By Vincent Uba
We are really in perilous times in our dear country Nigeria, where the desperation for personal gains has become the order of the day. The election season has become the milk cow that the desperate ones must drain for their personal satisfaction, irrespective of what befalls the cow thereafter.
One Hajiya Naja’atu Mohammad has thrown herself up as one of those desperate people who feel they must make a kill during the 2023 general elections. Hajiya Naja’atu Mohammed was the Director of Civil Society Organisations of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council.
For a party that was built on competence, capacity and integrity, every hand that comes on deck in its affairs must reflect the aforementioned characteristics. Though Naja’atu Mohammed got absorbed into the party’s campaign architecture, it was only a matter of time before she was discovered to be a misfit in the whole arrangement.
Rather than tap from the knowledge reservoir of those who know, within the party, she would prefer to be an antagonist against anyone who points the right direction. As if that was not worrisome enough, it became manifest that she was actually a pretentious friendly enemy, working for the opposition from within.
In that circumstance, the right thing was done by easing her out of the party, even with some dignity, by conveying the message of her relief from the party through a letter. To paint a picture of dignity for herself, she announced her resignation from APC and indeed partisan politics, citing lack of ideological differences among the nation’s political parties.
Unfortunately for Naja’atu Mohammad, rather than find her way quietly searching for a pot of portage elsewhere, she chose to throw stones at a hard surface that had shielded her. Anyone who dispassionately listened to the interview she granted the Arise Television Station would observe her quaking lips as she struggled to weave her pieces of lies together.
Naja’atu, the acclaimed rights activist, said she was “the first person in this country” to campaign for President Muhammadu Buhari, though did not say whether in 2003 or 2015. She went on to say, “The president has failed in so many ways. There is not a single promise he made to this country that he has fulfilled”.
It is at this point that one would wonder and ask whether she travelled to the moon or was in coma from 2015 till date, for her to say all these? Did she not acquire knowledge from the school she attended to be able to read between the lines and make critical comparative analysis of previous and current administrations?
To be able to judge if a president has performed well or badly, you have to know what he met on the ground, juxtapose the same with the unavoidable global occurrences during his tenure, and compare with the previous. It is very laughable for Naja’atu Mohammad to say President Buhari has failed, when he should be applauded for assiduously steering Nigeria out of the plundered and impoverished condition that the previous administrations of PDP left it.
How could Naja’atu Mohammad close her eyes to the negative impact of oil glut of 2015, which was the major reason for the crash in the Naira value and consequent rise in commodity prices? She should be sincere and appreciate how President Buhari tried to manage Nigeria out of the effects of the aforementioned situation.
Which countries of the world are smiling today with economic success after the devastating blow that Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted on the world economy? But Nigeria, under President Buhari, has managed to keep Nigeria going by making sure that so many basic infrastructures are provided with little resources available.
Let Naja’atu google the list of infrastructures provided in her zone by the Buhari government. The way and manner she was opening her mouth, making noise on Arise TV only exposed her to be one who either did not acquire basic knowledge from her education or she was simply being hypocritical.
Let her be enlightened to the fact that all European countries today and United States of America are down economically as a result of Russia-Ukraine war and the other global problems already mentioned which also has negative effects in the Nigeria economy.
One cannot but ask why Naja’atu Mohammad is just realising all of this now, a few weeks to the election in which the President Buhari is not on the ballot. Did she expect the president to make her to manage the campaign funds for the 2023 general elections, which he did not do?
Going by the claims of Naja’atu Mohammad that President Buhari has failed in so many ways, she should have quit the APC the very moment Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared winner of the party’s presidential primary election. That way, she could have tried to prove her point to some people that she does not believe in the capacity and capability of the candidate.
One thing Naja’atu Mohammad should come to terms with is that if an academic comparative analysis/study is done of President Buhari’s administration with the previous ones, he would be found to be the best president among his predecessors. Again if she knows how to make objective judgement of the presidential candidates based on their track records of achievement/performance, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu ranks the best candidate that will sustain and improve on the good legacies of President Buhari and consequently take Nigeria to a greater and enviable height.
Now that the ship has sailed and Naja’atu Mohammad is jumping into the deep sea, she has a lot to contend with in her inner self.
•Uba is a National Co-ordinator
No alternative to Tinubu 2023 (NATT 2023)