir.
2) From the spill of lack of integrity based on perceivable experience, people have also said that you are selfish and wicked, that you don’t care about anybody else apart from yourself. That once your personal interest is taken care of, you don’t even care if the country goes down in flame for as long as you can sip your fura de nunu with drumsticks. They cited the example of how you left Idiagbon in the hood and how you willingly cowardly submitted to the 1985 coup after having achieved your aim of just becoming the Head of State. Some even said you were jealous of Idiagbon, hence, your refusal to even honour him since his demise. People have convincingly argued that nothing has changed in you, that you can’t do anything by yourself, that you only wanted to come back to power to fulfill personal dreams, not that you necessarily have anything progressive to offer Nigerians. They even said you might encourage a “state take over” that may take our democracy back to the “Kaki Men”. God forbid!
3) People are also saying that you are a nepotistic man, who cannot pretend for too long about your hatred for others. Infact, some people attempted to denigrate my proud tribe, Fulani, arguing that it is our way. I, being a proper Fulani by descent, the great grand child of Sheikh Usman Bin Fodio, a representative of Alimi in the far coast of Ilorin, with a profound sociological internalization of decent Yoruba culture, mores, norms and values, I proved (and still proving) to them that Fulanis are about the most honest and decent Nigerians. We don’t pay good with evil. We respect accords and we don’t betray our friends. If Buhari does, it is his deviancy from the norm of integrity of the Fulanis, not the ways of life of the Fulanis. I am Fulani “Dahiri”, nothing I have done in my life to soullessly hurt a fellow being, let alone a friend who pushed me up to achieve a feat I failed at about three previous times myself. Fulanis are conscionable people.
4) I also heard that you can be indifferent to loyalty and can abandon any true friend at the time of need no matter how much they have sacrificed for you. While mulling on this, I remembered how you treated and abandoned some of your friends, especially your security aides, who served you and stood by you for more than six years before your ascension to the presidential throne. These aides “took a bullet” for you and protected you from harms. I remember particularly how you jettisoned and abandoned your former Chief Security Officer and Orderly who saved you from Kaduna blast at the risk of their personal safety. They were not even allowed to enjoy three months of continued service with you at the Villa before they were sent away. Those individuals are currently languishing in abandonment now, yet, you don’t care.
5) Some people have even insinuated that you are obsessed with power that you can’t live a good life outside of power. That you have no intention to relinquish power come May 29th, yet, you don’t have the gut like Obasanjo to declare a third term agenda. Hence, you decided to subtly create this economic hardship at this critical time when elections are weeks away so that when the people revolt in reaction to the hardship and there is civil unrest, you will invoke constitutional provision to continue in power under emergency rule. Wow, I shiver in fear of the consequences of what you should never dare as it may not only destroy the little legacy you are about to leave, it may also consume anyone who ever conceive such idea.
6) Infact, I also heard it as a rumour that you vowed to ensure that this country is split into pieces after your tenure, such that you are going to indirectly fuel inter regional crises so that this country can break into fragments. I do not believe this but you have severally given me the reason to believe anything they say about you because your silence on critical national issues is what lawyers call “silence as an admittance of guilt”.
7) People have asked me to ask you, when did you start to nurse the idea of “discouraging money bags” from hijacking the election as you have been claiming that you want to conduct the most “credible” election.? Is it the same most credible election that we conducted for you in 2014 in Lagos when Asiwaju Tinubu singlehandedly tackled Atiku dollar for dollar to win the primary election for you or the one we raised billions in fund to fight Jonathan’s utilized security vote which the “money bags” you are fighting now used to ensure your victory?. Nigerians just want to know when you “invented” this new rule that you just want to implement overnight?
8) The argument being propelled by the thinking people of Nigeria is, should you really mean well about dealing with money bags, who have stashed money at home “to be used for the election”, you should have done so immediately you were sworn in as the President in 2015. That time, several billions of naira and even dollars were stolen by the PDP and it’s members, many of whom you literally merely locked up. If you wanted their naira loots to be useless, you should have done it then, with the assurance that nobody will steal money under your administration. Now, the question is, the money bags you are trying to prevent from using same for election, did they steal under your administration or when did they steal this money that your administration did not know? Mr. President, are you really sincere about this cause?
9) Some people have even said that you do not have forgiving spirit, and that you are a vindictive person. They said you have not forgiven Mall. Nuhu Ribadu for contesting the 2011 presidential election when you thought you could have defeated Jonathan if Ribadu was not in the race. They also said you have not forgiven Tinubu either for promoting Ribadu’s presidential ambition, even though the same Tinubu transformed your political trajectory from serial runner up to actual winner in 2015. They have cited several examples of how you refused to support Ribadu’s governorship bid, the reason why he lost in all his previous attempts. Is this true? If it is true, is this Islam? Taqqullah!
10) There is also this rumour that you don’t even care about the APC as a party let alone do anything to ensure the party wins in the next general elections. The rumor is rife that you are working to kill the APC for PDP to have it’s way, God forbid, so that power can go back to the North as against the gentleman agreement to keep the balance of our unity by ensuring that power shifts from time to time between North and South. I was wondering what happens to those legacies you want to leave when you choose to throw all the assets and advantages of the APC under the bus – the 21 State Governors, the very solid structures in all the 36 States including the FCT and the over 70 per cent of the members of the National Assembly who are APC. People are just wondering how thoughtless this can be. Is that what you are hoping for? God bless Nasir El-Rufai, Abdullahi Ganduje, Babagana Zulum and many others for being true Northerners.
11) Mr. President, Nigerians are worried but they are not scared. They have been worried about so many things you have done wrong or have not done at all even when you have the instrument of authority to do it right. They have been worried about how you allowed (still allowing) the fuel scarcity to drag when you can easily direct adequate supply of the excess fuel that we have in abundance in our tank farms. They are worried that you are weaponising the fuel supplies and naira redesign policy in order to set the country on fire?. They know that neither the NNPCL GMD nor the CBN governor will act contrary to your orders without you disciplining them accordingly except that they have your backings in all the evil they are perpetrating against Nigerians. Nigerians have been worried about how you allowed (still allowing) the fire of insecurity to burn for so long without you quenching it accordingly. Nigerians are worried about how this fire keeps burning that attempts were even made on the presidential guards by the terrorists without you knowing it or doing anything about it until a governor had to call your attention to the threat against your personal life by these terrorists. Nigerians are worried about the cross of burden of bad history that is becoming an antecedent, manifesting in your current attitude. They are worried that you were the principal beneficiary of the military coup of December 1983 that truncated Nigeria’s democracy then, they are now more worried that you are about to truncate it again in 2023 after you have also enjoyed the benefit of democracy for 8 years. God forbid bad thing. These are valid worries but Nigerians are not afraid of defending the soul of democracy. They will not shy away from calling out any ingrate who wants to set this country on fire for ungodly selfish interest. Nigerians are not afraid of tackling the wickedness and the heartlessness of any man who wants to take Nigeria down to the drain after he had milked our resources. Nigerians are not afraid of anything or anybody except God.
12) Mr. President, Nigerians have come to confirm their unspoken suspicion hitherto that you are probably the “cabal” that has been operating behind the scene, using the shadows of the folks around you to deceive Nigerians because you are not bold enough to take responsibility for your (unsavoury) actions. They have wondered and still wondering why you say a thing to the public and your appointees will say or do contrary things and the erring subordinates would not be punished for insubordination. Nigerians are saying you are probably the turbine behind the storm, turning the whirlwind of chaos in order to create an ungodly advantage for yourself or whatever your intentions are.
13) Mr. President, Nigerians are saying you are the metaphorical Chicadodo bird in Ayi Kwei Armah’s “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. Chicadodo hates excrement but lives on maggot, who doesn’t know that maggot lives in the latrine, the main repository of excrement?
14) Nigerians are even more worried to wake up to see your Attorney General going to ask the Supreme Court to dismiss a suit filed by three State Governors, challenging the Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Are you serious right now? What you should have ordinarily done by fiat that you failed to do, the governors are in court to make you do it, yet, you are asking your AG to ask the court not to force you to do it. Strange to note that one of your spokesperson has confirmed publicly that the CBN governor lied to you about the implementation of naira policy. This confusion is not what you don’t know but what you are deliberately orchestrating.
Nigerians are however admonishing you to learn from the book of history and save yourself from the posterity of regret.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE GOING THROUGH
Mr. President, incase your lieutenants have not told you the actual truth, particularly the puppet tool of destruction in the CBN, the Nigerian people are going through hell with this your wicked policy to take money off the circulation:
1) Both the old and the new currency notes are no more in circulation, so, people in the local markets and remote villages who aren’t using POS can’t trade any more. Infact, as a matter of fact, POS operators don’t have cash anymore and the few ones who do are charging excessively. Not even the ATMs are dispensing cash anymore. There is no cash to trade in the open markets. The revolving capital of many small and medium businesses are stuck, as they can’t access cash and the money transfer facilities of many banks are not working efficiently. Many people have died in the process because they can’t have access to cash to pay for hospital bills and buy medications for emergency situations. I have never seen an economy with this kind of lethal cash crunch. Is this humanity?
2) The cashless tool through which people can transact business through the financial system is completely broken down. Nobody is able to send nor receive any form of fund, everywhere is static and dangerously so. This is a stalemate that is in resemblance of time bomb for crises! Do we have to create crises to advertise your third term agenda, albeit subtly?
3) Mr. President, it is unprecedented to note that people now trade naira for naira at a rate not written in the elementary book of economics. The POS vendors are now charging more, not just to dispense newly coloured notes but the old ones too. Is your plan working to set this country ablaze? No! Not to my knowledge. Nigerians have since realized that the enemies of this country are within your rock of Aso, so, are refraining from provocation to fall into your trap. The pocket violent reactions as experienced in Ogun, Edo and Oyo States should alert you to taking action before it goes up North. Or, is that what you are hoping for?
4) Sadly, after your usual slow take to action on matters of urgent national security, seeking a seven century like days, the people are now on the street, burning down everything and the banks are shutting down nationwide. Are you happy now?
Nigeria just survived the worst economic attack in the world history. For a country as big as Nigeria to still be working with such cash crunch, with stagnated fund transfer tools in the financial system, going to four weeks now, no other country would have survived this without presently at war. When we say God loves this country and that Nigerians are specially “obeisant” breed that you can’t get anywhere else in the world, Walahi, we are not exaggerating.
There is no gain saying that the naira redesign policy is a deliberate action to frustrate the system albeit, an after thought machination. It has also just been confirmed with regret that CBN may not be able to meet up with the printing of more new naira notes, especially 500 abd1000. Premium Times just reported that exclusively now. It’s unfortunate. Emefiele and his co-travellers decided to criminally burn down the whole village because they wanted to steal a “bush meat”, forgetting that no matter what a man does in antagonism of the other’s ambition, you can’t stop the crowning of the other if Allah has destined that. All powers belong to Allah, only Him crowns whoever He wants, no matter the conspiracy.
Nothing in the decorum of ethics should make Emefiele escape life imprisonment except the criminal justice system is compromised, the collateral damage these conspirators have caused is monumental.
To be honest, I am not shocked at Emefiele’s treasonous act, he has never represented any league of honour, I am only shocked and disappointed, like many patriotic Nigerians, in PMB, why and how he allowed Emefiele to docilely co-opt him into destroying the goodwill he, the president, had left. President Buhari is definitely guilty under vicarious liability rule, no matter how we try to excuse him. If this was done to punish a friend, what will you then do to fight an enemy. It is a pathetic way to end a tenure.
It is good that the Council of State just unanimously agreed that more new notes be printed and circulated without further delay or recirculate the old notes immediately so that they can co-exist side by side till gradual steady withdrawal of the old notes, but it is almost certain to predict that CBN governor Emefiele will not obey that directive. I can almost bet that Emefiele will not make new notes available and will not recirculate the old notes until after elections. The ungodly excuse of unavailability of printing material is a ploy to frustrate the Council of State’s directives. The established fact is, this policy is meant to interfere in the election, nothing more, nothing less. Worst still the president may not even sanction him for insubordination and complicity. Very pathetic.
Mr. President, I have come here as a messenger of caution, to admonish you and all those who are plotting against Nigeria’s peace and the peace of the people to desist and have a rethink. Many evil geniuses of the past against the soul of Nigeria are living today with regret of their evil past. They are even incapable of helping themselves, they have been forgotten. Some even left this world with no opportunity to redeem their image, they went with the thorn of sins around their neck, they must be receiving banters from the angel of punishment now. Worst still, their names are written in the book of ignominy, the burden that their children will carry for ever. This is my one kobo advice, Nigeria will always win over her enemies.
GOD IS HERE
Shehu Bashir is a Legal Practitioner
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