by Adebayo Coker
Listening to the President speak during the media cha that was held before the last, I dare not say my President is far away from realities. No, no, I dare not. The statement uttered that corruption is not the number one problem of this nation can only come from a head that thinks nothing but “ogogoro”.
Pressing on my mind is the need to write about a topic that came to the fore due to the phoneme shared by Abba Moro with one of the so many appellations of The Almighty God by the Yoruba: OBA AMOGUN M’ORO (that is, God is the only arrester of the warrior and the war).
Before I go further, let me share my experience. I used to work for a Telco and one of the tools of operation was a compensation platform. Well, some of my family members are subscribers on that telecom platform and expectedly and a “normal practice “of anyone sitting in that office, I compensated them anytime they complained of bad service. But as the management will have it, they said what I did was wrong and that led to my being pushed out of that organization after 6yrs of service, even when I offered to make payment for whatever their calculations were they refused. Such is my understanding of reckless use of any tool of trade.
Now let us roll:
HEARTLESS: Many bible passages came to mind but for the want of space I may not be able to put them here but I will like Mr. Moro and his principal to read Ezekiel 35.
What is the interest of Mr. Moro in the recruitment into one of the parastatals in his ministry, if not for scam, to even have organized a shoddy one that claimed many lives? Sir, what should one expect from anybody that pays for recruitment into a government parastatal where it is expected that people should be recruited and treated on merit? Sir, what best could compensate your parents, if after your PhD you were invited by one university to come pick up an appointment and on your way to your point of duty, due to poor transport arrangement you lose your life? Would your younger brother being offered such appointment have been enough and best succor to your family? Would you have had peace in the grave knowing that you were killed by your government whom you tried to serve?
Listening to the President speak during the media chat held before the last, I dare not say my President is far away from realities. No, no, I dare not. The statement uttered that corruption is not the number one problem of this nation can only come from a head that thinks nothing but “ogogoro”. I have not seen corruption so celebrated in my years of existence in this country than it is under this ‘transformation agenda”.
Mr President also made an international disrepute of himself in Namibia the other day, when he said “corruption is not as it is being reported in Nigeria but only being blown out of proportion”. I am sure Namibians on whose ground you made that statement would be rolling on the floor in their minds and closets because the pangs of corruption is heard by the blind and seen by the deaf. How can just few people that are employed by us, paid from our collective revenue tell us they are not seeing what we are seeing to be corruption?
I was miffed as Ms Diezani romanced herself in front of millions of Nigerians, dipping her arm inside her blouse and caressing herself during the Subsidy Regime Investigation Panel in the National Assembly, and I asked what happened to decency. Was she practically telling the men or whoever on that panel,” let me go free and I service you free”? That attitude could only come from a lady of easy virtues (There are insinuations of Above and Beyond Call of Duty services she renders to Mr. President which makes her untouchable).
As if the use of public funds to the tune of tens of billions of naira by our dazzling Diezani in maintaining private jets for her personal use is not enough the dazzling devil came out to tell Nigerians that government cannot sustain subsidy of fuel and kerosene anymore. Was there any subsidy at all in the first place when we are being fleeced every day?
TACTLESS: Sir, it is undiplomatic for a President of any nation to lie on an international platform when even “Mugabe” knew that corruption is colossal in Nigeria. Your aides should have helped you to prepare a speech that will say we are dealing with that demon; though it is a known fact that you are feeding it so religiously, instead of coming out to defend your lose talk every now and then.
Sir, don’t you think it is a display of your incompetency to provide jobs for her graduates, as well as providing a platform for the opposition to crucify you the more, when they see such mammoth of unemployed graduates gathered in different stadia in the land on that fateful day; also it is unwise to call them out to reduce the number by crushing them in full public glare?
Your aides are making you look incompetent and incapable of playing the politics that is expected of you. Muscle does not beget friendship especially when you are playing this game called POLITIK. What is happening in Rivers state is just making Amaechi more prominent.
Any student of politics will know that sometimes you court the friendship of your purported enemies in order to drown their popularity. Obasanjo Vs Tinubu and Obasanjo Vs Osoba should be case studies in this regard. I am using recent events so that you know that your advisers will know they are not, at all, trying.
In the former, Obasanjo refused to give Tinubu, an opposition leader, the allocation due to Lagos state, on the premise that Lagos state created more local governments, with the intention to starve Lagos state of her allocation, believing the opposition will not be able to perform well for it to be credible enough to win the next election, so that PDP will take over the state. Tinubu being a tactful politician that he is, sourced for funds internally and he left a mark that makes him a superhero that even till today, Lagos has become a model for IGR in the country. On the other hand, during the 2003 Gubernatorial Election, Ogun, needed to be “captured” by all means to give the sitting President the credit of delivering his state. Obj devised what I call “eat from the same pot but poison the enemy” tactics. If the story being told is not another beer parlor discussion, Obj was in Ogun on the day of the election, invited Osoba to his home; they ate, chatted and played the game of draughts while the election was ongoing. Obj doused his vim on the day of the election so that he won’t be able to make any last minute moves he may have up his sleeves.
Though he is a man fraught with many faults, Obasanjo should however be commended for standing his ground by not allowing anyone to come with some bogus CVs to intimidate him and I can say it anywhere that he himself did some brainwork not allowing himself to be pushed by some impressed intellectual waves from his aides . I think that has to do more with his having many shoes when he was in the military, so nothing could have entered into his system as to affect his thinking to make him believe that once you have some numerate skills that do not translate to obvious development and growth of the common man, then you should be taken a polymath.
I will urge the President’s aides to make him have his “drink” after the day’s job so he can relax well not in the early hours of the day to have allowed any betrayal of his sensibilities as to know that one does not talk from both sides of the mouth, and please get him books on topical issues bothering on nation building and arrange his schedule to allow him do some reading because it is demeaning for the office of the President to discuss issues just as a primary school pupil would not.
The world is a civil place where election and re-election is based on records and achievements respectively (though we have a peculiar democracy). I must confess that people are wiser and will not fall for I HAD NO SHOES the second time; am sure that will not even fly in Otuoke.
At the end of it all, we know what the office of The President did with the moments that should have been seized to pull this government out of the quagmire of corruption that this government is popular for. History!
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This article was published with permission from Omojuwa.com
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