As most Nigerians remain ruefully lukewarm
about President Buhari's second term bid;
an ever-increasing multitude of potential
voters across ethnic divides, seem to be
enthralled by Atiku-Obi presidential ticket,
on the duo's restructuring manifesto and
remarkable track records of achievements.
It's as if the masses with full intent or
otherwise, have at last come to
the realization that Nigeria's
incumbent head of state,
President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) ,
who had risen to power on the crest
of integrity, was a bad call hurriedly
made in an infatuated impulse.
With PMB's popularity ratings plummeting
headlong from its previous pre-election
heights, gullible and stout-hearted defenders
of his Presidency are faced with a number
of awkward issues, as they contemplate
the President's pathetic twist of fate.
Well, it remains beyond doubt that
an individual's mindset impacts on
how the person visualizes
and adapts to existential realities.
A careful scrutiny of the intricacies
of PMB's worldview suggests,
a rigid muslim with a fixed mindset.
It is this uncharitable frame of mind
that deprives him of the flexibility
and adaptability, that are crucially
needed to form an all-inclusive and
progressive national government.
The core-northerner, with an inherent
pugnacity, is a wholehearted believer
and an unyielding promoter of Hausa/Fulani
hegemony: A clannish head of state who views
Nigeria through a parochial and ethnic prism.
This almost primitive sense of kinship has
prompted President Buhari to distribute
the country's resources and opportunities
within the boundaries of ethnicity.
Consequently, he has flooded his government,
its parastatals, state agencies, etcetera,
with his kinsmen — especially in the presidency
and the department of national security.
A factual assertion of PMB's unfair tribalism
and sectionalism is backed by
a sackful of evidence and statistics.
For example, in the 2016 Department of
State Services (DSS) recruitments;
A total of 479 candidates were recruited
into the elite security unit from the 36
States of the Federation, plus
the Federal Capital (Abuja) .
Out of this number, Katsina,
the home state of the President,
grabbed a lion share of 51 slots;
followed by Kano 25, Bauchi 23, Zamfara 20.
By far these four states from the northern Nigeria
have more slots than the four southern states
of Akwa Ibom 5, Edo 6, Lagos 7, Ebonyi 7.
The figures for Nigeria's six geographical
zones are:
South-south 42
South-east 44
South-west 57
North-central 66
North-east 100
North-west 165 (PMB's region of origin) .
Utterly unashamed of his unfair tribalism,
the President has loaded the agency with
by far more people from 'North' than 'South'.
Katsina State(51) alone has more slots than
the six states of South-south(42) ,
the five states of South-east(44) ,
with the six states of South-west(57)
slightly higher by 6 slots.
A cursory glance at the overall high profile
appointments made in defense and security
departments within PMB's first year in office,
is yet another example that points to a
President who writes his principles with
pencil, while he's got an eraser handy.
Embarrassingly lacking in political savviness,
the President has created national security
outfits more Hausa/Fulani than Nigerian.
The Minister of Defense is an Hausa man;
The Inspector General Of Police;
The Internal Affairs Minister;
The Chief of Army Staff;
The Chief of Air Staff;
The Chief Security Adviser;
Director General of the Department of State
Security Service (DSS) ;
Director General of the National Intelligence
Agency (NIA) ;
Director General of National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) ;
Acting Chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ;
Comptroller General of the Nigerian
Custom Service;
Comptroller General of the Nigerian
Immigration Service;
Comptroller General of Prisons;
The Chairman Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) ;
To mention but only some of the most strategic
portfolios — all from Hausa/Fulani extraction.
Granted, for his peace of mind regarding
personal security, all his bodyguards and
the Brigadier Of Guards may be his own people,
but tribalizing the entire military and security
outfits in a multi-ethnic country of many
ethnic groupings is nothing short of a call
for intertribal tensions and bellicosities.
These lopsided selections are a snobbery
of the level playing field provided by
the Principles Of Federal Character —
which enshrines equity, justice, and fairness.
They were hiring exercises conducted
in bad faith. In a blatant display of his
ethical inconsistency, the self-acclaimed
anti-corruption crusader has changed
the Nigerian state into an ethnic state —
and the nation's federal character
has become Hausa-Fulani character.
To a grave disservice to many other ethnic
and religious groups, almost all of the top
security personnel in the country are from
the Hausa-Fulani Muslim North.
In tribal or religious clashes with members
of other groupings, these security officials
have been known to be inhumane law
enforcers with a warped sense of justice,
who treated others like outsiders.
The figures above, which are verifiable via
the internet, are just the tips of the iceberg,
for there are undoubtedly much more of
this kind of miserable stories to tell in all
spheres of the President's expansive influence.
PMB's pro-North and pro-Islamic leanings
appear to be quite opposed to his much
paraded political ideology that lays claim
to moral and ethical superiority.
Anyone with a rudimentary understanding
of economics knows that the country's
foreign exchange has been unfairly slanted,
to favour the Hausa/Fulani who own
most bureaus de change in the country.
Certainly, there's a sense of crafty pretense
about the latest Nigerian hegemon.
The crown of tribalism has proclaimed
President Muhammadu Buhari its Emperor.
It was obvious during his earlier days in office
that PMB had failed before he even started.
After dawdling with doubt for the better part
of his first year in office, in a blind exercise of
power of appointments, he came up with
the most tribally and religiously tilted Federal
Cabinet in the annals of Nigerian politics.
In his virtuous hypocrisy, the ethnic jingoist
and religious bigot continues to empower
more and more political entrepreneurs
from the mainstream 'North'.
These delusional sycophants and 'Yes men',
hardly would they advance opinions of theirs,
let alone query the validity of their master's.
Power, to Buhari, is all about asserting his
superiority — the Nigerian military style.
He prefers friends and partners who are
eager to dance to his tunes, instead of
the ones who challenge him to see
things in their proper perspectives.
Consequently, he continues to build
mediocre teams devoid of innovative
minds, that are essentially needed to
compensate for his presidential ignorance.
It may also be worth noting that Buhari
was the foremost beneficiary of
the 31st December 1983 coup d'état largesse:
he became the Commander in Chief of
the Armed Forces and Head of Government —
haven masterminded the putsch that
aborted Nigeria's Second Republic.
Not only did Major General Buhari (rtd)
desecrate the presidency of a good man,
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, of blessed memory;
but also, his thoughtless and criminal
usurpation of the Nigerian masses mandate,
in no small measure aggravated the country's
descent into sixteen years of democracy
drought and socio-economic stagnation.
That abominable act of sacrilege against
the sacred will of the Nigerian peoples
and the revered institution of Democracy,
has since clothed his integrity in rags.
The ex-military ruler should consider himself
undeservedly fortunate. Why Nigerians
have voted the notorious military dictator
into power through the ballot box in 2015,
beats the imagination of any sober society.
Under PMB's guard, Nigerians carry on
mourning the socio-economic, political,
and security situations in their country,
as they take a turn for the worse —
from bad to potentially disastrous.
Under PMB's guard, Nigeria has become
the world's capital of poverty, with the attendant
sharp increase in the country's national debt.
The seeming ostracisation of North Central
Nigeria (The Middle Belt) by the core North;
The gruesome and unabated killings of hard
working rural farmers by the fiendish and
trigger-happy Fulani herdsmen;
The government's authorized maiming
of demonstrating Shiites Muslims;
The Massacre of the unarmed, nonviolent
and defenseless IPOB members by
security operatives;
The manhandling of dissidents by security
agents of The State - an invariable portent
of their unlawful arrests;
The unceasing snobbery of the Judiciary,
which ought to be the firmest pillar
of any people's oriented government;
And the Executive's bitterest antagonism
with the Legislature is surely not helping
matters - with no record of any bills yet
to be passed via peaceful grace.
The list goes on and on.
One couldn't help wondering what had
transpired between PMB and Donald Trump,
that had prompted the US President
to poetically refer to him as 'lifeless'.
As if the derogatory remark wasn't enough,
the ebullient American further added
insult to injury by declaring before
his aides, that he wouldn't want to
meet his Nigerian counterpart again.
The bareness of Trump's sentiments,
to be honest, it's an eye-opener.
And the definite implication is that
the Nigerian out-of-date President,
whose body is not healthy enough
to withstand the vicissitudes of his office,
is too great a burden for us to bear.
PMB is a lingering emblem of despotism.
An absentee head of state, whose zeal
to rule Nigeria is only exceeded by
his total disregard for his fellow citizens.
The echoes of his incompetency
are reverberating across the nation
and beyond the country's shores,
as his presidency serves to spotlight
the cold vacancy of leadership during
his promptly aborted military regime.
Here is an emotionally distant autocrat,
whose silence and stern miens during
periods of national tribulations always
wore the semblance of an undertaker —
never calling up enough empathy
as a doleful sympathizer will do,
by rendering heartfelt speeches on
such sorrowful occasions, to assuage
the pains of those affected.
Such basic responsibilities he readily
delegates to any one of his aides.
Equipped with perfect sets of iron teeth,
there is no kind of trauma that President
Muhammadu Buhari may not impose on
his political adversaries with impunity.
The case of Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd)
readily comes to mind.
Under the guise of national interest,
PMB who has a grievance with the former
National Security Adviser (NSA) over
Sambo's ill complexity in the coup d'état
that dethroned him from power in 1983;
in his relentless quest for a damaging
retribution continues to keep him
incarcerated against the rule of law.
The recent intimidation of Atiku Abubakar
by irate security agents of the state, and
the subsequent ransacking of his private jet
at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport,
Abuja, was an unjustified exercise of power
to hold his main political opponent in check.
By freezing Peter Obi's account with that
of his wife, in a ploy designed to cast his
spotless reputation in a bad light, PMB
indeed has inflicted a wanton insult on
the feelings of a most respectable Nigerian.
Peter Obi, the running mate for the main
opposition party presidential candidate,
is a politician of well-known and approved
public opinion. Undoubtedly above and beyond
the errors of his colleagues and contemporaries,
the well-groomed administrator with a
quiet fortitude enjoys enormous goodwill
nationally. A political fortune that is hinged
on his sagacity and unimpeachable integrity.
The Harvard trained former Governor
of Anambra State, whose stewardship
in the face of substantial economic,
fiscal and structural challenges in his
State, was nothing short of excellent;
not only does his success serve as an
eloquent reminder of the value of hard work
and dignity in labour, it also reinforces
the belief that with great skill, an
ingenious composer could still make music
from even the most discordant tunes.
It thus follows, that these politically
motivated hostilities against the main
opposition in the current presidential race,
are pointers to a PMB who is downright
jittery over Atiku-Obi soaring popularity,
since their emergence as PDP flag bearers
for next month's presidential election.
The glaring injustice is there for all
who are not blinded by prejudice to see.
With the official endorsements of Atiku-Obi
presidential ticket by the apex socio-cultural
groups of our major ethnic nationalities,
it has become quite safe to declare with
no fear of deviation, that the rest of Buhari's
days as President are numbered.
His desperate attempts to hold on to power
even when events point to the contrary, as
nasty and self-serving as they may be, they're
more or less the last kicks of a dying horse.
Let's Get Nigeria Working Again!
Viva The Federal Republic Of Nigeria!
A full vote for this powerful poem that exposes the existential reality of Nigeria. Thank you Chinedu. God bless.
Thanks for your insightful appraisal of the poem, madam. Remain blessed.
NICE VERY DETAILED AND GOOD PLEASE READ MY MOMS SMILES LIKE IT YOU WOULD
A powerful poem on Nigerian Politics. Marvelous write, dear Chinedu, this poem is on rank 8 this morning. Once again Congratulations. Revisiting this great political poem is a great lesson for me, since I am not good in politics. What a precize notitions. I am full of admiration for you.
Gone through your long poem. Much information there. Appreciate your detailed analysis and honest political stand stand
Great! Merry Christmas to you my friend. You are a blessed soul. Stay always happy and blessed my dear Chinedu!
5 Stars TOP Score and myriad(s) more! Thank you for sharing, dear Poet. God Blessings
WOW! TODAY on Rank number 9 of The Best Poems of Member Poets. CONGRATULATIONS for you and this poem. A powerful poem on Nigerian Politics. Marvelous write!
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
An amazing narrative piece, I am happy reading from a brother here. Above all, reading a poem that addresses our national issue, despite that we still nurture the Lie again. Good one bro
A beautiful comment, Bonaventure. Thanks and do remain blessed.