WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
I join Nigerians to rejoice with Mr. President; 79 hearty cheers to the great performer and a democrat, a symbol of integrity and national rejuvenation. It is no coincidence that allies and foes alike are lining up to admire the man who you cannot deny within yourself, for the great services he has rendered this country, regardless of what is said in the media for political purposes. I am a fan and lover of your personality, the integrity that distinguishes you from the lot. I have continued to wonder how a man could have been the head and leader of the country in the past, and held all the various high ranking positions you have held in trust for the people, and still not belong to the rank of the leaders who have mortgaged the present and future of the country for personal advantages? How could you, like them, not be a proud owner of oil wells? I am still wondering, how could you, like them, not be a billionaire? The only iota of truth in the islamisation rhetoric they worked all hard to build against you is that you are an ardent believer of your God; a staunch adherent to what is morally right. And so, you are hated because your choice of morality has jeopardised their sworn path of corruption.
They may hate you today, but you should be rest assured that their number is limited to the corrupts and their beneficiaries who saw your emergence and administrative policies as obstacles to continuous perpetration of their ill-acts against the country, and whose fortune are fast declining financially and politically because they are losing relevance in an increasingly saner system. Someone, tired of their decision not to see your good works, chose to qualify your achievements as unseen and underappreciated works.
Mr. President, the majority of us saw your works and graciously appreciates your doggedness in restoring hope to the nation developmentally. Who could have believed that so soon, Nigeria would return to the pathway of infrastructural development? Who would have believed that we would at this point, be joining the serious minded nations in railway transport development, building road infrastructure at an alarming, progressive and consistent pace; turning around the nation’s airport to a wonder and cynosure of all eyes. It is quite unbelievable this is happening after decades of past decadence and maladministration. We saw the rice revolution and what it has brought to the country along its entire value chain, and we cannot but be grateful to the agent of change who despite hate and constant derailing attempts from the enemies of the country and the lurking PDP, has refused to be perturbed and has stayed his course in taking the country to the next level.
I am still wondering what magic PDP is hoping to perform that would not make 2023 still about His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari, whether he is on the ballot or not. I am seriously touched and amazed at the PDP show of confidence that it could spin a surprise; that is totally impossible, when it all comes down to the numbers, and when the list of unprecedented achievements of the last seven years are table side-a-side the rottenness and unbridled corruption of the preceding sixteen years, water will naturally find its level.
Using insecurity and religion; inciting uprising across the country would always have its limit and would always come to its stationary point; the time will come when rationality would prevail and PDP will be remembered for what it was and is still is. The time when Nigerians would compare rationally what insecurity looked like in the days before the Buhari government and what it is now. The North would soon spit at the money bags that are turning to the streets against the government now. Why? Because they would be reminded of how they could not even approach their mosques at the least, talk less of talking openly against Boko Haram without paying the full consequences in those days when it matters most. They would be reminded how those who summon the courage to be bold paid with their lives.
PDP would have to be really ready to answer questions or tacitly return into its shell to save its face, because this time around the defeat would be humiliating. How did Nigeria, an oil producing and refining nation totally become a fully dependent refined product importing nation with the overwhelming consequences on the everyday life of the country and her citizens in a space of sixteen year while the party was calling the shots? They would have to explain to rational Nigerians how they managed to re-appropriated all the accumulated fund for the building of their Wadata Plaza that left the party still with an uncompleted secretariat despite over availability of fund for the project; and yet claim they are prudent enough to be trusted with national resources to build the nation economy, social and physical infrastructure. They would equally have to explain to Nigerians how their newly appointed NWC met over 280 million naira in debt with exactly no money in account.
PDP would have to really explain to Nigerians what Diezani stand for in the chronicles of the history and achievements of the party; what Dasuki represents; they would have to truly explain to us how they see James Ibori’s integrity and financial prudency as a leader of the party they want Nigerians to put their trust in. PDP would have to set up its machineries to explain away the lots of Patience Jonathan’s stolen funds while they were in power; would have to explain to us how its current chairman who took N400 million to organise official prayer for a country at a time the nation was under siege of terrorism when ironically what the money ought to be used for was to fight against terrorism.
2023 would be a year of much revelation; 2019 electioneering began with Obasanjo’s rapprochement, the process that forgave Atiku Abubakar on behalf of Nigerians and Nigeria for his many corruptions and atrocities against the wellness and survival of the commonwealth and the organisation of the panel that presented him to Nigerians. 2023 has begun again with his yet another open speech, claiming the President and his party has nothing left to offer the country and Nigerians should not expect any salvation from him again. It would be proper to inquire whether the former President has become allergic to good things, because, despite insecurity, there are damning great admirable achievements everywhere to behold and ongoing in this country right now.
Perhaps, seeing the railway the former president literally killed during his tenure bubbling back to life is more of an insult to his person than an achievement to the nation? Maybe the nation’s airports that he watched became moribund should have remained moribund in his honour; and maybe, could he be secretly proud of his lieutenant that he allowed him all the leeway to pilfer the struggling country to the point that he himself could not contain the malfeasance and magnitude of damage inflicted on the nation and its people which was why he later managed to find some comfort in exploding in his book, ‘My Watch’ about his lieutenant, vice president, Atiku Abubakar?
2023 would be about asking Obasanjo and the whole of his apologetics that are in union to oust the current corruption-fighting Administration to save their many corrupt-fed investments across the country: are they blind to the rice revolution; are they blind to the N-Power and other social interventions; are they blind to the railway revolution; the roads and bridge constructions; the new state of Nigeria airports and air transportation? As a military man, is he not seeing the effectiveness and seriousness of the military’s onslaught against insecurity in the country?
Or is that they do not just care about these kinds of good works?
GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!
