With a little over a year remaining for the conduct of elections in Nigeria, divergent views are springing up on a daily basis on likely candidates that will hold elective positions at all levels of governance. Nigerian politicians in their usual style of imposing their will on the helpless and near hopeless electorate have started apportioning political offices to themselves and their cronies. From the presidential to the governorship and other positions, they are jostling to have their way so as to continue to lord it over the masses directly or indirectly. They are consulting among themselves in their desperate bid to remain politically relevant whether the vast majority of Nigerians will benefit in the end or not.
As usual, the president’s henchmen are clamouring for the maintenance of the status quo in accordance with the bidding of their paymaster while at the state levels, the governors that are about to complete their eight year tenures are jostling to put their yes-men on the saddle to cover their evil tracks while in office. While they continue to use their states’ resources to oil their way through, the impoverished masses are watching helplessly because they know that their days of slavery are far from being over if these political sharks eventually have their ways.
From the presidency to the states under the control of APC, Nigerians have never had it so bad. Even the states controlled by other parties have not been given a proper lease of life as APC shenanigans have vowed to make them toe the line through subtle means or violence if the need arises. There is no state in Nigeria today where absolute peace reigns. Human life has become so cheap in Nigeria that sane minds are wondering whether the raging “war” in Nigeria will ever end. Nigerians are moving about with trepidation as nobody knows who the next victims will be. Nigerians are dying through many unimaginable ways on a daily basis, hunger inclusive.
Since the inception of the Buhari administration, Nigerians have never experienced true democracy because of his unconventional style of governance that has caused more pains to them than the succor they need and expected. He has allowed the cabal that swore that the country will never move forward to completely overwhelm him. He has continuously looked the other way while the country burns with the masses suffering penury, hunger, deprivation, violence, deaths and other abnormalities that are clearly out of context with democratic tenets and norms. As Nigerians continue to lament, the Buhari led administration have continued to chase shadows, totally ignoring the fact that in line with democratic principles, the voices of the masses must be heard. President Buhari has indeed become Nigeria’s albatross.
It is an insult on our collective psyche for president Buhari and his agents to try to scheme their way back to Aso Rock in 2019 after all the pains his administration has been unleashing on Nigerians since 2015. Even in the days of military dictatorship in Nigeria, Nigerians had many things going for them as compared to the present situation of the country where life is hard, brutish and short in line with Hobbesian dictum.
It is heartrending that some elite of Igbo extraction are involved in this conspiracy to foist president Buhari on Nigeria again in 2019 inspite of his abysmal performance since he assumed office as president and Commander in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It remains an undisputable fact that Igbos are the worst losers in Nigeria since president Buhari assumed power. As an ethnic bigot, president Buhari has hurt the Igbos more than any other leader in the history of the country. Nearly four years into the life of his administration, he has continued to show the Igbos that they are not on his agenda. Inspite of strident voices calling for him to change from his evil ways, he has unashamedly and wickedly continued to treat the Igbos as third class citizens who have no stake in the unholy union called Nigeria.
That Igbo sons and daughters should continue to clamour for the domination of Nigeria’s affairs by the Hausa/Fulani, nearly 60 years after Nigeria’s independence shows the dismal level the Igbo nation has been reduced to in Nigeria’s skewed federation. This is a tacit support for the agreement reached by the oppressors at the end of the civil war in 1970 that no Igbo man will ever rule Nigeria again. That this agreement continues to hold sway uptill this moment shows how weak and amenable to influence we really are. With the way we are going, the Igbo race may never see the presidency till the end of time as long as we continue to sell our rights for a pot of porridge. Even in 2023, other reasons why the Igbo man will not rule Nigeria will still arise if we continue this way.
That Igbos cannot realize their potentials under president Buhari remain an indisputable fact. The sad reality is that giving president Buhari another chance will further stagnate the Igbos. What he has been doing to the Igbos since he assumed office will be a child’s play compared to what he will do to them if he is made president in 2019 by whatever means. This is because it is an established fact Nigerian leaders get worse in their second tenure knowing that they will not have the chance of contesting again by the dictates of the constitution. President Buhari only represents his tribe and their interests and this scenario will get worse if he succeeds himself in 2019. Even if the Igbos decide to vote for president Buhari en-masse in 2019, it will never alter anything because he and the cabal he represents will never rescind their decision to treat the Igbos as slaves.
The ethnic cleansing that has escalated under president Buhari’s watch will worsen if he is made Nigeria’s president for a second time. The country is presently sitting on a keg of gunpowder merely waiting to explode because of the continuous fratricidal war that has engulfed almost every part of the nation. The change that president Buhari used as his campaign slogan has become the country’s nemesis as they never expected that the change will alter their lives for the worse. Nigerians are being buffeted from all fronts and they are losing their lives on a daily basis because of president Buhari’s mis-governance. The Igbos and their brothers from the South South are the worse hit as they are today losing their able bodied youths in the Mediterranean, Libya, Sahara desert, South Africa, Asia and other places. Many are prostitutes who embark on dangerous voyages on a daily basis in their bid to escape from the hell called Nigeria. This is because opportunities for a decent living are not within their grasp in the country.
President Buhari’s continued pursuit of a Northern agenda will eventually spell doom for Nigeria and lead to more lawlessness and shedding of blood if he eventually finds his way back to Aso Rock in 2019. Just as he and his Northern brothers are bent on resisting the restructuring of the amorphous union called Nigeria by every means, they are also determined to keep Nigeria the way it is presently to the detriment of other components especially the Igbos. But our so called Igbo leaders have ignored this glaring fact because of what they stand to benefit from the continued stay of president Buhari in power. They are insensitive to the plight of their brothers who have continued to groan since president Buhari assumed office. In pursuit of their selfish agenda, they have become their people’s enemies but they do not mind the consequences.
Nigeria has reached a stage where silence is no longer golden. Collectively, Igbos and other losers in the Nigerian federation should raise their voices in protest. Aligning with president Buhari to continue to suppress the people is tantamount to subjecting their people to perpetual slavery which will worsen with president Buhari’s continued stay in office.
From the time president Buhari was sworn in as the president of Nigeria, I have continued to emphasize the fact that he will take Nigeria backward. No arch tribalist, nepotist or religious bigot has ever led his country to El-dorado. Whatever happens, such a leader will always pander to the whims and caprices of his ethnic group as well as his religious inclination to the detriment of other subjects that are different from his background. This has often led to strifes, disenchantment, frustration and all sorts of wars that have become the fate of Nigeria with things worsening under this administration. In their myopic way of thinking, president Buhari and his people erroneously believe that Nigeria belongs to them and this is where Nigeria’s problem stem from. This is what will eventually kill Nigeria because they are not ready to change from their evil ways.
Nigeria would have been a great nation today where everything works if all the injustices perpetrated by the Northerners and their collaborators against other components of the country had not been there. They have inflicted so much injury on the Nigerian nation over the years and impeded her progress so much that the country may never recover. To campaign for president Buhari’s continued stay in office is the height of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians because he has nothing good to offer them. What Nigerians are experiencing today is only a tip of the iceberg compared to what will happen to them if president Buhari assumes office in 2019 for a second tenure.
