2007: Atiku for President, God Forbid By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye “What luck for the rulers that
men do not think”---Adolf Hitler.
Somehow, I seem to
have begun to gradually inch towards the most shattering conclusion that
the most compelling alternative today may perhaps be to simply give up
on Nigeria’s likely survival and then go on to live my life as if this
obviously cursed enclave called Nigeria does not exist.
No doubt, Nigeria, perhaps, ranks as the only country I know of
where people are deliberately and continuously eating and drinking
poison, and yet wishing and hoping that they would still be able to
live. Who has ever heard of a
people that devote so much time, intellect, energy and resources to
enthusiastically plot their own stagnation and even destruction,
mortgage their future and that of their children, just because of some
negligible, transient crumbs falling to them today!
What indeed will Nigeria look like in the next ten to twenty
years? Will there even still be any safe space for the unconscionable
smart-asses among us to enjoy their fatally contaminated crumbs obtained
today by gang-raping Nigeria with poisoned shafts? While other
nations are busy laying solid foundations for stable and prosperous
future, a growing gang of heartless and ungodly Nigerians is going all
out to ensure that, for this nation, such a future never comes.
Now somebody has
recently raised an alarm that there appears now a determined effort to
turn Nigerian masses into “perpetual voters.” So, all that matter in
Nigeria today, as far as those who call themselves our leaders and
politicians are concerned are just elections and assumptions of
rulership and “looter-ship.”
There is also the need to add that these same hapless masses have
in addition remained perpetual losers in this grand game, as if there is
a strong determination to punish them for daring to still remain alive. Now let me explain. Shortly after General Olusegun Obasanjo was sworn in for the first term of his presidency that commenced in 1999, Mr. Tony Anenih was already telling Nigerians that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock come 2003. In fact, at that time, Nigerians were yet to see their new ruler who was by then practically living abroad. So for Mr. Tony, the only things that mattered were the twin evils of “winning” elections and assuming rulership, and not giving purposeful leadership. And like an infectious disease, Mr. Aneni’s pernicious desperation caught on in the states and the battle for second term almost turned deadly even when people were still three full years to the expiration of their first term! Nobody was interested in the well being of the people any more. All the resources in the states were poured into the second term craze. Now we are back to the same evil game. Obasanjo and his gaggle of parasites have just re-conquered Aso Rock amidst hopelessness and abounding despair among the citizenry. Everybody is trying to adjust his mind for the next four years of crushing hardship as we are once again being forced to continue subsidizing the incompetence and profligacy of an insensitive regime. Now in the midst of all this, our ears are being assaulted again by the news all over town that for Election 2007, we just have to choose between General Ibrahim Babangida and Mr. Atiku Abubakar. Now, the question
is: how can a nation struggling with a life-threatening ailment hope to
ever survive when all it does is recycle expired drugs in its
polity and force same down its throat? Indeed, this is quite
inexplicable. Now, the Atiku whose noise is everywhere is the No2 man of
the present government which appears to have adopted a clear policy of
inflicting gratuitous pains on hapless Nigerians. The worst part of it
is that these pains are clearly not meant as temporary sacrifices to
lead the country out of its present choking adversity. They are either
unleashed due to hazy vision or outright directionlessness, or even to
further service the leisure and comfort of the oppressors. In fact, some
have even hinted at unvarnished sadism, but, well, why not? Now, let
somebody out there tell me what clear policy Atiku has for post-Obasanjo
re-building of Nigeria except to continue the damage from where his Oga
left off? Now apart from the man’s famed bottomless pocket now
firing the unholy zeal of his unprincipled advertizers, what indeed
makes Atiku attractive as a choice leader? What is the man’s track
records at the Customs where he worked before he came out to become
almost richer than the entire North East? Atiku has many friends in
every hole and cranny in Nigeria, but is anyone trying to look at the
character and reputation of those friends who certainly will become
powers behind an Atiku throne? Are my dearly beloved brothers in the
North saying that aside Atiku and IBB, the North is incapable of
producing any sincere, altruistic and Nigeria-loving leader who would be
more interested in nursing Nigeria to health than appeasing and
empowering a thousand god-fathers around the country. Let’s learn from
the Obasanjo mishap. The South-West recently voted for Obasanjo due to
clannish sentiments even when they knew very well that the man who
failed woefully in his first term
had not acquired any fresh insights. With their vote securely in his
pocket, the General rigged his way through the other zones (with the
active connivance of a tiny gang of unconscionable locals) where his
unimaginable misrulership has given him a near-irredeemably bad name.
But right now, is the South-West better off in the regime of suffering
that their man has unleashed? Do
they have light now better than the man in Ohazara or Damboa? Is the
non-existent kerosene abundant and affordable in any Egba town? Is the
South-West exempted from the unspeakable decay and total collapse of the
Educational sector? That the South West made the Obasanjo mistake is no
reason why the North should repeat it with Atiku. A vote for Atiku is a
vote for eight more years of the
locusts after Obasanjo! His
several like-minded associates from several parts of Nigeria will still
be the only ones to grow richer and richer during his presidency while
even his next door neighbours at Adamawa who have always been poor will
become further impoverished. Atiku can only benefit Atiku and other 'Atikus'
everywhere. Apart from the unbeneficial emotional satiation that
"my brother is president", what more would the long suffering
Northerner benefit from Atiku who would just become a continuation of
the ruinous Obasanjo era with another name? Time has come for us to say
a big NO to the few privileged elites among us who beat ethnic drums
when it is convenient, just to ride on our calloused backs to glory,
leaving us still suffering and starving, and coming back to us again
only when they need us again to ride to further glory. Atiku just can't
be a fait accompli ! Nigerian youths have a
responsibility to stop Atiku, his likes in either the South or the
North, and their eager trumpeters like Wada Nas, because it is their
future that is at stake. They should insist on the termination of
the destructive era of the
implacable rapacious vampires and save their future from a receding
generation. Well, only two weeks
ago, Atiku displayed a sample of his leadership style when
his security men, in his presence, beat to coma a
Daily Independent photo-journalist,
without Atiku
intervening to save the
dying young man. As the nation recoiled at this clear advertisement of
pre-historic cruelty, some
fellows like Olusegun Adeniyi of ThisDay
went to town in
stout defence of Atiku telling us that the V.P. was not as heartless as
he showed himself to be. In fact, Segun’s anger was instead directed
at the journalists who staged a
walk-out to protest the clear attempt to murder their colleague. Well,
with editors like Adeniyi abounding in Lagos, the likes of Commissioner
Dele Alake could retain the guts to threaten to blacklist journalists
instead of the other way round. In a civilized ambience Atiku would have
since resigned and returned to
Adamawa. But who can make a man of such amazing wealth and clout to
shake, when some editors are already falling over themselves to be his
press secretary in 2007? And as for Babangida, …well, as for
Babangida? Adolf Hitler was right: what luck for the leaders that
men do not think! By Ugochukwu
Ejinkeonye |