“Is it really that hard to pursue the letter of the law and provisions of the constitution, simultaneously with the pursuit of an ethical imperative and thus, guide this nation in the morality of balanced perspectives? Is it really impossible to interweave both? The latter – the ethical imperative has gone missing” -Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka on the NBA in: “Den of Killers Regrouping to Direct Our Nation’s Fortunes.
I digress.
God is my witness: I woke up 04:19 am Thursday, 07.02.19, with these words in my head straight from my sleep: “the PDP, edged on by Obasanjo and co, is working towards a post election crisis that will make the one of 2011, in which thousands died, look like a picnic at the old Pension Smith Garden, Agege, in the 60’s.”
Picking up my phone to immediately scribble this down, came in a Messenger notification from a friend, and classmate, the Vet Surgeon, Bisi Adeyeye. The message consisted of an Obasanjo photo, in which he was in very deep sleep and the message read: “Don’t wake him up until after the February 16 election to avoid further ruin”.
Obasanjo and PDP may deny this till kingdom come but I am beyond certain, given past experiences, that these are no idle words, and that God, in His awesomeness, was sending a message to Nigerians through me. When you match these words with the hysteria that has suddenly overtaken the PDP, and the fact that only the previous day, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s spokesperson, had come on TV networks threatening that the PDP was going to quit the Peace Accord signed by political parties , it became abundantly clear to me that it was, indeed, a divine assignment.
The message, I suspect, is saying: warn Nigerians not to allow people who are afraid of losing their ill-gotten wealth, in a Buhari 2nd term, and a party and presidential candidate, desperate to return to their looting ways, lull Nigeria into ruin.
As it is becoming obvious by the day that President Buhari will win the presidential election hands down, evil people are becoming jittery; and could resort to just about anything, an unprecedented eruption, in its magnitude, inclusive. Only that can account for the ongoing massive demonisation of INEC, branding it the rigging arm of the ruling party, even when Nigerians can see an INEC ready to deliver a free, fair and credible election far superior to what we had in 2015. The commission has worked that hard.
Yet Secondus, Wike and the dour Kola Ologbodiyan, without the slightest gift of the garb, and in his heavy diction, keep running their ruinous diatribes, targeting the local populace, while Obasanjo concentrates attention on the international community on which they depend to successively effectuate their VENEZUELA OPTION, and with Ologbondiyan, meanwhile, demonstrating his crass ignorance of diplomacy, always calling on foreign countries to impose travel ban, no matter the subject.
While El Rufai’s reference to body bags is condemnable, it is in full accord with the Obasanjo concept of an election as war.
Other than those two words, I agree completely with El Rufai because it has become crystal clear that PDP is goading the international community into interfering in what is absolutely the internal affair of Nigeria. They have revved the international community into an over drive, trying everything to divest the election of any integrity, whatsoever, just so they can plunge the country into a crisis once the results are announced. What we saw as foreign reaction in the ONNOGHEN case where you would have expected a people who once described us as ‘fantastically corrupt’, to side with the government must, presumably, be only the building blocks of what we should now expect from them.
But we cannot afford the Trumps of this world to turn Nigeria to Venezuela. This we must tell them in unmistakable terms, which is precisely what El Rufai just did, lest they think we are a banana republic.
PDP, its patrons and acolytes have too much to lose in case of a defeat that the government must watch their every move. Unfortunately, for the federal government, it is a catch 22 affair: it directs its security agencies to take whatever measures are necessary to avoid the looming catastrophe, cries would ring out that Buhari is targeting the opposition; nothing is done to make their plan a nullity, and Nigeria is dealt a lethal blow. In the circumstances, my advice to government is to take whatever steps are in the best interest of Nigeria.
These are desperados who would do anything to accomplish what we Ekitis describe as: kaka ki eku ma je sese, a fi se awa danu, meaning the rat, if it couldn’t eat the beans, would rather scatter, and waste, it.
A few retired generals are known to have invested their all in the forlorn plan to defeat Buhari and retire him to Daura, as their e- rats put it, in order to retain what they have illegally taken from the country over the years. The more they see of the Buhari campaign, the more agitated they have become. Jebete ti gbomo le nwon lowo, meaning they are already in confusion.
In the process of despoiling Nigeria, and eating up its future, PDP was an ally and Atiku, the instrument, through who our prime assets were turned over to these characters in dubious circumstances. It was not until their ambitions collided, especially after Atiku came up with his ‘Mandela Option’, that Obasanjo, who actually intimately craved a life presidency, turned on his vice, describing him, both in words and in published works, in the most virulent and profane words.
A sampler of Obasanjo’s published words on Atiku:
“What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts, his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest.”
(Obasanjo in ‘My Watch’, Volume 2, Pages 31- 32)
Now when Obasanjo says he has forgiven Atiku, shouldn’t we ask him when, and where he burnt those his books containing these dynamites?
And does he own Nigeria to be able to forgive Atiku’s sins against Father land?
Yet for their fear of President Buhari, all these mutual enemies would not mind jointly throwing Nigeria into a crisis that can very well end Nigeria as we know it.
Anything would do as long as they get their foreign friends to intervene, throw their weight behind Atiku, as in Venezuela, or coerce us into forming a government of national unity to gift Obasanjo his much desired third term as interim president of Nigeria.