Fellow Nigerians, I’m back this week to continue
where I stopped last week. If you missed the first
part, let me summarise quickly. The piece was
largely historical as I took the readers on a tour de
force of how we arrived at President Muhammadu
Buhari, a stone repeatedly rejected but has now become the cornerstone. I concluded that the
second coming of President Buhari was a miracle
and that the high expectations would naturally
place a heavy burden on him. Without doubt, life has not been rosy for our dear
President and Nigerians in the last one year. What
Nigerians expected from Buhari was nothing short
of a magical revolution that would transform
Nigeria, without military power this time around.
The joy that heralded his coming was surreal and uncommon. For once, since June 12, 1993, when
Chief Moshood Abiola won the most monumental
election since our Independence, Nigerians united
in celebrating President Buhari’s superlative
victory. Everywhere I went, Nigerians were proud
that Buhari had won and world leaders saluted our incredible achievement. In Dubai, where I
travelled to shortly after the election, taxi drivers
congratulated me once they confirmed that I was
from Nigeria. The story was virtually the same in
London, a city with probably the second largest
concentration of Nigerians outside our dear beloved country. Indeed, we never had it so good. So what seems to have gone wrong and how did
we somehow wasted the momentum that was
galloping us to prosperity, given where we have
now found ourselves? Nigerians expected our
President to have spent the transition period to
assemble and get his team ready. His economic team was supposed to have been identified and
put on notice and standby. We now know that the
outgoing Government did not co-operate as fully
as it should have done and the President did not
have hand over notes on time, according to some
impeccable sources. Once the newly elected representatives of the
people got inaugurated, one expected that
everything would be smooth sailing, as APC had
the majority in both chambers of the National
Assembly. However, the election of principal
officers of the National Assembly which was meant to be a simple and straight-forward affair
since the ruling party had a simple majority
already in its kitty turned out to be anything but
that. No one anticipated the raging inferno that
would erupt from contending ambitions and
conflicting egos. The Eighth National Assembly has never known peace since inception and the rest
would be history by the time the gladiators finish
tearing themselves to pieces in the market place. The selection, screening and confirmation of
Buhari’s cabinet took place at snail-speed.
Nigerians mumbled and grumbled like the Biblical
Jeremiah about the time it was taking for the
President to pick his men and women. It did not
seem the President understood that his people are probably the most impatient human beings on
earth. Perhaps, he would have jazzed up the
tempo and tenor of his administration by
announcing his cabinet long before he eventually
did. The steam started cooling down like melting dew
and before long the mumbling turned to moaning
and grunting. Those of us perceived to be part of
the Buhari Movement have not been spared by
those who would never see anything good in our
President. We’ve been treated scornfully and attacked as those who brought this scourge on
Nigeria. All explanations and entreaties have fallen
on deaf ears. The situation was further compounded by the war
against corruption which has been waged with
religious fervour by the Buhari government. The
horrendous stories of stealing in high places are
stranger than fiction. All well-meaning Nigerians
have been scandalised by the gory tales of brigandage and high larceny that we have been
subjected to. Most Nigerians are happy and pray
that maybe Buhari would be able to win a war
that was apparently responsible for the abrupt
termination of his military rule in 1985, during his
first coming. Many big personalities have been arrested, detained and prosecuted, though only
one case has been concluded and most are yet to
be brought to judgment and conviction. The Judiciary that should be the last bastion of
justice and the ultimate hope of the common man
has been on trial and ostensibly nailed to the cross.
There have been allegations of bribery and bias.
Such an important institution has been weakened
miserably and how it would wriggle out and cleanse its self-deprecatory mess remains to be
seen. The Buhari government does not seem
impressed even though it would need a willing
and ready partner in the judiciary in its volatile
crusade against corruption. Security remains a huge challenge. Though our
irrepressible military appear to be pushing
forward in its efforts towards the obliteration of
the terror group, Boko Haram, there are still some
skirmishes here and there. Kidnapping is back big
time. Just days ago, my young cousin, John Fatoye, a fresh graduate was abducted as he
boarded a fake taxi and found himself journeying
through places that he would never be able to
identify since he was blindfolded. He survived by
the whiskers as God miraculously touched the
hearts of the bandits who dumped him somewhere on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

This
has become rampant. We didn’t hear of the Shiites, New Biafrans, Fulani
herdsmen and Niger Delta Avengers this time last
year. But these groups have managed to force
their ways to the front pages of our newspapers
and the forefront of our attention and reckoning
because of their agitations and restiveness. The Amnesty Programme that was meticulously put in
place by former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
has virtually collapsed.

The Avengers have
wreaked unprecedented havoc on our crude oil
supplies and operations. It is reckoned that we’ve
lost our production capacities by about one million barrels per day at a time we are grappling with
abysmally low income from oil. By far the greatest albatross of the Buhari is the
comatose economy. Many are wondering what
suddenly happened to the robust and
rambunctious economy that was celebrated
globally less than three years ago. Our economy
under the government of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathain was supposed to have overtaken that of
South Africa to become the front leader. It has
nosedived to an all-time low in just one year. We
have studiously ignored the fact that we’ve
catapulted ourselves into recession.

That oil prices
crashed calamitously when President Buhari took over power and the profligacy and impunity of
the previous administration became manifest as
there was no money to cover up and paper the
cracks that had been obvious to the discerning
public. The truth is thus that the times have not been kind
to this administration. President Jonathan had
devalued the Naira twice in the space of six
months in the last days of his administration. The
effect of that devaluation is only just being felt in
the course of this Buhari administration because, in the euphoria of the elections, everyone forgot
about the economy. The parallel foreign exchange
market took on a mind of its own and defied all
permutations as speculators held sway. Prices of
food and other essentials have gone haywire. In
the end the Central Bank had to capitulate to those clamouring for devaluation by recently
announcing a flexible exchange policy. This will
naturally mean further economic woes for the
long-suffering masses of our great country but we
must have faith and believe that there is light at
the end of the tunnel. No one is sure if we’ve finally done away with the
ubiquitous petrol subsidy or whether there is now
deregulation of the petrol pricing regime. Only
time will tell. Thank God however that the
unbearable queues at petrol stations have
disappeared and we pray it is final this time.

Unemployment has become dangerously massive.
In fact, we are now rated as the country with the
largest army of unemployed youths in the world.
And the list of our woes is full and unending. The regular excuse for the woeful economic
quagmire we have found ourselves is that the past
governments created this volcanic eruption.

While
this is a fact, many have argued that the time for
buck-passing is far gone because that is the reason
Jonathan was sacked by Nigerians. Where then do we go from here? I shall
endeavour to put my humble suggestions
forward. I’m aware that some aides might be
dissembling to the President and telling him all is
well. But Baba, there is fire on the mountain. As
one of your foot-soldiers, I remain committed to telling you what the voices on the streets are
saying. I will now take the challenges and
prospects together, one by one. The priority of every nation is to build a buoyant
economy.

Truth is that would be difficult under the
current climate. There is too much tension in the
land, and the uncertainties can only scare away
any investor. For example, foreign airlines are
jittery and United Airlines only just announced that it was closing its operations in Nigeria. The
almighty British Airways is exploring its options.
Even Virgin Atlantic is shedding a few flights on
our routes.

These are not good signs. We must
douse the tension urgently. The banks are panicky and rocking although we
are all afraid to openly say this for fear of
precipitating a grand collapse. This probably
accounts for all manner of unsavoury charges that
are being levied on unsuspecting customers. The
Central Bank must intervene and save the already overburdened populate. The manufacturers are
angry. They are being ravaged by epileptic power
supply and uncertain currency regulations. Every
type of power generation must be explored
speedily. Ghana has convinced me that this can be
fixed quickly as demonstrated by President John Dramani Mahama. This has made most Nigerians
living in Ghana very hopeful that Nigeria would
break our electricity jinx one day soon. If Mahama
can perform such miracle, we too should work
harder. Farmers are being kicked aground as they are
overrun either by diseases or murderous
herdsmen and their rampaging herds.

No one
should play politics with lives and livestock. It
should not matter that some of the herdsmen are
kinsmen of our President. They should be tackled seriously and I’m sure our President would
safeguard every Nigerian soul and property. Once
the perpetrators know the President is not on their
side they will simmer down quickly. The major bright spot is the war against
corruption which the Government is largely seen
to be winning. I would like to sound a note of
caution though. While it is good to fight
corruption, it should be done systematically.


Otherwise, what we lose might be bigger than what we gain. I learnt from Chief M.K.O Abiola that
there are two ways of shouting Yeee. He said “you
can shout YEEE and people will run and you can
shout YE-YE-YE and people will dance. We can investigate and prosecute corruption
without employing gestapo style operations. The
President must insist on respect for the rule of law.


One must never fight illegality with illegality. We
must avoid anything that would suggest that
enemies are being hounded. No crime could be worse than apartheid yet Dr Nelson Mandela chose
peace over crisis. I recommend that corruption can
be fought without making it appear like
grandstanding. The looted funds will be recovered
when a thorough but fair investigation has been
carried out. No Nigerian should be detained on experimental basis at this time and age. We should
always embrace dialogue as means to conflict
resolution. Great Britain, USA, and other European
countries sometimes even negotiate with
terrorists. Those asking for blood today will sing a
different song and tune when tomorrow comes. We must do everything possible to secure the
cooperation of every Nigerian no matter our
ethnic, religious and political differences.

In this
regard, I implore President Buhari to hold
steadfast to the notion that nothing should be
done to humiliate a man who voluntarily gave up power when he could have opted for bloodshed. I
will always admire and appreciate the sacrifice of
President Goodluck Jonathan. We should
remember that he was the first man from South
South to govern Nigeria by divine intervention.

He
paid dearly for fumbling in power and that is enough punishment. Other leaders who wasted
our resources since Independence are roaming
around freely. If they cannot be subjected to a
similar treatment, then Jonathan should be left to
his conscience and should be allowed to enjoy his
retirement without harassment.

No man is perfect and we should not sow permanent seeds of
discord that may eventually ruin our nation. That
does not mean looted funds must not be
substantially retrieved from all public office
holders without fear or favour. Many in all the
Political Parties and civil service fall into this category. The pursuit of one man as is now being
advocated by some can only be an unwarranted
provocation and unnecessary distraction. It is never a sign of weakness to run away from
danger and regroup. It is for this reason that I
urge that we must not add the Avengers to our
political and economic lexicon.

I pray it is not too
late. President Yar’Adua did the wisest thing when
he drew the embittered militants closer. The people of the Niger Delta have every reason to be
bitter. Their representative was sacked and not
allowed to return to power.


Yet the Asari
Dokubos, Tompolos and others left quietly without
a conflagration and it was indeed a miracle. We
must not go and wake up unnecessary trouble. Our pots are full already. Nevertheless, the Avengers have no right or
justification for the atrocities and crimes they are
committing.

All they are doing is contributing not
only to the economic woes of the country and
even the world but more importantly they are
destroying the communities they claim they are helping through environmental degradation and
economic deprivation.

The President must help
these communities, and turn them away from the
romantic notions spawned by these militants, by
giving them a sense of belonging once again! According to an old British Telecom advert: “It is
good to talk…” Our problems are solvable if we
embrace dialogue no matter how difficult it seems.

https://teejaybaba./2016/05/28/the-second-coming-of-president-buhari-part-2-by-delemomodu/

Dele Momodu, fat Buffon available for the highest bidder! All crimes must be punished irrespective of who committed them

A new sheriff is in town. But the new sheriff has suddenly lost his voice as his feeding bottle has been taken from him by the feeder.

Dele Momodu should stop talking about the Nigerian economy.Nigeria has no economy.
Everything operates in a state of anarchy. Everything Nigerian is a direct reflection of the people inhabiting the geographical space called Nigeria.
What can you do about an unproductive country whose people are incapable of doing or manufacturing the most mundane of things?
What can you do about a people whose sole purpose in life is the crude accumulation of money( theft) by any means possible?

When a good article comes along, I will it that to criticise Buhari's failings.
I am yet to seen a high level article that objectively criticises buhari's government.

andresia:
Dele Momodu, fat Buffon available for the highest bidder! All crimes must be punished irrespective of who committed them

When will Obasanjo be punished for the crimes he committed

The only reasonable stuff i saw in this article is that no one should humiliate jonathan.

He can stick the rest of the article to that part of his body where the sun does not shine

Lobbish!!

Spot on Dele Momodu, very good write up.

I have said it several times that Nigeria could have been at war now if Jonathan had rejected the election results and insisted on holding unto power. Nothing must be done to humiliate a man who has turned out to be the hero of our democracy.


Buhari is very childish in his attitude and manner of speech. Blame him for all that is happening now. If he continues at this rate, his government will fail, one yr has already gone past.


We are watching.

oduastates:
Dele Momodu should stop talking about the Nigerian economy.Nigeria has no economy.
Everything operates in a state of anarchy. Everything Nigerian is a direct reflection of the people inhabiting the geographical space called Nigeria.
What can you do about an unproductive country whose people are incapable of doing or manufacturing the most mundane of things?
What can you do about a people whose sole purpose in life is the crude accumulation of money( theft) by any means possible?
When a good article comes along, I will it that to criticise Buhari's failings.
I am yet to seen a high level article that objectively criticises buhari's government.