“People who live in difficult circumstances need to know that happy endings are possible” – US Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor.
The resilience and determination of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to contest in the election for presidency of the Federal republic of Nigeria is a glad tiding to all Nigerians, his foes and admirers alike.
Gen Buahari’s election in 2015 will bring closure to the hopelessness and despondency in Nigeria and renew our hope as the current ugly situation in Nigeria is unsustainable. We must get it right this time around to secure the future of our children. President Jonathan’s years of administration are a waste. The Federal government is planning to increase the pump price of petrol and devalue our comatose naira having deceived his gullible followers about a cooked economic index for 2014. Any mistake or self-inflicted naïveté for more of the same will spell dooms for Nigeria. Gen. Buhari has been given clean bills of health and character by the clergymen, imams, atheists, world leaders and the plebeians. Buhari’s antecedents clearly attest to his disciplined mind. A country that swims in corruption, deceit, incompetence and insecurity cannot expect a prosperous nation. Anything that is contrary to accountability is an exercise in futility. We need to strongly empathize with President Jonathan’s supporters who are ignorantly corded with the status quo; the narrow-minded individuals with no inclusive attitude to other people’s opinions.
The religious and ethnic bigotry that pervade every warped mind in Nigeria is a reminder of the Nigeria’s repetitious history. Buhari surely belongs to the past of incorruptible leaders. He has nothing to offer his character assailants; the ethnic and religious bigots, and the sociopath leaders in Nigeria. But he is obviously coming to clean the system and bring back our lost glory, restore discipline and ensure egalitarian society for the next generation. Nigerian corrupt leaders with skeletons in their closets including his corrupt party members will be made a deterrent to others with the mindset of raping the wealth of Nigeria.
As a bona fide citizen of Nigeria, this writer and other well-meaning Nigerians in the Diaspora owe it as a national responsibility to conscientize our leaders and educate ourselves with sincerity of purpose to put the country back in the right tracks. All is not well with Nigeria. The failures of Nigerian leadership and corruption are the hydra-headed mantras destroying the country’s future and its people. And it seems the immediate solution in sight is incorruptible individual with patriotic zeal to see a new Nigeria. The collective woes of the nation are embedded in the national cake where everyone is now selfishly struggling and aspiring to eke from its icing.
The absence of collective shame of leadership and the twisted minds of its citizenry are painfully a concern for national interest. The ugly events of the past years are strong indications that the country needs surgical operations through a credible leader. The psychology of Nigerians are pitiably bruised and corded, the rewiring of the warped psychology of these Nigerians is dangerous to national cohesion, unity, progress and development. No nation thrives under the present state of anomie where corruption, deceit, absurdity and celebration of mediocrity hold sway.
When the head of a fish is rotten, other parts will be unfit for human consumption. When a leader of a country deliberately failed either by commission or omission to clearly differentiate corruption from stealing, or stealing of national wealth from corruption as both are intertwined, then our deep dream to that state of utopia is rough. Most of the un-presidential body language and unguarded statements of President Goodluck Jonathan on issues of national interest is a big embarrassment to the nation. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces and a nation’s chief security officer, security of life and property, and national cohesion should be his priority not a mundane and crass political opportunism.
Mr. President’s grandstanding on national issues instead of understanding is a national embarrassment to Nigerians. Just imagine Obama, Clinton or Bush declaring for second term when their country is under attack or in a precarious situation like we have in Nigeria, that would have been a political suicide but it can only happen in Nigeria. This has to change. A national declaration of a sitting president for second term and GEJ’s ambition a day after innocent children were massacred under his nose is not only a national tragedy but a psychological trauma to national psyche and our collective consciousness.
Nigeria seems to be in a Hobbesian’s state now where life is short, brutish and nasty. The nation is under persistent darkness, the roads are death-traps and the citizens are under siege and helpless in the hands of armed robbers, Kidnappers, Boko Haram insurgency and their sociopath politicians. The president’s deafening silence on national crisis is troubling to the victims’ psyches and other Nigerians. President Goodluck Jonathan’s aids need to be fired by him for their wrong advice and dereliction of their national duties, and for putting him embarrassingly on the local and international spotlights. His torturous six years in office has been an abysmal failure and faux pas to curtail corruption. We do not want more of the same, and as his enough certainly is not only enough but embarrassing in these present circumstances.
It is pertinent to note the way history is judging Gen. Buhari now like late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, even in his lifetime to see how he is being loved by the right thinking Nigerians. Like Awolowo, the beauty inside of Buhari is not the ugly that surrounds him outside. The truth, indefatigability, modesty, discipline and beauty inside of him make him altruistic and persistent to speak out against those mundane things in life that make the weak vulnerable to the strong. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari epitomizes the mind of a leader for a new Nigeria; and hope and aspirations we are yearning for our dear country. We hope Nigeria becomes a place where everyone should have tomorrow when tomorrow becomes real.
Change will come to Nigeria.
