To Those Who Say There Is No Change (2)

                                                                                  

                                                          

For the very first time in the annals of this country, appointments are being made on the basis of 97% and 5% votes given to the President. On this basis, Nigeria has become a northern enclave as majority and strategic positions are skewed in favour of the north. At present, President Buhari doubles as Minister of Petroleum while Dr. Maikanti Baru, another northerner is the Group Managing Director of NNPC. The people of the Niger Delta that host the oil has no say in the oil industry as the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu is a mere figure head as the execute power of the Petroleum Ministry resides with President Buhari!

Nepotism has become the order of the day. Never in the history of this country have we witnessed such glaring and vexatious appointments such as we have presently. Not even the appointments made by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan are comparable with what we have at the moment. Under the five years administration of Jonathan, while the minister of petroleum was from the south, all the Group Managing Directors of the NNPC were from the north but today the reverse is the case yet the north has no drop of crude oil in their land. This is another change.

Again, crisis management in terms of threats to national security has also been politicised. This is evident because while the Niger Delta militants have well-organized military operation targeted at them the Fulani herdsmen that are ravaging farms and farmers across the country have no military operation directed at curbing their heinous and atrocious activities. Additionally, while many Niger Delta militants have been dispatched to their untimely graves by the military, no Fulani herdsman has been killed or even arrested by the same military! Now, how can this ambivalent crisis management promote peace, unity and tranquillity? Previously, the containment of threats to national security was never accorded ambivalent treatment. This is a change.

The current anti-corruption has also been politicised. When the Peoples Democratic Party was in the saddle of government, it prosecuted its party members such James Onanefe Ibori, Chief Olabode George etc. but today, the members of the APC including those who defected from the PDP and joined the party have become saints except the Senate President, Bukola Saraki who became Senate President in defiant to the king makers of the APC.  

During the electioneering, Nigerians were told that when a leader leads by example, the citizens will emulate him but today the APC led government is telling Nigerians that change begins with them. There is no family where parents look onto their children for direction as the APC government wants to have us believe; it is parents that give direction to their children to emulate and follow.

President Buhari accused the judiciary of being the barrier to his anti-corruption war, yet he disobeys court orders and pronouncements. In December, 2015, an Abuja High Court granted the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) bail, yet Buhari refused to release him. Recently, the Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), declared that the arrest and continuous detention of Mr. Dasuki unlawful and arbitrary. The ECOWAS court also instructed the Nigerian Government to pay the sum of $15 million as damages to Mr. Dasuki. The Nigerian Government has not complied with this directive till date.

From the aforementioned and discourse, can we really say there is no change? There is a great change indeed! Change can either be positive or negative. Whether change is positive or negative, change is change. The change we have at the moment is a negative change. This change is painful is because during the campaigns, the then opposition APC accused the ruling PDP of inflicting pains and hardships on Nigerians and promised Nigerians positive change if voted into power. Now, the reverse is the case. This is why this change is painful because the standards of living of Nigerians today are worse than they were in the last five years. Nobody wants retrogression; everybody wants progress. This is not the change Nigerians voted for. Nigerians deserve better standards of living than what they currently have and it is most unfortunate.