Shortly after overthrowing Muhammadu Buhari’s military junta on
August 27, 1985, Ibrahim Babangida set up what he called the Nigerian Political
Bureau.
The 17-member panel
inaugurated on January 13, 1986, with Samuel Cookey, a professor of political
science, as chairman was charged with the responsibility of refocusing
Nigeria’s political trajectory by chiselling out a new socio-political order.
With membership
cutting across academia, business and labour – Abdullahi Augie, Bala Takaya,
Dr. Edwin Madunagu, Prof. Oye Oyediran, Mrs. Hilda Adefarasin, Prof. Eme Awa,
Prof. Tunde Adeniran, Prof. Sam Oyovbaire, Dr. Ola Balogun, Haroun Adamu,
Comrade Paschal Bafyau – the bureau reached out to prominent Nigerians.
In the end, it
received well over 27,000 memoranda on issues ranging from religion to
ethnicity and ideology from ever-willing and rambunctious Nigerians.
But Obafemi Awolowo
was not sold on the project and refused to participate.
In his rejection
letter addressed to Cookey, Awo was clairvoyant and made a damning
proclamation.
“I received your
letter of February 28, 1986, and sincerely thank you for doing me the honour of
inviting me to contribute to the national political debate.
“The purpose of the
debate is to clarify our thoughts in our search for a new social order.
“It is therefore
proper that all those who have something to contribute should do so.
“I do fervently and
will continue fervently to pray that I may be proved wrong.
“For something within
me tells me, loud and clear, that we have embarked on a fruitless search.
“At the end of the
day, when we imagine that the new order is here, we would be terribly
disappointed.
“In other words, at
the threshold of our new social order, we would see for ourselves that, as long
as Nigerians remain what they are, nothing clean, principled, ethical, and
idealistic can work with them.
“And Nigerians will
remain what they are, unless the evils which now dominate their hearts, at all
levels and in all sectors of our political, business and governmental
activities are exorcised.
“But I venture to
assert that they will not be exorcised, and indeed they will be firmly
entrenched, unless God Himself imbues a vast majority of us with a
revolutionary change of attitude to life and politics or, unless the dialectic
processes which have been at work for some twenty years now, perforce, make us
perceive the abominable filth that abounds in our society, to the end that an
inexorable abhorrence of it will be quickened in our hearts and impel us to
make drastic changes for the better.”
But in the event that
Nigerians were not attuned to heeding the advice, there was, Awolowo said, an
alternative option: “To succumb to permanent social instability and chaos.”
Nigerians obviously
settled for the alternative option and 33 years after, we are still treading
that self-destructive path.
No matter how anyone
cuts it, Nigeria is in trouble. The country under President Muhammadu Buhari’s
watch is gradually but inexorably succumbing to permanent social instability
and chaos.
When Nigerians elected
Buhari president in 2015, they believed that they were enthroning a new order.
Change was the slogan. Today, not a few are terribly disappointed. Truth be
told, with Buhari, we embarked on a fruitless search.
Recently, one of the most virulent critics of former President
Goodluck Jonathan who loudly celebrated Buhari’s victory in 2015 sent me
a WhapSapp message.
“Jonathan was a
comprehensive failure, part of his failing being the emergence of Buhari. But
it was good Buhari was given a chance, and as is clear now, to ruin himself.
Buhari has turned out, not just to have failed, but to now constitute the
greatest risk to our national security. Anyone who says Buhari is doing well
should have his head examined.”
This verdict may sound
harsh but it is true. It is pretty tough for any well-meaning Nigerian to
continue maintaining a sunny outlook about the country right now. But Buhari
has neither ruined himself nor about to. In fact, he doesn’t care. I doubt if
he gets it. But Nigeria is worse off for the shenanigans of his government.
And the conduct of the
November 16 governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States reinforces the
prevailing pessimism.
Under President
Olusegun Obasanjo, elections were a do-or-die affair. As bad as that was,
Buhari has taken the ugly trend to the next level, a notch higher, where it
does not really matter whether you do or you don’t, being a Nigerian willing to
express a contrary political opinion makes you an enemy of the state with dire
consequences.
Which explains why the
Kogi State PDP Woman Leader, Mrs. Salome Abuh, was burnt alive in her home just
because of elections.
In broad daylight, hoodlums
that were not masked arrived at Abuh’s house, blocked every exit, knowing full
well that she was inside, poured petrol on the building, set it ablaze, stepped
back and fired gunshots continuously to scare people away from rescuing her.
Terrified villagers who apparently knew the assassins could only watch the gory
spectacle from afar, helplessly.
Meanwhile, the
murderers were having a ball – smoking, drinking and chatting away – without a
care in the world while their victim was wailing and begging for mercy.
The blood-thirsty
thugs waited patiently, mocking their victim. They had the licence to kill.
Like a child sent on a stealing voyage by his father, who loudly and without a
care kicks the door open, they stood there supremely confident that their
bestial act will go unpunished.
That is the level
Nigeria is right now. Almost three weeks after, nobody has been punished for
this crime. I dare say that nobody will be made to pay for this heinous crime.
Lesser incidents will convulse any other country.
Abuh’s tragic fate
reminds me of Mukaila Abdullahi, Kano State INEC Resident Electoral
Commissioner (REC), who was burnt to death at his Kano GRA residence on April
4, 2015 together with his wife and two children.
Abdullahi presided
over the presidential and National Assembly elections. He didn’t live to
superintend over the governorship and state Assembly elections.
His remains were
buried in his home state of Jigawa even before investigations started. To date,
there has been no serious attempt to unravel the mystery.
Why should there be
when the police concluded without any investigation that the entire family
“suffocated after inhaling black smoke emitting from the split air-conditioner
hose that caught fire after an electrical fault.” To date, Kano residents and
Abdullahi’s neighbours dispute that account.
The Kano State Police
Commissioner who made the announcement, Ibrahim Idris, became the Inspector
General of Police (IGP) shortly after.
Under Buhari’s watch,
Nigeria seems to have succumbed to permanent social instability and chaos.
The homes of Nigerians
are routinely burnt down and innocent citizens murdered in cold blood for
daring to assemble as was the case of Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lawyer to leader of the
Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, this week.
The government cherry
picks which court order to obey. The National Assembly has become a mere rubber
stamp with lawmakers misconstruing patriotism to mean allegiance to the
president rather than the Constitution of the country.
Nigerians have been
cowed into silence. A Hate Speech Bill that prescribes death penalty is hanging
over the heads of naysayers like the axiomatic sword of Damocles. There is also
the Social Media Bill.
The ominous warnings
are back. Mere protest is a treasonable felony that must be firmly and
ruthlessly put down. Any act of dissent is a potential banana skin.
On Tuesday December 3,
the Department of State Services (DSS) sounded an ominous warning, claiming to
have uncovered plots by some undesirable groups to cause a breakdown of law and
order in parts of the country by instigating protests, mass action and
violence.
“These predetermined
actions have been designed to take place simultaneously in the major cities
across the geopolitical zones in the coming weeks,” DSS spokesman, Peter
Afunanya announced in righteous indignation.
“Considering the
implications of these on public safety and national security, the Service
wishes to warn the anti-democratic elements responsible for these heinous plots
to desist forthwith from their inglorious acts.
“Consequently, parents
are advised to rein in their wards and enjoin them not to allow themselves to
be used to foment trouble.
“Similarly, Heads of
academic and public institutions are to warn their students and employees
respectively from engaging in any untoward activity against public order.
“The Service and other
sister agencies are at alert and will ensure that peace and security are
maintained in all parts of the country before, during and after the festive
periods.”
The gloves are off.
Buhari claimed he was a born-again democrat. Nigerians believed him. But can
the leopard actually change its spots? Hardly!
Awolowo is right. He
saw this coming 33 years ago.
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
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