So my brother Chude Jideonwo has penned another of his articles. I have read several articles and they just seem to get more ridiculous.
In his latest article, he started with memories of the Buhari swearing in on May 29th 2015, and how he was moved to tears. Tears of joy I guess? Awwww how nice. Sweeeet
Whether it was joy that his company Red Media had successfully marketed and miraculously delivered a confirmed failure as president or maybe just a huge relief that GEJ a man who Chude had also supported and made loads of money from but now abandoned was not coming back so at least he was IMMEDIATELY safe from regretting his support and choice of a political party and candidate who BOMBED themselves into office.
If Chude is right as he claims that we had dodged a bullet, let me make bold to say that we dodged a bullet for a nuclear weapon. If in doubt let him and his Red Media Team go in their finest “I stand with Buhari” T-shirts and go to Bauchi state, find a poverty stricken neighbourhood and walk on the streets chanting Sai Buhari 2019.
If I recall correctly Chude and his friends prayed and fasted like never before and God answered their prayers when Buhari won…I’m sure he wrote that in an article previously. Can God be wrong?
Anyway back to the article. After wailing about how Buhari is now sick in London and has abandoned his office etc…he writes:
“For me, after 10 years of nation building aspirations and five years of activist engagement, you presented the unique opportunity for all to come together. For the networks, and the platforms and the reputation and the skills and the creativity that I had to come to a head, to join the effort to make change happen. And there were many Nigerians who took that risk also, because we saw a ray of sunlight.
We thought this was worth the risk. This had to be worth the risk.”
Question: What risk???
I’m confused…I thought RED media and partners got paid handsomely for all their effort during the election. Loads of money too from what I’ve heard. So what was the risk here? Did they not get paid in advance? Were they promised payment later?
This was first and foremost a transaction. Let the truth be told.
This is the first of two major problems I see with his article…
You made and possibly still make a fortune from packaging proven perennial failures, getting paid probably out of looted funds, and you are still forming corruption crusader? Abeg shift!
You keep accusing others of corruption but your buddy and benefactor is being accused of looting N98bn in Rivers state alone. I have never seen you comment on that even once.
Also should I remind you that this GEJ administration you now denigrate…you made a small fortune organising youth conferences and summits for them…you were paid very well if I recall…they were not yet corrupt then?
You worked with Buhari and now you are disappointed…Buhari has not lived up to your billing. What really did you honestly expect. Did you ever consider his 1983 report card?
Let’s go across to Ghana, where you also worked with the current president who is also turning out to be a failure.
Perhaps you need to question your choices my dear brother.
I’m sure that you are only writing these flowery articles now because you have received a retainer from the next client who is angling to be president….my guess is El Rufai??
My second and probably most vital issue is this;
Even after writing:
“Look at the nation you left behind, as you duck for cover in the United Kingdom: Healthcare so shabby even you can’t rely on it for your own well-being. Schools still exactly in the state in which you met them 24 months ago. An economy in shambles. An anti-corruption fight running around in circles. A nation fragmented, with the one time since the 1960s in which Biafra has become a dominant narrative – courtesy of tone-deaf ethnic-coloured politics. Businesses attacked by a combination of violent tax authorities and ham-fisted fiscal policies, which seem to punish citizens for the failings of past governments and inadequacies of this one. Indeed, the anecdotal stories of businesses folded up, investments dried up, jobs lost and dreams shattered have become the defining testimony of your leadership.”
The same you Chude then wrote:
“We had a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. As it turns out, we chose the deep blue sea.
If that time came again, I would make no other choice, even with everything I know now. With everything I have, and everything I believe and everything I hold dear, I am passionate about the fact that, despite the disappointment you have presented to us, voting what you represented for president was a crucial step in re-making Nigeria, in the long term.”
This is like saying there are two restaurants…
You usually have lunch in restaurant A. The food was ok but you heard that restaurant B was reopening after many years of being closed down. They were advertising tastier food..and a better service. However your dad warned that he once ate in restaurant B many years ago, before you were born and he and many others suffered severe food poisoning. He adds that over a period of 18 months there were thousands of such reports. It was so bad that the restaurant was closed down by health authorities for 31 years.
But being the stubborn man, you insisted on trying restaurant B. Here is the thing: the food tasted worse than restaurant A and worse still you almost died from food poisoning. BUT you are still insisting that if you had to make a choice again and again despite being assured of the same negative results, It will always be to eat in restaurant B.
This is definitely unusual and unless one is suicidal, your choices should be between Restaurant A and others and believe me just like in 2015, there were and will always be others…in fact any reasonable man would insist that Restaurant B should be shut down by NAFDAC this time PERMANENTLY along with whoever insists that they will continue to eat there.
My advice to you is to decide which one you are:
Activist or Businessman. One is a humanist and the other a capitalist.
The businessman pretending to be an activist is an ENEMY OF SOCIETY.
I Rise.
Babasola Kuti is an entrepreneur and Politician and writes from his conscience