Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, President, Igbo Youths Movement blames President Muhammadu for the worsening economic and security situation in the country, while attacking the uninspiring leadership of South-east governors
The five and half year-old drama of piloting 200 million people from one avoidable mistake to another in a most uninspiring and directionless manner, should be put to a halt now, because the people just can’t take it any more. President Buhari has proven to all, that he lacks the capacity to manage the complexities of Nigeria, let alone, make her great.
Since June 2015, we have been drifting around the ocean of life, not as a focused, committed nation, but rather, as a confused, rudderless country, run and managed by an unprepared leadership, experimenting with the future and destiny of 200 million citizens, and believe me when I say: that everyone is tired. Let truth be told.
From running the country for six months without ministers, while issuing and countering same orders to the Central Bank, to the enthronement of brazen nepotism, and total display of ineptitude, the inability to secure the country has confirmed beyond any doubt whatsoever that Nigeria is in big trouble, as the leadership the whole world put so much hope and trust in, six years ago, is clearly unable to secure, unite, let alone, move Nigeria forward.
It has been a harvest of errors. History will record this regime as one of one mistake to another. Regime of Fulani herdsmen. Regime of prerecorded Presidential broadcasts. A regime where the President is bigger than the whole country, and his handlers will shamelessly defend his unwillingness to visit disaster scenes as his style. A regime of inconclusive elections, a regime that pays Boko Haram through the International Red Cross, to release Dapchi girls. A regime that northernized all sensitive appointments, thereby deepening and encouraging a fierce dichotomy that inspired agitation for seccesion. A government that simply does not care about the feelings and cries of sections of the country.
A regime that includes plans and benefits for Niger Republic as the new normal. A regime that borrows for every project. A regime that indebted us up to our great grandchildren. A government that comfortably watches as the whole country explodes into a war theater, with kidnappers ruling all our highways. Hamlets and homesteads are sacked by armed bandits, even as Northern governors pay same bandits for elusive peace.
Travelling by road anywhere in Nigeria has become a high risk venture. Going to the farm has become an impossible task. The economy has collapsed into a frightening deep recession that could last for a while. Even as inflation and unemployment has eaten so deep into our land, leaving everyone on edge. Insurgents, armed robbers, kidnappers and killers of all shades seem the only people smiling to the banks, as exorbitant food prices forces millions of citizens to go to bed hungry every night with tears in their eyes.
Guilty of a great crime, are those who have access to President Buhari, but refuse to tell him to his face that he has failed. Most wicked of our compatriots are those who flatter him, telling him he is doing wonderfully well.
Nigeria needs help. Nigeria is in trouble. Our President and his service chiefs have clearly run out of ideas. We have never had it so bad. The situation calls for fasting and prayers. Our government has failed woefully, God have mercy.
This brings us to the confusing situation in the east, about a new security network that has raised hairs everywhere. Truth is, this development is closely tied to the erroneous decision by government not to engage the agitators for years now. As new twists and developments emerge, we should know that these are pointers that more developments are on the way. The unintelligent refusal to engage the agitators will yet throw up more issues.
Had the spineless South-east governors placed the security and welfare of the masses of Eastern Nigeria above their individual vice presidential desires, perhaps they would have known that their reneging on their earlier promises to establish a regional security outfit, would eventually lead us to this. As nature abhors a vacuum, as the existential threat of the heartless Fulani herdsmen, is real. We should put the blame squarely at the feet of the South-east governors, who promised twice, to establish a security outfit that would protect Igboland, but failed.