Desperation 2015

In the last few years, the surging insurgencies in several parts of the country especially in the North have variously being interpreted by pundits to mean the desire to keep some sections of the country under perpetual instability and violence as a political strategy for easy win or means to maneuver when the elections come. […]

In the last few years, the surging insurgencies in several parts of the country especially in the North have variously being interpreted by pundits to mean the desire to keep some sections of the country under perpetual instability and violence as a political strategy for easy win or means to maneuver when the elections come. This theory suggests that the killings in the North-East are likely linked to some security postulations given the bizarre way in which they often occur and go un-detected.
On several occasions, attacks were carried out on schools and communities only when military check points were either suspended or removed from particular places and in most cases the attackers go un- apprehended and undetected thus questioning the integrity of the state of emergency declared over eight months ago in the three states of the region, namely Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Stories of how attackers move in with impunity and in numbers only to commit annihilation and arson and move out with ease in a region where most of the Nigerian soldiers are stationed under very tight security regime raises concerns not just to those who are proponents of this theory but even skeptics around.
My position on the insurrection in the North-East and the government’s apparent lackadaisical approach to it is that it has grown beyond the level of ordinary comprehension. What those in authority do not seem to understand and probably appreciate is that if it is not contained, it has the potential of becoming a national disaster and those who hold power and think that the problem is specific to category and geography may soon realize the fatality of their thinking. The Governor Murtala Nyako lecture in the United States will for sometime remain an incontrovertible reference point on the nature of the insurrection and the attendant responses or the lack of them from the Nigerian state.
Apart from the insurgency and the resultant theories, there are also several other issues that are symptomatic to the desperation by the government that hold forte to retain power for another four years. It does not matter even if these four years would trickle down and finish just as if it is tomorrow. The desire to postpone the Day of Judgment is certainly an option to the powers that be especially in the heat of this unresolved national scandal of remittance of funds to the national treasury.
Government may continue to argue that no money is missing but the fact that the nation is unable to meet its bills in several areas, are ample testimonials.  Nigerians are aware that a couple of times in 2013, the Federation Accounts meeting could not hold due to shortage of funds and all these were in the heat of increasing oil sales. That is just one area of contention, there are several others.
Those who know have said time without number that the amount of pilfering that is going on under this administration is un-paralleled in the history of the looting of Nigeria. Again, only time will tell and I believe that there is an extent that certain things would continue to be covered but the reality is that in the heat of such startling allegations, no government would wish to leave, thus another reason for the desperation.
In 2003 when the Obasanjo government organized the first election under civil rule, many Nigerians thought there could be no worse thing than that, but some of us argued that indeed what to expect in 2007 was to be worse. True to it, it was worse and the reason was simple because the government needed to ensure that it predetermined who succeeded it and that was real.
Today, Nigeria is living with the horrors of that disaster and that is why again people like General Obasanjo could hardly make meaning in the current political equation because, single handedly, he infested Nigeria with its current power configuration. To blame those in power for wrong doing in my view is belated even if all the accusations are right.
I have seen the government increasingly becoming more desperate in its desire to despite Sanusi Lamido’s allegations that billions of dollars have not been remitted into the federation account. Some among the desperation are the indictment of the CBN Governor by that Financial Reporting Council that failed to do its homework well. The N50 billion-squander allegation against the CBN Governor I thought should be pursued side by side with the $20 billion unremitted funds palaver. The fire in CBN office in Lagos and the use of the culpable press to suggest that the it was possibly set by Sanusi after being in suspension and thus out of the office for more than a month to say the least,is a move in desperation.
Is there any more way to say how desperate those in position of authority in Abuja today are? No matter the leanings of Nigerians, despite the resolve by some individuals and groups across the national divide to look the other way on this government’s tragic performance, the facts remain incontrovertible that Nigeria has never ever had it this bad and it can never be worse.
President Jonathan assembled lopsidedly a jamboree in Abuja he refers to as conference. It is clear that with people like Pius Anyim in government, nothing meaningful should be expected. Nigeria, a country where erstwhile Christian leaders have said time and again that the religious configuration of the population shows something close to fifty-fifty, President Jonathan selected delegates to the conference in complete disregard to this hypothesis.
Statistics have shown that about 62% of all the delegates are Christians. How does Mr. Jonathan expect the about 50% of us, assuming that the estimation is right, accept the outcome of such a conference at a time when mutual trust is at its lowest in the country? Again, this says how poor the leadership of President Jonathan has been and at a painful cost, some of us who saw him as incapable right at the beginning are vindicated.
The statement by the Lamido of Adamawa may be sensationalized by those who can make the loudest of noise but one fact that remains incontrovertible is that it says the minds of several millions of us and those who think blackmail is the way out must think twice otherwise the future may be regretful.
Nigeria has certainly never had it so bad and everything that is up looks very cloudy and gloomy. When the United States intelligence service leaked out some of its preliminary findings at the beginning of this civil administration to the effect that Nigeria may disintegrate in 2015, the government before this could only respond with the usual ranting of insults and name calling.
When Ambassador John Campbell wrote in his book that President Jonathan may as well be the last President of Nigeria, nobody paid attention to the inner reasons behind that prediction and instead it was the usual bashing of the diplomat. Now that the president has assembled selfish, uninformed and greedy lieutenants and the nation is bleeding, the commonest strategies are tribe, region and religion.
It will appear that the battle of 2015 is being prepared along the parameters of funds and force. Too much money has been removed from the system to do the battle as usual. This time it is not neighbor to neighbor, it may be room-to-room or even person-to-person.
In the event that funds are failing, force shall be deployed and part of which we see all over the country especially in the Northern region. Boko Haram, ethnic and religious mass attacks and killings and now new phenomena called Herdsmen. The nature and manner of the attacks by the so-called herdsmen is being challenged by growing public opinion due to its sophistication and level of destruction.
The other day, in less than three hours in villages near Kaura in Kaduna State, over a hundred innocent souls were killed. Few days before that, tens were serially murdered in Katsina villages all within a few hours and while President Jonathan was on state visit in Katsina.
2015 is a few months away and most of those predications that were rebuffed by the state seem to be taking root deeply and traces of actualization looming high in the horizon. All this is evidence of failure of government and the same government is desperate and wants to succeed itself by hook or crook. It is left for us Nigerians to decide what to do.