The
situation Nigerians have found themselves now is not what they expected
from the Buhari government. The situation of things in Nigeria
presently is still shocking to many Nigerians and a mystery to all those
who unanimously gave their unalloyed support to Buhari in order to make
him president with the expectation that he would turn Nigeria around
for the better but what has Buhari done today? He has simply made
Nigeria worse than he met it and ended up turning the country into a
banana republic where laws and court orders are flagrantly disobeyed
with impunity and ended up impoverishing the life of an average
Nigerian.
I know quite
alright that many newspapers and media outfits would never publish this
type of article because it is very clear that many media organizations
have been compromised in Nigeria. The media has been gagged by the
Buhari government. The media has been caged and boxed to a corner where
they are now afraid of what the government will do to them and their
outfits and so they refrain from anything that will antagonize the
government. But for how long are we going to continue to fold our hands
and watch while an incompetent government keeps toiling with the lives
of the Nigerian people and generations yet unborn? Remember that this is
a government that told us to choose between cattle colony or death and
wants to compel us to lose our ancestral heritage to the fulani herds
men cattle ranching ideology.
But
for how long are we going to continue to be intimidated and harassed
into silence by an autocratic government that takes the people for
granted and continues to inflict pains, sorrow and suffering on the
citizens of Nigeria? For how long are we going to continue to watch
while our people are slaughtered in broad daylight by some marauders and
sacred cows with tacit endorsement from a government that swore to a
constitutional oath to protect the citizens of Nigeria but failed to do
so?
For how long are we
going to continue to fear the unknown and be intimidated by this
government? It seems Nigerians have now been bullied to resign to their
fate and watch helplessly while the Buhari government keeps perpetrating
all sorts of injustice, constitutional breaches and impunity without
being answerable to the Nigerian people. Remember that Gani Fawehinmi
and Fela both of blessed memories were bullied, intimidated and harassed
for standing up for the people and for saying the truth to the
government, yet they never gave up and were never deterred irrespective
of all attempts by the government and their obnoxious collaborators to
silence them from saying the truth.
We
must never shy away from saying the truth irrespective of whose ox is
gored or else Nigeria will never make any headway with all these
numerous challenges confronting the nation. The Nigerian people must
stand up and fight for their rights and heritage or else the Buhari
government will annihilate the will of the people and keep them on
perpetual subjugation. It is very clear that this is an anti people
government that is hell bent on perpetrating itself in power despite its
woeful performance and failure to ameliorate the acute sufferings of
the Nigerian people. But Nigerians must resist any attempt by Buhari and
his cohorts to perpetrate themselves in office. Nigerians must join
hands to send Buhari back to Daura where he rightly belongs.
When
Buhari was presented to all of us, we though that by now Nigeria would
have witnessed a drastic and positive change but the reverse is the
case. We thought that we have found a messiah who would improve the
living standards of the people but he ended up increasing the suffering
of the masses of Nigeria. It is very clear that the Buhari government is
very desperate to remain in power to continue to enslave Nigerians but
all Nigerians must resist it and ensure that we all vote out Buhari in
2019 to avoid subjugating our future and the future of our children and
generations yet unborn.
But
come to think of it. If the Buhari government can inflict so much pain,
sorrow and suffering on the masses of Nigeria in its first term in
office, imagine what Buhari will do if he eventually comes back for
second term. We can all be sure that it will be hell for the Nigerian
people if Buhari is ever allowed to come back in 2019. You can imagine
what he will do if he eventually gets a second term ticket to rule
Nigeria again. We must not allow this to happen or else Nigeria will be
doomed by this incompetent, tribalistic, desperate and autocratic
leader.
The Senate
President Bukola Saraki has been harassed and pushed to defect to the
opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) just like many other senators
have defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). This is
an attestation to the fact that the Buhari government has lost its
bearing not only on its own party people but also on the entire country
and this government must be shown the way out of office in 2019 because
this is not the type of government that can take Nigeria to the promised
land. The Buhari government has only ended up dragging Nigeria
backwards and we don't yet know the serious damage this government has
done to us until many years to come before we would realize it.
But
we must take action and obtain our voter's cards and ensure that we
vote out Buhari and his cohorts on election day 2019 and we must equally
stand up and protect our votes and our future by ensuring that the
election is free and fair and not tactically rigged by this government
in order to perpetrate itself in power. We must ensure that we are never
swayed or influenced by money to vote for the wrong person who will come
up to sell our future and subjugate our collective ancestral heritage
and patrimony. We must never allow this to happen. We must all stand up
and fight for our future and the future of our present and future
generations and avoid any conspiracy against our collective will. Since
we trusted Buhari so much and allowed him to rule Nigeria the second
time by voting him into power in 2015 and having unrepentantly betrayed
that trust we reposed in him, we must never allow him come back to rule
Nigeria the third time again because he has shown clearly that he cannot
be trusted with the destiny of Nigerians.
If
Nigerians make the mistake of electing Buhari to come back in 2019,
Nigerians will surely regret such action just as right now we keep
regretting ever voting for him in 2015. The way forward is that
Nigerians must change this government through the ballot box in 2019.
What we need is a leader who will turn Nigeria around for good. To do
this, we must first of all subject all presidential aspirants to a
compulsory live debate for every aspirant to showcase whatever they have
to offer Nigerians on national television and any aspirant who fails to
honour this debate should be disqualified from contesting.
Buhari
is known to shun debates of this nature or even the usual presidential
media chat. Is this the type of leader we want? Former president
Goodluck Jonathan usually had regular media chats where he interacted
with the media and with Nigerians on various issues of national
importance but since when has Buhari ever had any such chat with the
people of Nigeria? Since when has he deemed it fit to honour Nigerians
by letting them ask him pertinent questions about the nation on live
national television? Is this the type of leader we want beyond 2019? No,
this is not the type of leader we want because Nigerians deserve a
better leader who will improve their lives and turn the nation around
positively within a reasonable period of time.
We
don't need a president who will drag us fifty years backwards like
Buhari has done to Nigeria but an action president who will solve
Nigeria's mounting problems within a reasonably short period of time
without having to dilly dally and continuously blame past leaders for
the problems for which he was elected to fix in the first place. No, that is not the type of leader Nigeria needs. We need not just a
president who says what should be done but someone who matches his words
with action and also takes such action at the right time when such
action should be taken for the interest of the nation. The way forward
is that Nigerians should ensure that Buhari is voted out of office so
that this nation can know peace and so that we would not mortgage our
future and the future of generations yet unborn to the cluelessness of
this inept government that cannot take Nigeria anywhere. God bless
Nigeria.
By Tayo Demola
Human Rights Activist
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