Is it true that there is a cabal? Nigerians deserve to know. Perhaps there is no cabal, but there are problems that make Nigeria wild. What are these problems? Nigerians will need to know them. If they exist, it will be a deplorable injustice, if the president refuses to talk about them. If Mr President can make this confession, he will go down as the Nigerian saviour despite the mess of his regime. The first step towards solving a problem is to identify it. When it is identified, the search for solution begins.
On December 1st, the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari, revealed, in
graphic style, the scale of corruption at the third tier of government in Nigeria.
President Buhari
The Nigerian President, while hosting members of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, made a revelation of how state governors share subventions of the third tier with the chairmen of the councils.
For me, it was an emotional moment. It reminds me of events that helped built the reputation of the General Mohammadu Buhari, helping to reopen the door of the state house for him in 2015, once again. Only he and General Olusegun Obasanjo have achieved this in the history of Nigeria.
As a military Head of State, Buhari built a reputation as a gritty fighter of fiscal and moral dishonesty. The highpoint was on July 5th, 1984, when an attempt was made to “rustle” a former Nigerian cabinet member, Umaru Dikko, who ran away with state funds to the United Kingdom. It was a commando-styled operation involving Israeli guerrillas. The aim was to bring Dikko to Nigeria to stand trial for accusations bordering on corruption. Sadly, the operation failed. The Israeli guerrillas were arrested and imprisoned for decades, but the character of the young General was made bold and visible.
While General Sani Abacha was Military Head of State, the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, was established. When Abacha ran a search of the right Nigerian to oversee things at PTF, the name Mohammadu Buhari popped up. Nigerians talk highly of how he eventually chaired the fund. Funds were spent and the result is visible till today. It was yet another testimony of the unbowed love of country in the heart of Mohammadu Buhari.
When fuel queues started manifesting at fuel stations across Nigeria, newspapers carried headlines lines that read: GENERAL BUHARI SEEN IN A QUEUE AT A FILLING STATION. It was yet another parade of beauty in the heart of a patriot.
These series of events are among a few of the events that helped wrought Buhari’s standing as the man to save Nigeria. So, he was given a chance in 2015. But shockingly, things took a turn for the worse, worse than it has ever been seen in the history of Nigeria. So bad are things under Buhari at the moment that he should have stayed in Daura and die with his name intact. In dead, he would have remained a giant icon in the minds of Nigerians.
The mess started with President Buhari being referred to as Baba Go Slow, considering his sluggishness at putting up his cabinet. When, in the end, the cabinet was in place, it was largely of northern Nigerian old men of his generation. Buhari said he prefer to work with people he trusts. The import is that he doesn’t trust anyone from the south and also trusts not the youths.
People started looking forward to corrupt politicians of past regimes getting jailed. It didn’t come. Instead, they were asked to only return monies they had stolen. When members of his cabinet saw this, they joined the “bandwagon” and the President was unwilling to investigate members of his cabinet accused of corruption. One instance was the case of Babacir Lawal, Secretary to Buhari’s Government, who used hundreds of millions of naira to “cut grass” at a camp for the resettlement of Boko Haram victims while the victims were starving to death. There was a case of the President’s son getting involved in an accident while riding a power bike that was too expensive to be owned by President Buhari himself, let alone his son.
The cries about President Buhari’s failure to fight corruption were drowned by the rise of night killings of farmers in rural towns across the north-central part of the country for which the President pretended not to see. The situation became messier when banditry started in the north-west of the country. Bandits would raid a rural town, killing everyone in sight and making away with wealth in the form of livestock and grains. They could kidnap you and ask for ransom. They would compel farmers to pay to cultivate and harvest their farms.
Economic woes under President Buhari became the worst the country has ever seen, triggering a wave of crime of equal proportion. Eventually, abductions became widespread, happening in cities and everywhere the wealthy are sighted. The police would advise you to just pay the ransom; they don’t have the resources to go after the criminals.
As far as hell is concerned, Nigeria became a tip of the iceberg under President Buhari’s civilian rule. But a conspiracy theory rose to explain why we found hell when we were hoping for heaven: that the president is a stooge ran by a group of influential persons, referred to as The Cabal. Another conspiracy theory says the man in Aso Rock isn’t Buhari at all. That Buhari had long died. And that the man in Aso Rock is actually a Sudanese look-alike (some say it is a clone.)
As the Buhari’s regime nears its end, the conspiracy theory of a cabal running Mr President like a stooge, may be factual after all. There are pointers to these facts. Certain decisions are taken in Aso Rock that should have been taken immediately the problems popped their messy heads. It’s like the President is telling the cabal that, “at least you can let me clean up now that I am going. Even if you don’t agree, I will still go ahead and do it. The few months remaining are nothing; after all I have enjoyed a greater part of eight years.” Bandits are now getting killed daily and the frequency of their activities is sliding. There is a fight against oil stealing and daily outputs are rising. Mr President is redesigning the currency to prevent the use of money during elections. Mr President is talking about the scale of corruptions in local councils and people are challenging him to mention names.
The revelation of corruption at the local government level is what prompted me to write this. I, like other Nigerians, have watched that video footage of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, challenging Mr President to mention names to avoid a blanket accusation that smears every governor. Along this line, the President can go ahead and widen the scale of his revelation. Rather than just talk about corruption in local councils, he can talk about challenges he had faced that ended up making him the devil in the history of the Nigerian Presidency. Is it true that there is a cabal? Nigerians deserve to know. Perhaps there is no cabal, but there are problems that make Nigeria wild. What are these problems? Nigerians will need to know them. If they exist, it will be a deplorable injustice, if the president refuses to talk about them. If Mr President can make this confession, he will go down as the Nigerian saviour despite the mess of his regime. The first step towards solving a problem is to identify it. When it is identified, the search for solution begins.
Mr President has nothing to fear. He is an old man that has accomplished everything in life: children, grandchildren, wealth, power and all other gear of success.
