While the president is asleep or away
Sometimes, I pity those in the saddle of governance. Just reading about the scandals, sleazes and troubles enveloping our country turns the brain. Then I remember that politricians don’t need my pity, they are politricians and it is evident that politricians don’t use conscience the way the rest of us do; that is if they […]
Sometimes, I pity those in the saddle of governance. Just reading about the scandals, sleazes and troubles enveloping our country turns the brain. Then I remember that politricians don’t need my pity, they are politricians and it is evident that politricians don’t use conscience the way the rest of us do; that is if they have it. Check the rhetoric of Obama against Hillary Clinton while they jostled for nomination and the same Obama just months ago; check the words used by Donald Dumb to describe Hillary before the recent campaigns; again compare that with his post-election testimonial. Conclusion: politricians made of a different DNA and are on loan from a planet where conscience has no meaning.
While the rest of us may find it hard to sleep with an unresolved spat with a neighbour, or impending school fees; politricians sleep and snore surrounded by a heap of socio-political and economic woes. As you’re reading this, Sai Baba is in Malabo, Equitorial Guinea attending the Fourth Africa-Arab Summit. He is doing this for the good of Naija because it is obvious that he does not have that missing piece of the puzzle needed to put Naija to work again. Evidently aside hoodwinking the gullible to ‘win’ elections, the APC does not understand what governance entails nor does it give a damn about finding out.
Normal fathers do not rush off to an age-grade meeting with their own huts on fire. If you think that Naija is not on fire, then that’s the reason you can live without fire drills or a functional fire service anywhere. You believe that God is the best insurance? Well your religious leaders do too, yet they have life insurance on their businesses and comprehensive insurance on their prized rides. How a president finds time to sit at conferences when his country is violently aflame beats rational imagination.
In the past couple of weeks, four communities in Kaduna state have been added to the list of those to lose homes, living and livelihood all rights guaranteed by the constitution and the conventions that are signed at international confabs. I take it that the presidency has issued a statement promising to see to the matter with the urgency it desires except that one-page statements are useless shades against the sun or cover from the elements. Did Sai Baba go there? Not except an APC candidate is seeking election around that axis. There is a political battle in Ondo and Mr. President was there to support Aketi. That matters. Actually, it would be unfair to ask a 70-year old man to risk his life to a conflict zone until his security officers tell him it is safe to do so. Security clearance is guaranteed in Malabo among his Arab brothers.
Talking about Sai Baba’s security, it is alleged that Ambassador Bagudu Hirse was abducted after making a condolence visit to the man in charge of our national security. This strong man’s peripheral aura was incapable of protecting a high-calibre friend and well wisher. What then is the fate of Khadija Suleiman, daughter of Umar Suleiman snatched in Kuje, near Abuja the city that is supposed to be the safest, most policed and strongly militarized in the country. We live in wonderful climes. Not so long ago, a young serving army colonel was abducted and later found murdered by his abductors. Bottomline, may God help bring Khadija back to her parents. We vote for politricians and pay them heavily but when it comes to performance we look to the divine to do their jobs for them.
These are the few cases that make it to the news. Residents of southern Kaduna know that Zamfarians have been facing a similar nightmare for years where brazen marauders swoop on entire communities, sometimes they go to markets in broad daylight; kill and maim at will and disappear into thin air. In Benue, the Agatu are still counting their losses.
The military have been paying patriotic sacrifice to keep a semblance of sanity. But while politricians tell the world that Boko Haram is toast, young officers the future of our national security is dying in dozens. These feeble ones whose financial feet are not cemented by partial snake farming to secure safe haven for their young families in Dubai are dying. We read their obituary daily on the timelines of their friends as a defeated Boko Haram kills them in questionable raids. One is tempted to ask how the rump of a decimated group somehow inflicts casualties on our young officers since our political ruiners insist that Boko Haram is dead?
While our soldiers face real fire in the northeast, they are obliged to confront unprecedented brigandage in the oil-rich Delta. Our nation was not shocked that Nyesom Wike the conqueror of Rotimi Amaechi and the APC inspected a cache of surrendered arms in Port Harcourt. Those surrendered weapons would make established nations cringe. With perennial junkets to conferences and confabs, when does an elected government find the time to talk and find solutions to the troubling issues militating against the people who gave it the mandate? Perhaps in 2018 at the next campaigns.