OBJ’s Letter: Buhari deserves the earful
With Uche Nnadozie
Virtually everyone in the public space has had an opinion about the “special press statement” issued last week by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. That is how it should be. To be fair Dr. Obasanjo captured the fears and criticisms expressed by very many people over the last several months. What broke the camel’s back perhaps was the sloppy manner President Muhammadu Buhari and his government have responded to the carnage suspected to have been perpetrated by herdsmen in Benue state. The number of dead bodies, homes and properties destroyed will justifiably rile any sane mind. Unfortunately up till date, the government has failed to get a grip of the situation. There is no coherence in the manner it has addressed the issues both in words and action.
Two things: one is the manner in which the minister of defence, Mansur Ali blamed the dead for their death by saying that it was the implementation of a no open grazing bill that led to the killings. This was after the national defence council meeting chaired by the president. The second was a widely circulated intelligence report which blamed the killings in Benue on ISIS West Africa! In all of these, no security agency has put a finger on the killings in Rivers except the killing of the suspected masterminds of the sad event. In the same vein, the Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna killings have not (at least) openly attracted the attention of the government. This is sad. Rather during this past week, the Army inaugurated a special task force to tackle cattle rustling in Kaduna. This is another insensitive step presenting the government as caring more for cattle than citizens.
The administration has not deployed any special military task force to deal with herdsmen who kill fellow citizens for whatsoever reasons. The preference for securing cows is baffling even to me. It is a thing to be ashamed of. Although I suspected that part of why government pays attention to rustling is because they see a correlation between cattle rustling in the far north and the killings going on in the north central region. This is so because I suspected that if rustling was not on the ascendancy, in the far north, herders will not move en mass to the north central green belts to upset the communal arrangement there. This sort of information if true is what should be explained to Nigerians openly and methodically. Heck! This government at times carries on as if it is government serving its own purpose. Again, strategy or lack of it is what is killing it. I am not one of those who buy all the conspiracy theories that the opposition sell.
Let’s get back to Obasanjo’s letter. I’m aghast at some Nigerians especially some of my fellow Buhari supporters who have taken President Obasanjo to the cleaners. Lets be clear most of what the old man penned are correct, factual appraisal of the incumbent. There are perhaps some perceptions in there, however, perception is what guides public discourse. Like I have mentioned above, the Benue killings attracted scant regard by the president. Fact! The president has ensured that 90 percent of heads of the country’s security chiefs are from the north with both the internal and external intelligence heads coming from Katsina state, the same state as the president. It is difficult not to label him a nepotist. Obasanjo was right as with many other facts in his press statement. And I am happy that someone up there has told the president what some of us little men have been saying. The president now has the opportunity to amend his ways. Will he? I don’t have much faith because Buhari has shown that he is incapable of sacking his appointees.
Some of us desperately want the president to succeed. In fact, it is a matter of life and death. I believe that the president has pulled us out of a certain precipice following the exploits of Boko Haram up till 2015, even in the economy, there are bright lights ahead. Most of what the information minister, Lai Mohammed focused on in his reply to Obasanjo were factual. That was vintage Lai. The response from the government was dignifying and I identify with the lofty economic outlook. We cannot afford to throw those pieces of rainbow away to embrace the Coalition for Nigeria as championed by Obasanjo. That is where I differ with the grand old man. He is a patriot. He is a nationalist but I do not see why he will ask that the president should not contest an election. Obasanjo by that now wants to turn himself to God, no. It is only the president that knows whats best for him. Every Nigerian has the right to contest election. For a man of Obasanjo’s stature to ask the president not to stand for election in 2019 is taking his luck too far. If I were the president, save for death or incapacitation, I will contest the election with all my might. if I loose, so be it. That’s democracy, after all, the president equally defeated an incumbent.
Again let the president try his best to change some of the issues the former president complained about. He may not necessarily agree with him, but trust me, Obasanjo was right and if the president gathers the balls to effect some of those changes his government will be the better for it. I want a less fractured polity. The president must lead the quest to integrate Nigerians of all tongues and faith. To achieve that, the president must watch some of his actions and inaction. One year is still enough for the president to improve on the optics of his politics although like I have earlier posited, it will be difficult.