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When a job is very lucrative and every Tom, Dick, and Harry has the minimum qualifications for it, it should not come as a surprise when rats and cats show up for the job. This is what is playing out right now in Nigeria. The bar of governance has been so low that everyone thinks he can govern Nigeria.
The task involves in governing Nigeria, as it is now, is not to do anything. You are only required to take the title and be addressed as President. That is why nothing functions in Nigeria. To prove that you exist as Nigerian President, all you need do is to occasionally give orders which may not be obeyed—or meant not to be obeyed.
The most recent funniest order that always keeps me laughing is the one that instructs cabinet members who have declared their presidential ambition to resign their appointments. One appointee who is infamous for his uncouth utterances said he will need to consult his constituency ‘if to or not to resign’. “Constituency?” I asked confusingly. I later realized he is even more confused than I am when he said the President needs to explain (to him) what he meant by resignation.
We are all in the know that countless orders by our President that charge armed forces to go after bandits, kidnappers, and terrorists are either grandstanding or meant to be obeyed in disobedience. When the corruption fighting agency like EFCC does his work as it should be done, it is only to showcase how professional the agency is and its ability to fight corruption.
Under this government, EFCC is not actually meant to fight corruption. If you think otherwise, the pardon granted by the two Supreme-Court-Confirmed-Big-Thieves by our President will remove your doubt. I don’t know why the two governors have not bought the APC presidential form which sales have been making a very high turnover.
Perhaps, these governors were jailed in the first place for not joining the ruling party—APC. They were probably ignorant of the fact that when you join APC all your sins are forgiven. At any rate, our president has been very generous towards condoning criminality and corruption. However, and surprisingly, he has been antipathetic or rather callous towards the innocent—the poor masses and Nigerian Students.
For the masses, life has been unliveable in Nigeria under this regime. For Nigerian students in higher institutions, schools are better imagined than attended or attended in dreams. Public universities are shut. Public polytechnics to be shut next Monday. Colleges of education’s 21 days ultimatum to shut down is counting. Research institutions had been on strike since last year. Under APC, education is useless and given zero priority or no priority—if you can figure the difference.
What about ASUU strike? That is the norm under this regime. This government’s aversion for education is terrible. Any government who weaponizes poverty and hunger against its eggheads is irredeemably doomed. That is the case with this ruthless government; illegally withholding its eggheads’ salaries.
Their only crime (or is it sin) is asking for an improvement on an impoverished salaries. University lecturers’ salaries are shockingly bankrupting. If you a lecturer in a public owned university in Nigeria? You are automatically condemned to abject poverty under this regime. You can manage to live an average life only by God’s Grace.
When salaries are paid, you are impoverished. So what happens when salaries are not paid? But because ASUU members have grown an elephant skin against this usual government draconian measures, they seem not to be ruffled.
Under this regime, while criminals are lionized, idolized, and canonized, intellectuals are impoverished, maligned, and bullied. That is to say, ‘it pays to be a criminal than to be an intellectual in the regime of ‘Mr Integrity.’
Have you taken your time to ask: why the rush for the APC’s 100 million presidential form? If you are able to come up with any tangible answer, it means you are a wizard. Most analysts are in confusion. The fact that people are eager to inherit this regime’s atrocities and problems needs serious academic research. The academics that will conduct such research are sadly on strike.
If former President Jonathan’s hat now in the ring for presidential contest comes to you as a shock, it means you are a late comer in the know that no difference between APC and PDP. Though any of my students who can convince me that APC is way worse, that will earn them an extra mark.
Now that analysts are in confusion in their analysis vis-a-vis the crazy vying and queue for N100, 000,000 presidential form, definitely the political future of Nigeria is bleak. The antecedents of most of these contestants reek of foul smell—to say the least. The vicious circle of bad leadership in Nigeria is gaining strength on daily basis. Why Bello Turji has not shown interest in APC presidential form needs some probe. Or is it that I am not very current? It is this bad.
This said, any bright future for Nigerian masses? Yes, but only if God intervenes. To some, this is a euphemism for hopelessness. They may not be wrong since it is not the way of God to come down to rule. Yet God can intervene through some patriotic and righteous leaders, though hard to find in Nigeria. Not because they do not exist, but because evidence of being neck-deep in corruption seems to be the most important requirement to be presidential flag bearer of our major political parties.
What about the option of Third Force Mega Party? Only time will tell of the viability of such option. I learnt fairly used APC presidential forms will soon be available for N50 million. Nigerian Presidency is indeed for sale, while the masses are in soup. Have Nigerians ever been in dire need of God’s help than now? May God help Nigeria.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
@salahuddeenAbd
