Unpopular side with Thomas Oti
Email: thomasoti@qed.ng
In the last few days, the nation has rolled out drums in celebration of one year of a new party in power. One year since the demise of a government Nigerians almost completely agreed was full of mischief makers and overnight billionaires especially of the oily variety. One year of the change that most Nigerians voted for in power. One year of a change from the south back to the north. One year of a new crop of leaders in central power. One year of Lagos being in the ruling party again. One year in which so much has happened, it is almost unbelievable.
From the central, the government of M. Buhari has been busy. The government came in with a change mantra. It promised change. What it didn’t do was articulate change from what to what though. We knew there would be change. We expected the change to be for better after all, all change is for the better right? But there was no sound policy statement ever made. No economic roadmap. No political change plan. No articulated goals, targets or objectives. No roadmap to achieving anything. Just a broom and a change mantra. Nigerians really couldn’t be bothered unfortunately. The prospect of change from the corruption they saw all around them blatantly displayed was enough for the vast majority who had not been a part of the largesse to shout change till they were blue in the face. Something had to give we all said. And we made it happen. But now, there has been change. But has there been enough and as quickly as we expected?
We have a new Sheriff in town. He is riding on his shiny white horse rounding up the thieves, cabals, dons and goons of the last administration who thought corruption was cool; after all it is not stealing. He has spent a full year making a public spectacle of them. He is dragging them naked and handcuffed through the streets and allowing all and sundry to pour opprobrium on them as public punishment for their secret crimes. He is however doing little else. His lieutenants appear toothless and rudderless. They are like learner drivers who are placed in the middle of fast moving traffic on 3rd Mainland Bridge on their first day at training school. The president appears to prefer to do his learning more on America’s deadly freeways and freeways of other countries abroad than back home in Nigeria given the N64bn he’s spent so far gallivanting from country to country since he became president. Essential travel no doubt. But what of the essential jobs at home that craved his attention? The budget for instance? Ministers and lieutenants to help run the nation too suffered from late delivery. It was by no means a fruitful time in the first few months of the administration. One year on, has that much changed? Hard to tell.
Fuel up. Salary static. Food prices up. Income static. Transport prices up. Revenue static. Dollar rates up. Naira down. Electricity tariff up. Light availability down. Everything we need to live is up. Everything we need to purchase these essential commodities is either static or going down. We have nothing. In some way, this sounds rather familiar. We seem to be back to 84/85 again when M. Buhari first made a dent on our collective consciousness in his first coming as military head of state.
From just Boko Haram and barely there Biafra agitators of the recent past, we now have to contend and deal with Boko Haram though on a slightly lesser scale; IPOB on an increasing scale, Niger Delta Avengers on a more superior scale than the Tompolo ilk and last but by no means the least, Fulani Herdsmen who have interpreted their kinsman being in power to mean that they and their cows now have the power to kidnap, kill and run rampage on farmlands anywhere in the nation. Just because they can. And so far, they apparently can because unlike the other security emergencies the present admin is dealing with, Fulani herdsmen are the only ones who seem to be having an uncharacteristic field day. They are killing farmers with impunity. They are killing villagers with impunity in different parts of the country. They are sacking villages with impunity and creating unnecessary terror and tension in the hinterlands. They are lords of cows and their cows are lords over us. We the people are powerless. The government is apparently more coy when it comes to them. Who will save us?
In the states, beginning from the cry for bailout funds from both new and re-elected governors who complained that the former administrations had left the states impoverished, through to the lack of activity in some states months post “the change”, there was no doubt that Nigerians had begun to feel the pinch of change. Nothing worth the name of change for good has happened yet. Nigerians are still waiting. Or maybe they should stop waiting and start doing.
We have been here before. Some of us survived then somehow. But it decimated the “middle class” and created a wider gulf between the bourgeoisie and the plebeians. How do we ensure the end result this time is different? Where really is this nation headed and what hope for our future as a unified indivisible entity? What hope for us?
The next 365 days may be definitive for this country. M. Buhari is already in the history books. I don’t believe he has any further points to prove. He is a man of integrity. But integrity only faces one side. The problem is what is being done as a result of his integrity behind his back. That I cannot vouch for. Neither can he. If he is a true man with his integrity intact, he will see the evil that men are doing around him again and soon he will start chasing his own shadows. And his own tail.
