The pastor, author, and former media aide to
former president Goodluck Jonathan shared the
article on his Facebook Page on Saturday.
**
Leadership matters in the development of nations.
Today Aliko Dangote is worth less than half of
what he was worth under former President
Jonathan. He was worth $25 billion in 2014 and
is now worth $12.4 billion today! Listen to the
words spoken by Aliko Dangote about President
Jonathan on Friday the 6th of September, 2013 in
Nairobi while speaking to the political and
business elite of Kenya-“As you all know, without
good policies of government, there is no way a
person like me from a big town like Kano can rise
from a humble beginning to become the 25th
richest person on earth. Without the policies of
president Jonathan and also making sure that
there is consistency in the policies of the
government, this could not have happened”.
I wonder what Africa’s richest man would say
about President Muhammadu Buhari behind close
doors. Hardly (or never) has a country
deteriorated so speedily as Nigeria has under the
stewardship (if you can call it that) of President
Muhammadu Buhari. In just eighteen months
President Buhari has become the poster boy for
the adage that it takes time to build but little or
no time to destroy.
And it is not just on the economic side that
things have unraveled. Social justice, human
rights and fundamental freedoms are all being
rolled back under this administration.
Name your dog Buhari in today’s Nigeria and you
will be diligently prosecuted but commit genocide
in Southern Kaduna and you wont even be
charged! Openly behead a female evangelist and
your case may be dismissed even if you are
charged, but criticize a governor, who himself
criticizes wildly, and be speedily charged to court.
Accuse PDP politicians and security forces arrest
them before investigation. Produce proof of the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation’s
alleged corruption and the same forces are
suddenly paralyzed. Welcome to President
Buhari’s new and improved Nigeria.
Under President Muhammadu Buhari Nigeria
practices a dual legal system where All
Progressive Congress politicians are innocent
until proven guilty while Peoples Democratic
Party politicians are guilty until proven innocent.
If you doubt me, then ask Rotimi Amaechi and
Babachir Lawal who are attending Federal
Executive Council to decide the faith of Nigeria
meetings while Femi Fani-Kayode and Olisa
Metuh are in and out of court. Alas!
Corruption cannot kill corruption. When you fight
corruption with double standards, it is not
corruption you kill, but your integrity.
And while the Southern Kaduna killings rages and
goes seemingly unnoticed by our President, I was
shocked to read that the Presidency had issued a
statement condemning the recent death in police
custody of Tochukwu Nnadi in South Africa.
Not that I am happy that Tochukwu was killed.
Far from it. I am sad. Very sad. But why condemn
one death in South Africa and remain silent to
Genocide in Southern Kaduna?
And then it finally hit me! If you are a Nigerian
and you want the government of President
Muhammadu Buhari to condemn your killing, you
better make sure your killers kill you in Southern
Africa and not in Southern Kaduna!
Still on Kaduna, I am particularly pained because I
saw it coming. My grouse is with the Christian
Association of Nigeria which refused to heed the
warnings of many of us who saw the direction
the nation was and is still heading and gave
strong warnings. I publicly warned the Body of
Christ immediately after the killings of hundreds
of Shiites (according to the official Kaduna White
Paper on the killings which declared that over 300
Shiites were killed) that if we did not speak up for
Shiites, our turn would come too. With what is
happening now in Southern Kaduna, did I lie? You
should not wait until injustice touches you before
you speak up for justice! That is a lesson the
world learnt from Germany when the SS kept on
coming for one group or the other until there was
no one left to talk again.
And the double standards continue to manifest
themselves everywhere. For instance, it did not
take the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission and the DSS this long to investigate
and arrest PDP politicians. Why the foot dragging
with Babachir the Baba of IDP funds? Why is he
allowed to continue in office during his
investigation yet the same Presidency wanted
accused judges to step down during theirs? Is
there one rule for Babachir and another rule for
the perceived enemies of President Muhammadu
Buhari? One would think that a man accused of
stealing from IDPs would be expeditiously
investigated and tried. Or is it a case of when I
see the broom I will pass over?
When Stella Oduah and Barth Nnaji were accused
of corruption (and a mere conflict of interest in
the case of Nnaji) then President Goodluck
Jonathan asked them to resign within weeks.
Today, our so called anti corruption President,
Muhammadu Buhari, is waiting for ‘further
investigations’ before moving against the famous
grass cutter, Babachir Lawal. With the likes of
Rotimi Amaechi, who spent half a million hosting
Wole Soyinka, I guess ₦270 million to allegedly
clear grass for IDPs is no big deal to President
Muhammadu Buhari!
And the same government that arrested several
newspaper publishers and proprietors and also
forced them to refund monies that they received
for public relations and media agency is now
doing something similar in a case of do as I say
don’t do as I do.
The Buhari administration budgeted ₦180 million
to ‘facilitate appearances with social media
influencers’. This from a so called anti corruption
regime! After ‘facilitating’ the Social Media
influencers with these tax payer millions, the
same administration sends the EFCC to arrest its
political opponents for ‘facilitating’ their own
media associates! Apparently, this administration
wants a monopoly on ‘facilitation’ and jealously
guards the monopoly using law enforcement
agents paid with our tax Naira.
Even conservative global media houses now feel
compelled to write about the double standards
that exist in Nigeria under President Buhari
because they are so glaring to the point of being
blatant.
Writing in December 2016 for instance, Bloomberg
had this to say about Buhari’s Nigeria “Out of 17
top positions in the army, navy, air force and
other security agencies, (only) three are from the
south.” This is coming from a foreign news
media!
Look at the excuse the President gave for not
attending the South-East Economic and Security
Summit in Enugu. In an official statement, the
Presidency said “stakeholders from the South
East came and advised him (the President) to not
go in view of the closeness of the date to
Christmas; that given the sensitivity of the period
to the people, a presidential visit may come with
over exertion and possibly, be disruptive of
Christmas.”
Even if you must lie, must the lie be so
unintelligent? The President did not attend and
did not send a representative because “of the
closeness of the date to Christmas”, yet he still
approved the military and paramilitary’ Operation
Python Dance which made 2016 the worst year
for South-Easterners since the civil war ended 47
years ago!
And yet when the same President was compelled
by bad weather to cancel his state visit to Bauchi
state on December 29, 2016, he felt moved
enough to tape a video message in Hausa
explaining to the people of Bauchi why he was
unable to come and apologizing to them
profusely.
You may recall that President Buhari got
something like 97% of the votes of Bauchi state
but only got less than 5% of the votes of the
Southeastern states.
Those who thought the President was joking in
July 23, 2015 when he said “the constituents, for
example, gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be
treated on some issues with constituencies that
gave me 5%” now know that our President was
speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth.
Fellow Nigerians, brace up. Double standards are
now official state policy!
