| The Daily Crucible | Sunday, October 30, 2022
By Femi Kusa
I always feel sorry for this man. He is a man of few words, always looking like an introvert but a man with a good sense of humour, as many people close to him always say. Even if I didn't know him as such, should I not from him telling Aisha, his wife, that a woman's place was in the kitchen and in the other room, and not jostling for space with her husband in the corridors of power where, incidentally, he is the President of Nigeria? The trouble with Buhari is that people who do not always talk often say what they are not to voice at a time they should learn to hold their peace.
Lately, he has been on the road again, beating his chest that he has fulfilled all his election campaign promises, conquered all of Nigeria's major problems and made life better for the ordinary folk. In my view, the President should have kept silent at this time, and allowed Time speak for him. Life in Nigeria is not as rosy for the ordinary folk as he is saying it is, and he does not have a good information machinery to tell the nation the fault is not all his own, although the buck stops at his desk. The problem is not that of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Information Minister.
Nigeria has not got a professional information ministry for as along as she has been independent. Ojukwu's Biafra outsmarted Nigeria in information management. The economy is still foul-smelling and almost suffocating everyone. There is no federal information ministry to educate us that the global economy is partly responsible for some of the shortcomings of the Nigerian economy, with slow downs in Britain and in the United States particularly.
Now, it will appear there is a Euro-American conspiracy against Nigeria. Europeans and Americans say Abuja, Nigeria's capital, may come under terrorists assult an have begone to evacuate their Nationals from this country. This is not new, though. During COVID19 pandemic the then American President, Donald Trump, predicted that Nigerians would (die like flies). But Nigerians did not (die like flies) rather, Americans died "like flies."
I suspect that the present Euro-American psychological war on Nigeria may have to do with the massive crude oil theft in Nigeria which have just been exposed. Where was the crude stolen to, if not to Europe and America? The destination nations for Nigeria's stolen crude oil in Europe and America look the other way while their Nationals plundered more than half of Nigeria's crude oil. Any attempt by Nigeria to expose the culprit and the culprits nations would definitely invite fire works from abroad. Is this what is going on? Are they telling us that those Nigerian soldiers who are their collaborators maybe ignited to cover all the tracks in the oil fields through instigation of mayhem in Abuja? If Abuja cracks and quakes, will there be 2023 elections? If there are no 2023 elections, what would happen?
I believe we will all appreciate Buhari more after he leaves office when we realised he is a helpless President. A President is a helpless President when two key tools of governance are not in his hands. The first is MONEY. The other is the POWER or COERSION. Many people didn't know that the military had been infiltrated by Boko Haram, Iswap, insurgents and other terrorists. Buhari had to carefully sort out the bad eggs, motivate the puritance and re-armed them before he could storm the forest and achieve something meaningful. The troops in the forest cannot fight their hearts out when they know some of their kith and kindred are in the oil fields helping themselves to Nigeria's common patrimony. Removing the dirty hands of these ones from the Apple pie without upsetting the apple cart is not an easy military task for any wrong move may set everywhere ablaze. So, governance may have been trudging or plodding on too slowly without the rank and file of Nigeria knowing what was really going on.
The military has been infiltrated by Boko Haram, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers. If ASUU wants more money and the oil sector cannot give the president money to give ASUU, what does the president do? If the President would like to crack down on a section of the military said to be stealing about half of Nigeria's income everyday, is it the police he is going to send after them? We can say: are Tompolo's men not doing the job now? Shouldn't we know that, before Tompolo can do the job, something must have given way between them and the military thieves? Why are Tompolo's men finding the exposures so easy? If this presupposes they knew about them, why did they keep quite until now? Only time will tell what is really going on.
No wise general fight a war on several fronts at the same time. Which general does that and wins the war. There is a war from a foreign invasion which he inherited. There is a war he is fighting with Biafra jingoism. There is a war with banditry. There is a war with kidnapping. There is a war with terrorists.There is a war with religion. President Olusegun Obasenjo, a Christian, couldn't fight El-Zazaki who is backed by Iran to set up an Iran- like Islamic Government throughout Nigeria. President Musa Yar'Adua, a Moslem, avoided him. President Ebele Jonathan, a Christian, was no match for El-Zazaki. Everyone wanted El-Zazaki stopped. Even moslems in the north didn't like his brand of Islam. President Buhari, a moslem, went after El-Zazaki and reduced him to ruble. The courts came to El-Zazaki's rescue, but Buhari refuse to let him go. He told the nation, instead, that NATIONAL SECURITY was bigger than THE RULE OF LAW. Many citizens who once wanted El-Zazaki crucified turn against Buhari. Such is the lot of a President who Govern a people who hate their leaders and do not know what they want.
There is yet another war with oil thieves. Can he probe the assets of military generals? Do many of them not have assets in Dubai, a new Haven for riches stolen from Nigeria? We should salute those soldiers who listen to Buhari's voice and went to war in the forests while, as reported, several others are buying their way for postings to the oil soaked Niger Delta to secure the vandalised pipelines. When the President knows what has gone wrong with his generals, he is a wise general when he threads softly, as President Buhari is doing. The citizens do not see what he is seeing. Yet if he moves the wrong foot forward and the polity explods or implodes they are going to accuse him of ineptitude. So, rather than stoke the fire of criticisms of his administration, President Buhari should learn to keep silent until the time is ripe for him to talk, for silence is golden, try to not jeopardise the chances of his party in the 2023 polls, recognise that time is out and wait for posterity to vindicate him.
Femi Kusa
johnolufemikusa@gmail.com
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