Prior to manipulating their way into office in 2015, one of the biggest lies Nigeria’s current President, Muhammadu Buhari, and his gang of desperados in the All Progressives Congress (APC) told Nigerians was the promise to restructure the country politically by devolving more power to the regions to reduce friction in the centre. Today, without an iota of shame, they have not only reneged on that juicy promise in utter duplicity towards innocent Nigerians, they have also done a complete ‘U turn’ six years down the line and even going as far as labelling restructuring as ‘warfare’ and also describing those agitating it as ‘naive’ and ignorant of ‘war’.
Nigerian politicians are almost synonymous with fake promises. To attain political power, they go all the way to promise the easily hoodwinked electorate an elusive El Dorado. Many a time, they blatantly refuse to fulfill or even discuss the promises because they understand perfectly well that as at what when they dished out such promises, they never had any intent to fulfill them. In proverbial terms, they were promises made by a man from a position of lust to prostitutes which expire after a romp of Coital engagements. This perfectly explains what Buhari did to the southern part of Nigeria during electioneering; he has secured power through their votes, what else does he need them for?
The problems of Nigeria began with her amalgamation; many ethnic nationalities were merged together without their consent or authorisation, Britain wanted administrative convenience for easy Balkanisation and exploitation and resolved that a haphazard amalgamation of the country was the easy way out. By doing that, they threw everybody into a quagmire that has perpetually kept the nation-State on their thinking caps attempting to unravel.
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The early leaders understood these problems and opted for a confederation at independence with a weak but assuming centre. The system worked for a while but the make-shift solutions only lasted six years when a group of young army officers violently overthrew the existing government and eventually resulting in military rule. The regime of Late Gen. Aguyi T. Ironsi felt the foundational issues could be swept under the carpet by unifying the country by employing the barrel of the gun. The unification decree of 1966, rather than solved the problems, further threw the country into a more dangerous pit making her assumed ‘unity’ more volatile in the process.
The Fulani, a group of very deceitful nomads who immigrated into the country were systematically plotted into strategic positions by the colonialists. Due to their backwardness, quota system, federal character, and other forms of ‘standard-lowering’ systems were put in place. The so-called retaliatory coup of July 1966 and the bloody civil war of 1967-1970 cemented their position as the biggest stakeholders in the Nigerian ‘British experiment’. Ever since then, they have remain Head of Government or had a stooge who got there, by circumstances beyond their control such as death. That story however would be left for another day.
Today, an unapologetic Fulani bigot is the President of Nigeria. Having held sway previously as Head of State under military dictatorship, Buhari came back to power in 2015 with an agenda deleterious to the common good. While promising to restructure the country for an absolute transformation during poorly scripted campaigns, he was also busy plotting strategically on how to perpetuate his ethnic supremacists in power. The very big difference between himself and the PDP he tricked Nigerians into allowing him to replace is that, while PDP was boasting to rule the country for only 60 years, Buhari was perfecting plans to rule Nigeria indefinitely.
Every move and gesture he has so far exhibited all have same pointers. From his brazen abuse of power to institutionalise nepotism down to his refusal to sign any of the amended electoral acts that seek to give more credibility to the electoral process. Annexing the third and most critical arm of government – the Judiciary as well as the move to forcefully take away the freedom of speech of Nigerians through social media regulations and hate speech shenanigans. Name it! They are tilting towards the same direction. To perpetuate themselves in power.
Despite governors and former Nigerian leaders lending their weight behind the calls for restructuring, the President has continued to think otherwise not minding the implications of his actions. While State governments are demanding the powers to establish State police to deal with insecurity which is threatening to implode the failing country, Buhari and his clansmen have continued to tighten their grip on the very tense polity of course, the security and general wellbeing do not bother the President, and his uncouth gang of desperate power grabbers.
It is not newsworthy to mention that the North where the President comes from is against restructuring simply because the North has been benefiting from the flawed military-imposed 1999 Constitution that allows the lazy 19 Northern States, an avenue to receive a minimum of 57 percent of 100 percent of oil revenue while the hardworking Southsouth which contributes 87 percent, the remaining crumbs. The callous insensitivity of the President is not far-fetched. No monkey would allow you snatch a juicy banana bunch from her without a tussle.
Until the title ‘THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA’ becomes actionalised, the country may never find her bearing and that is the truth. To butress this; Until Nigeria becomes a ‘FEDERATING’ country that is sincerely ‘REPUBLICAN’ and not the docile country obtainable today, she might not make any meaningful progress.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK