Brady Nwosu in this piece for Today shares his views on how President Muhammadu Buhari is writing the epitaph of once a country A king that transformed a jungle to a city will forever be
remembered. At the same time, a king that turned a city into jungle
forever would not be forgotten. The way things are going, it is obvious
that many nations are likely to emerge from Nigeria. When the histories
of such nations that were hitherto Nigeria would be written, one name
that would be scrolled in bold prints is President Muhammadu Buhari for
presiding and writing the epitaph of once a country.
In this vein, “There was a country,” the last book of the late
literary icon, Prof Chinua Achebe, becomes prophetic. When in the early
2000, it was alleged that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
had predicted that Nigeria would fragment in 2015, there was palpable
tension in the country, especially in the face of the general elections
that generated so much acrimony and hatred and the country was polarised
along ethnic and religious divides. The elections came and have gone,
with many heaving sighs of relief believing the worst was over.
True to their thoughts, the worst could have been over if the winner
of the presidential election, President Buhari was interested in the
unity of the country. He could have embarked on reconciliation and
unification across the country so that the grievances and disappointment
that attended the elections would be forgotten. Instead, he started to
position people from one section of the country and equally started
promoting his religion, while he saw the rest as conquered people, who
should not impugn his authority even in a democracy.
Events the last one year gave rise to the frenzy of
self-determination by various ethnic groups. Before it was only the
Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)
in the south-east and right now more groups have sprang in the region all working in synergy
towards self-determination. Then, like a joke, another uprising is going
on in the Niger Delta region. It started with Niger Delta Avengers
(NDA), and now many other groups have come out working in the same
direction for self-determination. They are holding the nation to its
jugular and their persisted attacks on oil facilities in the region has
reduced the nation’s crude oil export from 2.2 million barrels to about
1.2 million.
The reason is that Buhari saw the south-east and the south-south
as conquered people. He has been accused to have an agenda to Islamise
the country and his actions and body languages lay credence to such
accusation. In his disappointing May 29 broadcast, the emphasis was how
to crush militants in the Nigeria Delta and the unarmed agitators of
Biafra, but he was mute over the Fulani herdsmen, who are carrying out
heinous crime of genocide in the Middle Belt and the South. Should that
be the position of a leader who is interested in the unity of the
country? While Fulani herdsmen walk freely with sophisticated
war/assault rifles, soldiers saw the gathering of Biafra agitators as an
avenue to test their marksmanship; but thumb up for the atrocities of
Fulani herdsmen, which the Global Terrorism Index rates as the fourth
most deadly terrorist organisation in the world. There is no way the
country can stand by suppressing the other ethnic nationalities feeling
the brunt of the Hausa/Fulani hegemony.
We should do a rethink before crediting Buhari with the success in
the Boko Haram fight. It is on record that as at the time he was
decimating the Islamic insurgent group, the military was yet to get new
order for military hardware. The success was because of the cooperation
of northern leaders. This is a nation of hypocrisy. We remember that
when the former Chief of Army Staff, Azubike Iherijirika was crushing the
Boko Haram to finish, northern leaders started shouting genocide and
threatened to drag him before ICC and Buhari equally called on former
president Goodluck Jonathan to stop killing their people. But what
happened, the military came down heavily on the sect under the present
government and the northern leaders didn’t cry genocide. Who is
deceiving who?
The war against corruption is a mere peer struggle. It is just
against those he felt had crossed his paths in the past. We remember
that in 1984, the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) in less than one year
was ingrained in the consciousness of the citizens. But today, it is
business as usual in the Police, Customs, Immigration etc, nothing has
changed.
For nearly 60 years, Nigeria has gone a long test running and now
reduced to hard starting. We can’t continue trying, the engine has
finally knocked and needs either a complete overhauling to re-fix or a
brand new one.
Everything has gone wrong with us and Nigeria as an entity. Honesty
is life and worthy living. We must honestly and in true faith believe
patriotism, renegotiate to mingle together and redo Nigeria.
