The Bola Tinubu Presidency is in the eye of the storm at moment. Until a few weeks ago when rumours of a coup plot filtered into the governance space, the government was, more or less, on an amusement ride. It has, most arrogantly, been constructing its own system and cared little or nothing about what the people thought or felt.
It was in that state of disdain for the people and pollution of time-honoured political culture that President Tinubu found ample time to railroad the country into a one-party contraption. From state to state, some state governors who the electorate laboured to elect into office, made themselves available to be recruited, just like that. They neither probed nor asked the right questions. They were just content to be in the conquistador’s bandwagon. A major fallout of their conscienceless actions is that it has deepened Nigeria’s perception woes, thus effectively making the country a laughing stock in the eyes of world . In all this, the will of the people that brought them to limelight never mattered. Instead, the president and the captive governors have been behaving as if tomorrow belongs to them.
As the people loath the self-serving indulgences of the defecting governors, some others are dropping hints that they may be joining the defection train, sooner or later. They say there is pressure on them to do so. Then you ask: Whose pressure? What pressure? The violation has been so sickening.
But the rush to enter what looks like Cinderella’s castle has just suffered a setback following the loud silences about an alleged coup plot. The government has arrested and detained a good many nationals, particularly security personnel, on account of the rumour. Some others are being hunted by the same government. Yet, Nigerians do not seem to know a thing about the rumoured coup plot. The way it is, it is only the government that knows whether there was a coup plot or not. The people are just being bullied, psychologically, into believing whatever they hear or imagine. The government does not think that the people deserve to know. This is a worrisome situation considering the fact that coup or rumours of it is a serious security breach that is capable of destabilizing nations. Therefore , the least the citizens of this country expect from their government is to put them in the know . Allowing them to feast on rumours is an assault on their sensibility. This state of affairs signposts the failure of governance in a failing state.
“If America did not wake President Tinubu up from his many months of sleep-walking governance, Nigeria would have, by now, been steaming in the bowels of the hot flush that would have oozed out from the president and his men over this vexed issue of Christian genocide.”
Then enter the notice of war from Uncle Sam. A shock wave hit our cavalier presidency just the other day. A government that has its head in the air has just been roused into reality. The United States, the world’s watchdog, has taken the Tinubu administration to task over massive killings in the country allegedly targeted at Christians. The government of the United States did not just drop this allegation. The American Congress spearheaded by Senator Ted Crux and other concerned congressmen had carried out an extensive investigation on this and came up with the conclusion that a genocidal run targeted at Christians was going on Nigeria. The Donald Trump administration has since bought into the report. The result was the recent unflattering label placed on Nigeria by the American government as a Country of Particular Concern . But President Trump did not stop there. He has threatened to take military action against Nigeria if the ugly trend is not halted.
This is where we are at moment. This scenario should be of particular concern to the Tinubu administration. But his initial response was to put up a bold face. His administration is disputing what America has said about Nigeria. The president is also assuring those who are persuaded by his grandstand that there is nothing to worry about. But the good thing is that Tinubu was quick to recognize the dangers of braggadocio in this matter. Thus, instead of joining issues with America on this score as he was initially persuaded to do, his government has decided to engage and to explain. It wants America to hear its own story, if it has one. Much more than that, it is now rolling out figures on what it claims to have done in the area of fighting insurgency. Before now, terrorism in the land was never a governance issue. The Tinubu administration never bothered about the killing field that the country has become. It never took any serious action against terrorism and related acts of criminality. Such matters sounded distant to the administration until Trump came up with his threat of military action against this African state that is feasting on the pain and misery of its people.
If America did not wake President Tinubu up from his many months of sleep-walking governance, Nigeria would have, by now, been steaming in the bowels of the hot flush that would have oozed out from the president and his men over this vexed issue of Christian genocide. That has been the pattern of the Tinubu administration. The president’s goons hardly allow any conversation to take place in the public space. Rather, they shoot from pillar to post, stifling discourse and allowing only one point of view, invariably that of government, to hold sway at all times.
Now that the cat has been let out of the bag by a voice that government cannot afford to ignore, will anybody still tell us that everything about the Tinubu administration is well and wisely put? As it is now, the time has come for the Tinubu presidency to face facts. And that fact is that the country entrusted to it is infested with sorrow and blood. The government of the day is aware that life has become cheap in the country owing to the blight of insecurity. But rather than work to secure the lives of its endangered citizenry, it prefers instead to institute a one-party state where there will be no room for contraries. Government is aware that food insecurity has become real and is, in fact, threatening livelihoods, because Fulani herdsmen have taken over farms and forests in the South and Middle Belt of the country, yet no step is being taken to dislodge the trigger happy herdsman from his criminal hideout. Government is fully aware that our highways are not under the control of our security agencies but under the firm grip of criminals of all shades who kill and maim at will.
Now, that the irresponsibility of the Tinubu administration has been internationalized, will the president come home to roost? Or will he continue to sleep-walk until the breach becomes a storm? Our president needs to be properly guided.
QUOTE:
“If America did not wake President Tinubu up from his many months of sleep-walking governance, Nigeria would have, by now, been steaming in the bowels of the hot flush that would have oozed out from the president and his men over this vexed issue of Christian genocide”.
