by Farouk Martins Aresa
Here we go again! Buhari, beware of Nigeria’s pandering Pharisees and Sadducees. Political jobbers that brought us to our knees and disappointed the black race are at it again lining up behind Buhari with all sorts of advises that fell every government. Same folks exaggerated your insubstantial flaws as a major distraction. But forage for the good of…. nobody but themselves.
If Buhari has any doubt, he must dig into the end of the prophets, the fall of Hausa States or better still, the palace coup that overthrew Buhari the First. Their main goal is to kill the fight against corruption. Then preach how to save us. They do not fight just to entrench corruption as business as usual; they annihilate whatever it is in their way to major on minor points.
Buhari must learn from his past as a former Head of State. Favor to any section of the Country no matter how much they donated to his election, the glory of their blood and state must not override fairness or at the expense of the Country. We need assurance better than that of OBJ that all those that invested in him should consider their investment lost. While Buhari has acknowledged overwhelming high expectations from Nigerians somehow, he must act decisively, even if he has to tread on toes.
The first month, the first ninety and hundred days must give us an indication of who is back in power, otherwise he may lose momentum. Luckily his strongest point is his known distaste for corruption. It takes guts, decisive alacrity to send that message. It is opposite of the fish that rot from the head. Once message to end greed and avarice is sent by transparent sense of duty, the rest of the people will get it. Fear of Buhari is coming has already set some politicians upright.
If there is a lesson here: Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba need to learn from their past so that mistakes of those days are not lost during celebration of a single election. This is why the Pharisees and the Sadducees will be fighting for their self-interest. Some are vultures others are spoilers while the rest are praise singers looking for crumbs from the masters’ table.
Yoruba must learn from what the Western Nigeria achieved in opposition and many of those Nigerians that benefited that were not even Yoruba. As soon as Yoruba moved to the center of Government, they lost their skillful manager in Ibadan. The West has never been the same. It resulted into internal squabbles, hate and rancor. The same region, all other regions competed with for excellence and progressive ideas, lost everything with the rest of Nigeria.
Just as the Igbo have nothing to fear, Hausa and Yoruba have nothing to celebrate in a country suffocating in its own vomit. Democracy has always been a game of numbers. There is nothing Yoruba did that Igbo had not done in forming the Government at the center. The fact that Hausa has ruled the Country for so many years has not trickled down to the talikawa. Only fools that do not realize the commonality of looters amongst the leaders will celebrate any party.
It is widely believed that Ndi-Igbo voted for the Party that lost. Well, what about those Igbo that voted for the Party that won? Corruption affects the Igbo as much as it affects Hausa, Yoruba and the minority ethnic groups that make up the rest of Nigerians. There is nothing else that can unite Nigerians right now more than the fight against intentional waste, mismanagement of public funds, slush, colo-mentality and deliberate sabotage of files by government officials.
During the election we heard from both PDP and APC stalwarts preaching to us to beware of the other. If Jonathan had won the election, there would be those asking him to beware just as Buhari is now asked to beware of them. There are also some that are crossing to the winning party. They would do anything to gain favors. Any Party In Power!
Despite the graceful concession by Jonathan, there are some unpatriotic Nigerians praying that Buhari fails for no other reason than to prove themselves right at the expense of the whole Country. So if they have a way of contributing to his success, they will throw monkey wrench into the machinery of the Government Buhari leads. They do not care if the house falls on all of us, as long as they get their way catastrophically. Sorry O. It is not going to happen.
Unfortunately, there are those trying to heighten the fear of uninformed Nigerians by drawing attention to the voting pattern in the old Eastern Nigeria. They did not stop there; they have included the old Mid-West to form formidable partners. It is so convenient to forget so soon the coalition of people that brought Jonathan to power from North to South. Many of us used that to berate Buhari when he lost. He lost too many times before his lucky number came up.
Mischief makers must realize that they can only flame the ethnic war for so long. People have come to realize that corruption is the real enemy. It is almost impossible to achieve much with the level of corruption in Nigeria. It robs us of our intellect, our hard labor and drains emotions beyond reasonable capacity to excel. It does not make a difference how much money is made, if most of it is lost to corruption, we will continue to ask for odious loans to pay salary.
Another group of politicians have spent donkey years in one or more administrations. Still, they are letting Buhari know that they are available. This is sad. Whatever privilege it is they had while in power, they missed their goals. So they want to come back and recoup their losses. In a population of almost 180 million, we cannot find more dedicated people than those of the past. Their past services have not moved the country forward. It’s time for younger folks.
By the way, what is it with Oba Eko and his loud mouth as the messenger of Tinubu warning Buhari against distractors? He has forgotten that Tinubu’s Oba is somewhere in Osun State not in Lagos State where Tinubu is a prominent politician by the virtue of being a Yoruba. Oba Eko needs to respect himself or the position he occupies. He needs to take advice from Oba Adetona of Ijebu Ode. So that politicians of all parties in his State can respect him.