New Telegraph

Where is Nigeria’s future?

Nigeria has gotten to a frightening dimension by the reality of our present emanations. It is an endangered country that is under the grip of crimes and criminalities.

 

The news oozing out from the inner fortress of the Nigerian environment presents disturbing scenarios about our future, if there is any at all. I stumbled upon a news item that over 200 ISIS warlords have sneaked into the country.

 

With the ugly reality that stares us in the face daily, one is bound to stumble on bizarre stories of unimaginable proportion.

 

The killings have not abated. The kidnapping is on the increase. Banditry is taking over the North, while general insecurity has become the rule of engagement. The country is troubled. Nigerians are in trouble. Ideas are waning, creativity is becoming weather-beaten, while sheer initiatives are becoming unsuitable to confront the behemoth problems around us. Government publicists are still gloating in the euphoric claim that their principal, the president of Nigeria, is the best man that has impacted on Nigeria more than anyone else.

 

They rolled out what they referred to as achievements in the area of infrastructure, in a tactless documentary that never gave the full story of a troubled Nigeria.

Yes, President Muhammadu Buhari is killing Nigeria. What is the use of physical infrastructure when the human infrastructure are heavily impaired, when bloodletting has become the visible sign-post of a beleaguered government, lazy on all fronts and manifestly confused to chart a roadmap that would take us out of life threatening situations. Where do we intend to be in the future going by our current challenges?

 

How do we intend to confront our future in the hands of armed banditry and insurgency, with porous borders allowing free movement of warlords from other countries? To state in unmistakeable sense that president Buhari has further broken the psyche of the country, polarised its very people and created schisms that have continued to derail our sense of direction, is to understand the negative impact of his nepotistic doctrine.

 

If president Buhari were to be conversational, there would not have been IPOB. If he were to be engaging, there would not have been Amotekun. If he were to be handy in response to cries of marginalisation, there would not have been armed banditry and the like.

 

The president’s style is not just too slow for a country that should be on the run, his choices are outmoded options of a system that is dysfunctional and a leadership that is incompetent.

 

The truth of our bleak future did not start from Buhari’s presidency, but he has driven the wedge deeper into the mould, to put us in a very precarious situation.

 

The truth must be told, and loudly too, that the president is largely incompetent and underperforming. His age is a factor. His health is another. His style compounds the situation. His taciturnity is a disabler. His inability to connect the dots is a stimulant of failure. His inability to exploit dialogue is a huge gap.

 

“Integrity” of one individual alone cannot build a nation. Palpable integrity can only draw confidence from the public, but the attitude you bring into leadership defines the algorithms of the power situation, and the delivery of the leadership essentials.

 

Attitude carries 100% components and quotients of the leadership essentials. A nepotistic president cannot speak of fairness and justice. A president that dwells in selective amnesia cannot preach equitability of situations in power distribution.

 

A president that charts favouritism cannot be seen to be altruistic in his judgment and verdicts.

 

A president that is “detained” in the cocoon of his office without reaching out to other parts of the country, cannot understand the enormity of the problems at hand.

 

There are so many disconnections and dislocations in the present arrangement that easily underscore the lack of proper coordination under this presidency. Here is a teaser.

 

The home of Justice Mary Ukaego Odili, Justice of the Supreme Court was raided or invaded by armed security operatives at the heart of Nigeria barely a kilometer stretch to the Aso Rock Villa Abuja, yet nobody has been held accountable till now. If she was killed, (God forbids) that would be another tell-tale of unresolved murder, yet the security agencies are supposed to be under the leadership of some appointed heads.

 

No one has been held responsible almost two weeks after. It is one denial after another. Liars all over. A leadership that is anchored on lies and propaganda cannot endure the test of time.

 

Here is another teaser. About 230,000 party members, were claimed to have elected Senator Andy Ubah at the APC primary election supervised by one “genius” of a Governor, Dapo Abiodun.

 

At the just concluded Anambra election, the results polled by the APC is a serious indictment on the validity of the votes that returned Andy Ubah as a candidate in the first place. He could not score ordinary 50,000 votes.

 

It is obvious without any crystal gazing, that the initial result of the primary election was a product of fraud and outright lies. Yet, a beneficiary of such outcome, actually wanted to govern Anambra state and create a future and regime of lies and subterfuge?. How can we possibly move forward? Where is the future? Just imagine budgets under a Buhari presidency.

 

The level of corruption is disturbing, yet you hear all manners of distractions about somebody’s bra and panty. Hmm!! Another teaser from the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS), Nigeria’s cash cow, will benumb anyone’s sensibility.

 

FIRS budgeted N263m for security votes, N17.8b for miscellaneous, N550m for refreshment, N2.8b for uniform and clothing, N1.4b for electricity bills within a year, another N1.3b for security services. It also asks for N3b for furniture, N500m for construction of sports facility, N2b for purchase of vehicles, N1.8b for fuel, maintenance and purchase of new generators.

 

These and many other bogus claims are contained in President Buhari’s appropriation bill for 2022 presented to the National Assembly that will become law for the 2022 budgetary year.

 

They called figures with effortless ease. They generate and consume taxpayers’ money with bogus spending and reckless wastage. Reconcile this budget with that of the education ministry, you will see the reason why our future is heavily impaired.

 

On the streets of the North, you can easily pick up bullets and guns, instead of writing pens and papers. You are bound to see shells of bullets already expended by bandits and kidnappers, a future that seems to be anchored on how lethal the individual can be.

 

The schools are under lock and key. Those who manage to keep their doors open, the classes are scantily populated. The students are in palpable fear. The teachers are frightened. The environment is that of danger lurking in the air.

 

Tempers are on the rise every now and then. Fear reigns supreme. A future of guns and bullets draws near. From the North to the South, a bleak future, blinded by man’s inordinate ambition to continue to preside over a conquered territory. A country that is perpetually fractured by hatred and mutual suspicion. A country that is divided by tongues and tribes.

 

A nation on tenterhooks, hemorrhaging psychedelically like a drunk, stammering instead of dialoguing, keeping mum instead of conversation, as the central chord that binds us together is being rapidly serated.

 

What future is President Buhari bequeathing to this generation? A future of bandits and kidnappers or one of brains and brawns, of students, learners and teachers driven by knowledge and technology? Just what future? Take a gaze, and tell me what future the president wants to bequeath.

 

Nigeria is bleeding on all fronts. Bullets are the familiar sounds we now hear. Bloodlettings are the theme of our collective struggle. The criminals are taking over, both in the cities and in the forests. The echoes are deafening.

 

The rhythms are punctuated by anguish and sorrow, a mournful nation in distress. And as I look into the future, the birds whispered in punctured tone; just where is the future. Just where

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