A stitch in time saves nine! Time flies supersonically these days, more than we all ever imagined. The nation was in a stupor, deflated to her withering economic effigy, strengthened by nothingness but the loud noise of drowning men; visionless but well-heeled on stolen wealth. The nation was crawling on her knees in the last years of PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan, but robustly kept alive, running feverishly, suspiciously on borrowed time and funds, or now that we all know, on massively, criminally depleted nation’s treasury. Any wonder PDP blundered and their ship of deluded hope crashed. A party packed full of enormous goodwill, and income spent on best of straw intentions, damned-up behind aggrandizement and braggadocios! The nation’s strength faltered on all alternatives but a subtle, solemn revisit of an old wine, repackaged in a seemingly holier bottle; proved a stroke of a genius. Subliminally packaged political messages of hope on: The Mantra of Change, were the key words to revive a nation belaboured in spirituality, political, economic and a roundly flawed image. A treatingly pined-down nation in A JIHADIST GUERILLA INSURGENCY WAR!
The unspoken political reality on ground today needs be put in perspective. Oh! You don’t think Bola Ahmed Tinubu fought on the dirty-mud-slinging-war front absorbing all the lethal darts and missiles to be apportioned and spited with a back seat role in the spoils of war! In the euphoric dance of victory, we are bound to step on each others’ toes but chain not, nor pin-down no one as the race of progress on THE CHANGE MANTRA begins to accelerate in view. Things need be revisited and very gently caressed, then facts will reveal glaringly and reality will finally dawn on us all. The strained unity of purposes in APC VICTORY, still haunting and must be back on course, on logical course in the greater interest of all. We ordered CHANGE JET PMB-BTA 2015,TURBO-CHARGED, not to be powered by host of TAIWAN’S IMMITATIONS of political neophytes backed by charlatans and renegades but proven resilience: Turbo-Charged, Powered by Tinubu-Buhari’s Engines running full throttle in political and economic spheres. In Saint PMBuhari; we expected our VAULTS are stoutly guarded, enriched and gated! The General in shining armour of Integrity, Honour but appears has limited knowledge in economic matters nor wherewithal in THE THOUSAND AND ONE MINED FOREST OF NIGERIAN DIRTY POLITICS, says PMBuhari’s credentials!!! I reasoned.
Nothing novel about this arrangement in our beleaguered political archives, history and economic conundrum. In retrospect, some of us are old enough to know but are merely being clever by half. Gowon and Awolowo, a memorable pair in governance, though miles apart in intellectual weight in silver, nuggets of gold and clear crystal blue diamond’s worth; The wisdom of the fate anointed young General Gowon and Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, bailed us out in a similar, in fact we were in identical situations in the very early seventies; posterity crowned both of them HEROES! Gowon’s image was never diminished, Awolowo’s image stood primed-all-times-enhanced. No Victor No Vanquished! A solemn paradox, haunting us now, challenging our conscience today! Let the truth ring out loud and clear. In spite of all unprecedented privileges entrusted by fate upon the Fulani nation, she has yet not, worsted the Yoruba nation in anything significant! The Fulani’s claim of “born to rule” might be ego-soothing but may be effectively confined to the Sokoto Caliphate should PMBuhari, fail his people and the nation this time around. It is Messianic expectations from the wretched of the earth; the Talakawas deserve much more than just foot notes when history summation arises, when tomorrow dawns.
This is one of the best political combinations of all times ever to be crafted in this nation’s best of interests; heroic deed but full of indigestion and bad blood; it was built on hidden or misty ambitions, assumptions, blind trust and hop; rather than: THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS SHOULD HAVE BEEN EARLIER SETTLED! IT WILL BE MOST TRAGIC, IF THIS GREAT MISSION OF CHANGE; EMPTIES THE TANKS; WASTED ON THE ALTAR OF TRIBALISM AND EGO TRIPPINGS ON NON ISSUES; A NATIONAL CALLING IS IN THE AIR! BATinubu is a reservoir of political exigencies and sagacity. Mark you, my take on our current boldness in eloping with the Chinese nation, is another masterstroke but it will be foolhardy to expect our long time allies; Americans and Europeans clinking glasses of champagne! We just ruptured their underbelly. Challenges lie ahead; please steady BATinubu for the cloudy skies ahead.
Our nation’s beleaguered political predicament will be limping for a long time to come and our economy writhing in continuous struggling mode if this opportunity is mismanaged or vanished into inconsequential or heightened, or hung on ego tripping modes! We must all be primed and alerted to the success of this republic. I have heard severally and variously how deep the minds of Fulani men are, and how unforgiving they could be; AVENGING WHAT?
They honestly have themselves to blame for their people’s backwardness and predicament. They have been blessed, much, much more than any other nation in this union, in national politics! But since my growing up years; and now crowding my Biblical age, I have severally, intensely watched the Fulani nation WASTE TREMENDOUS POLITICAL CREDITS, IN VICTORIES OFTEN EARNED OR STOLEN! What they seemingly amassed aplenty in political sophistry, they fritter. They appear not capable, or able to translate victories into economic blessings for their people, left alone the nation. They often burn it all to the detriment of their own people, coasting home always at all time lows on intangibles, titles, privileged positions and frivolous wealth accumulation in wrong hands; negating the hope and plight of millions of their peoples, those who mattered most in their society living on pittance; acceptable as the will of Allah? Save alone for a few “RANKA DEDEs” who are very highly privileged but negligible few benefiting far less the Talakawas, than they earned on vote or dominance in power by other means! The Talakawas simply serve the currency of political struggles; defend mandates and victories but disposable in the end! The critical mass in poverty that needs be rescued NOW! They deserve unfailing attention now; most especially in Education and Agriculture; powered by steadied supply of generated power for all and sundry.
For a teaser; the Fulani herdsmen; viciously cantankerous, but hardworking are still beggarly or forcefully grazing or cattle ranching in other people’s green pastures with virtually no clothes on their backs; in the year of our Lord 2016! While the rich cow owners are comfortably, unconscionably nestled in pleasure, their wards drift rudderless with cattle; at almost the same value for their own lives, wasting away in generic ignorance of enslavement . The infiltration from Chad and Niger Republic through our very porous borders compounds this recurring national dilemma; very embarrassing! They are like gypsies army of occupation planted in other people’s neighbourhood nation-wide. Despite decades of opportunities of their leaders in politics, power and governance, they have failed woefully to arrest this volatility, sustained in silence, on this festering and lingering situations in their backyard and beyond. FOUR OR EVEN EIGHT YEARS IN GOVERNMENT COULD AGGREGATE LITTLE OR PROFOUND GREATNESS IN THE LIFE OF A NATION! THIS OPPORTUNITY HERE MUST NOT BE FRITERRED OR IT MIGHT LAY FULANI’S MYTH AND MIGHT A THREAD-BARE CLAIM.
The apparent economic instability in our nation today, cannot be divorced from the high stakes in the political disequilibrium of disquieting proportion, in grand permutations from the PMBuhari’s wing in APC. They have succeeded in trying to put a lid on BATinubu’s very domineering ego! Such men’s larger than life ego is better managed; than scotch-snaked. Because ego reigns in politics and is justified in the murky terrain of competing men in political power, on very high stakes but probably less intense in style than BATinubu’s famed variant but the truth is, most great political leaders are weaned on it and it is often a common-denominator in successful great leaders of means; especially THE BREEDERS OF OTHER MEN FOR POLITICAL FAME AND FORTUNES. That is what they often anchored their trust and loyalty on: ABSOLUTE COMMAND IN LEADERSHIP! President Vladimir Putin is a master in these games of dictatorial tendencies. It is a price often paid, it inconveniences others, seals the fate of many, upgrade others but most usually they stand muted in silence of the majority to placate their leaders but their leaders; often achieved much in the interest of all human species, especially the certificates-uncensored and a population of illiterates as in our case are difficult to espouse to reason.