For anyone who has closely followed Nigeria’s political trend in the last five years, there is a lot to be gleaned from the intrigues and the execrable villainy that governance has become.
It was the VP Good luck Jonathan who received a Pan-Nigeria acclamation to be made the acting President in 2009 at the time the tiny cabal around the then ailing President Umaru Musa-Yar’dua prevented his ascension. The high-decibel voice from notable Nigerians, including General Muhammadu Buhari, ensured that the Nigerian Senate ingeniously invoked the doctrine of necessity though the lacuna in the relevant section of the constitution as pertaining to power succession between the President to the Vice was selfishly exploited by the cabal. No sooner had Dr Jonathan become acting President and later President (after Yar’adua’s death) than he began his systematic exploitation of the ethno-religious gulf among the heterogeneous Nigerian people. The CAN president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, became the new president’s ally to the extent that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) literally became the religious arm of the President Jonathan’s PDP. It was not surprising therefore that religion was dangerously played up as a potent weapon in the run in to the 2011 general election. Pastor Oritsejafor indeed went beyond mandate when he demanded for the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari as the author of the post-election violence that broke out in some parts of North East and North West Zones. It did not occur to the cleric that he had no shred of evidence to support his wild allegation. It was no surprise therefore that the Catholic Bishops withdrew any further participation in CAN until such a time that a clear-headed leadership steers the ship of the religious body again!
Expectedly, the admixture of the enormous presidential powers and the ethno religious politicking swung it for Dr Good luck Jonathan. It is no surprise that Pastor Oritsejafor got his fitting reward with presidential presence at the Bombardier private Jet presentation ceremony in Warri, Delta State on October 10, 2012.
Meanwhile, the problems created in the North East and North West in the bid to ensure victory for Candidate Goodluck Jonathan in the election have refused to vanish, three years after the election.
After declaring state of emergency in three North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa for one year, the problems of insurgency have grown in leaps and bounds.
The other day, some male students of a Federal Government school in Yobe were brutally killed and the female students abducted in a bizarre show of impudence by insurgents. Despite the huge sense of loss by the nation, the nation’s President , not only went ahead with the scheduled commencement of the centenary shindig, he also refused to order flags to fly at half mast, nor remember to honour the dead with a minute silence at the opening ceremony! There is no gainsaying that the president has literally gotten used to the spate of insecurity in the land that his reaction is no more than this usual rhetoric: “The government condemns this murderous act and would leave no stone unturned in fishing out the killers. We want to assure all law abiding citizens of the government’s commitment to safety of lives and property.” Two persons are fabulously remunerated to churn out this hollow ritual; a third person is undergoing scrutiny to unsure his loyalty to the regime before deployment to service!
It was on the dawn of Monday, 14th April, 2014 that the merchants of death wrecked havoc at the busy Nyanya motor park in Abuja. It was reported that a suicide bomber had detonated bomb loaded in a car at the park. Initial casualty figure was put at 72 while those with injuries were estimated at over 200. Though the president showed up at the sight -he has not showed up at the Yobe school till date, and also visited the hospital, that was the end of feeling of loss for the nation’s leader. Less than 24 hours later, the President was in Kano to push his luck on his electability for next year’s general election. It was a President deliriously dancing at the illegal campaign rally in kano, literally mocking the memory of dead, whose blood and dismembered bodies have not vanished from sight at the Abuja park. It was a most ignoble spectacle ever shown by any Nigerian leader.
In a vacuously glib manner, President’s PDP Party spokesman, Mr Olisa Metuh , blamed the opposition All progressives Party (APC) for the murderous disruption of peaceful life. There was a loud uproar by Nigerians at home, abroad and in the blogosphere at the president’s party’s show of insensitivity to the mournful mood of the Nation. This insensitive disposition did not make the President’s party to know that it was not a propitious time for Politicking. Not done with the wicked propaganda against the APC, the President then summoned an emergency meeting of the Security and Defence Council. All the 36 state governors were duly invited. From the same Presidency, the APC governors were informed that the meeting had been cancelled. Meanwhile, the other governors (not APC) were in attendance as the meeting later held. In a sheer desperate manner to link the APC with any insurgency, the same Olisa Metuh came up with his justification of his earlier statement with the absence of the APC governors. There is no better way to show that a regime that is low in probity, security of lives and property of Nigerians but high on Evil schemes and capacity for mischief!
This particular successfully executed devious scheme reminds of a self-styled evil genius military regime that needed to get rid of its serving Vice President.
It was then decided that the man would be frustrated out on the year’s independence anniversary. The night before the celebration in Abuja, a fake programme of the day’s events was given to the Flag (Aide de Camp in the Navy). In the programme, the VP’s name was missing. In annoyance, he stayed away from the event. Being satisfied of his absence, the proper program was distributed which contained his name and the proper protocol for his high office.
It was not just his seat that was conspicuously vacant, so also the traditional protocols attached to his office. It was a huge national embarrassment and that was how the VP , that was a thorn in the flesh to some interests then , was shoved aside and quietly retired to his hometown in the South East. If a military regime perfected such diabolical scheme for a most despicable end, a regime that supposedly derived its legitimacy from the people should not be seen with that kind of chicanery and nauseous infra-dig. What is more galling is the security of lives of ordinary Nigerians that is at stake. Who will hold this President from his determined poise to continually show derision for decency? I do not know!
Engr Rotimi Fashakin.