Step on the gas, Buhari!

There is so much venom being spewed on social media across all known divides worldwide. In Nigeria, reactions are pretty predictable, depending on the subject. A Buhari backer usually doesn’t see anything wrong in government while a Jonathan acolyte is permanently in campaign mode, refusing to believe that the elections had been lost and won. […]

There is so much venom being spewed on social media across all known divides worldwide. In Nigeria, reactions are pretty predictable, depending on the subject. A Buhari backer usually doesn’t see anything wrong in government while a Jonathan acolyte is permanently in campaign mode, refusing to believe that the elections had been lost and won.

When I want to entertain myself, I read through some of the comments and marvel at how human beings can be so selective in their perception of objective reality. I do take special note, however, when those who have been firmly entrenched in one camp rise up to call for change in the way their camp is running the show. That is why I am serving you today the comments of a well-known Buharist, Tony Okoroji who was scandalised by the state of things at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja which he tagged a “national embarrassment”. Okoroji, whose comments drew the flak of the usual mob of anti-Buhari campaigners in acidic reactions (“Shut up! Didn’t you vote for change?”), counselled the president to step on the gas. Change must mean something.

Another Nigerian, Soji Otuyelu, saw the rot at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, and wondered why the anti-corruption war has not swept the place clean. His account on social media drew many unflattering comments about the government. I think the president will do well to heed the counsel of both well-meaning Nigerians. The buck stops at Buhari’s table.

 

 

TONY OKOROJI

“I thought it was all a joke when I was informed on the phone by a friend that for a period of more than two weeks, there has been no electricity at the Federal Secretariat complex, Abuja…. I was at the secretariat to meet with a minister of the Federal Republic.  Lo and behold, I was confronted with the reality of a nation that no longer seems to have any shame….

“Why did Nigeria Airways die? Our national airline collapsed because many people in our government with their wives, children and girlfriends continued to fly first class on Nigeria Airways without paying a penny. Why did NITEL collapse? Many of our big men for years made all manner of telephone calls to every part of the world and never paid for any of the calls and woe betides that NITEL official who would dare to disconnect these big men.

“All the time we shouted that NEPA was ‘Never Expect Electric Power at All’, I do not think that it occurred to us that we had no right to expect electric power when for years so many of our big people in government were more interested in collecting estacode than paying the bills for services used. Without ever paying our bills, we expected NEPA to buy new transformers and set up new substations and run new power lines and provide us electricity 24 hours a day. Pray, how does that kind of mathematics work? Where in the world has it worked?

“I have been told that it was Minister of Power, Babatunde Raji Fashola that took the decision that the electricity at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja is shut down because the government agencies at the complex are owing many millions in electricity bills with no plans of ever paying them. The interesting thing is that the office of Fashola, the Minister of Power, is located in the complex.  How the electricity distribution companies which are today, privately owned are supposed to continue to provide electricity free of charge?

“When I got to the complex with some of my COSON colleagues, many of the staff of the different government agencies were loitering all over the place looking lost. As the Abuja sunshine spread its wings, their offices were too hot for any decent human being to think. For many sensitive government agencies, there was no power to operate any computer, charge a phone, print a document or do any meaningful work.  To get to any floor in the huge edifice, you must walk the stairs because the elevators are shut down too. The reality is that the federal government is paying salaries to a lot of people who are doing no work at all. And this is at a time when we need to work 25 hours a day to get ourselves out of the trouble we find ourselves in. At the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, I saw some foreigners who were looking bewildered at what in every manner is the shame of a nation.

“The government of Muhammadu Buhari must exorcise this craziness. It must instill in its officials the discipline and understanding that no person has a duty to respect the law more than a government official. That is why I give 100% support to the war on corrupt generals and corrupt judges. No serious nation can continue the way we are going.”

 

 

SOJI OTUYELU

“The deluge  of activities in and around the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, stinks and is an antithesis of the change mantra of the present administration. The environment is nothing but a market where all sorts of bargaining are carried out and you can easily notice all forms of security breaches because it’s all about money.

“The moment a vehicle approaches to drop off a passenger, even whilst your engine is revving, a fellow looking more like an ‘area boy’ goes under your vehicle with a clamp. All entreaties fall on deaf hears and you are driven to a remote part of the airport which is a dump for vehicles. The ‘area boy’ who took your vehicle to the dump disappears and you are asked to pay some money to have your vehicle back. I watched a young man coming in from the US pleading that the driver sent to pick him hadn’t even parked for up to a minute when this whole episode started. They told him to pay in dollars if he is in a hurry to go home.”