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The Man Who Knows All

by

Wada Nas

wada@gamji.com

Before discussing the substance of this discourse, let me first of all respond to one or two issues.  There have been varied reactions to my discourses by the reading public.  While some appreciate my view points, others, naturally don’t.  This is how it should be.  I appreciate this.  I also appreciate those who want me to scale down my criticism of the Nbati Mafia.  No less appreciative are the pressure being put on some prominent Nigerians to prevail on me over the same issue.  I am encouraged by various view points, both negative and positive, to continue to contribute to ideas on  the state of our  nation. Personally, I consider criticisms as positive virtues so long as one could learn lesson from them and change for the better.      

Having said this, let me say that I have nothing against Yoruba traditional leaders.  Indeed, I have tremendous respect for traditional institutions.  I have nothing against Yoruba farmers and the poor.  They are not any better than their counterparts anywhere in the country.  The Yoruba poor is as worse as the Hausa poor; or Igbo poor or Kanuri poor.  Each time violence breaks out, the poor, children, women and the aged have always been the victims.  I respect their rights as human beings and as Nigerians.  Indeed, it was for this reason that I issued a statement of peace when the OPC lunatics engaged in the mad murder of Northerners in Lagos.  In that statement, I stated, among others, that the sins committed by the OPC in Lagos must not and should not be visited on Yorubas who have been living in peace in the North.  It is a serious offence in the sight of Allah for anyone to visit the sin of a father on his son.

This is part of my quarrel with Obasanjo administration.  I abhor such injustice and will continue to preach against it.  It is barbaric to kill a Yorubaman living in Katsina, simply because his tribesman committed a crime against Northerners in Lagos.  I am from Funtua and I know how some Yoruba have become Funtuanized.  They know not any other place but Funtua.  I see them as natives of the area.

So I have nothing against the Yorubas, but certainly I have many things against a clique, or better still a small circle of Nbati Mafia who delight in instigating their brothers to kill me simply because of what I am.  I have everything against anybody who hates me simply because one or two Northerners have offended them.  If Wada Nas did you wrong, deal with him.  If Babangida did you wrong, deal with him.  Same if Abacha, Umaru Dikko, or whoever did you wrong.  But for you to kill Northerners simply because you did not like the faces of Abacha, Nas, Dikko etc is a serious offence against my own philosophy of life and I will not keep mute in the face of such happenings.  I cannot see how the poor Hausa suyaboy, the blind Hausa beggar in Lagos, the Hausa shoe shiner etc, could be associated with the supposed crimes of Babangida or Abacha, such as to be mercilessly massacred by their Yoruba hosts.  Not when such dregs of society from the North are by far worse than their Southern compatriots affected also by the so-called negative side of the policies  of government.   

This is my first point of quarrel with Nbati Mafia. The second is that it was not me who coined the sentence “Persistent Northern bashing without provocation”.  These words have been in existence before I started contributing articles to newspapers.  What do the words mean?  Simple.  The Nbati media, and their clique of Mafia sponsors have for a very long time been insulting ALL Northerners without any exception for reasons that are hard to understand.  From insulting Northerners, it went into hatred, and finally, into their massacre, mass massacre.  Except if one is stone hearted, he can’t fold his arms watching the innocent massacred for no reason other than pure hatred of people.  The Yorubas have been ill-treating Northerners as the few Jews of Nigeria and this cannot be allowed to continue.  If Nigeria were in Europe today, those Nbati Mafia that have been encouraging the mass murder of Northerners would have been dealt with by the United Nations.  Unfortunately they still regard us and our leaders as barbarians whose massacring antics could be tolerated.

My points of departure, therefore, are over the persistent massacre of Northerners in Yorubaland through the instigation of members of the Nbati Mafia and the constant insults the North has been receiving in the hands of the Nbati media.  For me to scale down, therefore, they too, have to do so.  They must have to put an end to the massacre of Northerners or indeed all non Yorubas residing among them.  Their papers must also scale down on their collective insults of the North and its people.  If they are not prepared for this, then the media war would continue without any apology, for I am the wounded party and victim of their policy of annihilation, and so, therefore, entitled to apology from them and also entitled to defend my self since the government of Obasanjo has abandoned me to my fate in their midst.  So, the ball is now in the court of those who want me to scale down.  Let them start first and I will follow, for in the first place they started it and not me.  I am a victim.

Now, the subject of discourse and there is no better way of starting it than quoting Mr. President as carried by ThisDay newspaper of December 9, 2000.  “All that is needed is that the budget should be passed.  THEY SHOULD NOT TELL ME HOW TO SPEND THE MONEY BECAUSE I KNOW BETTER THAN THEM” (emphasis mine) claiming that he “knows more than the National Assembly because he has visited 14 states, so far he says. “I go round the states (14 so far) to see things on the ground, assess what are the urgent things to be done, how to do them and how to cooperate with the states.  You don’t tell me how to do so.  I know better than you”.

These statements confirms President Obasanjo as the Mr. Knowall of all times.  I think we need to change his name to President Knowall.  He deserves it.  Right.  How much did he see of one council area let alone a state within three days of state visit such as to make him know better than representatives from all councils, who are in touch with the people almost daily.  The 109 Senators and 360 Hon. Members of the House of Representatives collectively cannot in anyway be less in knowledge about the needs of the country than Mr. President Knowall.  Somehow, the President does not seem to appreciate that these legislators are the sovereign representatives of the people sent to Abuja by their votes to educate Mr. President on the plight and needs of their people.  This is part of the problem we have to endure with The President, the self claim to messianic virtues and the complete disregard for the people, in whose power lies sovereignty, by ignoring their representatives through whom they lay their complaints and grievances to government. By saying that he knows the country more than them collectively simply means that he has no need for their services.  We do appreciate how his mind works.

The second fallacy is that they should not tell him how to spend the money because he knows better than them.  Well, no matter his assumed superior knowledge over them, the Nigerian Constitution clearly says it is we the people, through our representatives, that tell him how to spend the money and how much to spend.  Or is he saying that he alone knows the country more than Nigerians collectively.  There is a dictatorial inclination in this self righteous assumption, and the representatives must prepare for a serious battle, particularly in the implementation of the budget.

The issue now is not how much has been allocated to what sector or zone, but rather how much of it would be implemented.  It is pointless allocating about N100 million for a specific project and at the end of the day only one million worth of it is implemented.

This has been the experience; complete disregard for the provisions of the appropriation acts, both of 1999 and 2000.  The Executive selectively implemented what they felt they wanted and even then not more than 20% was committed to capital projects and the amount budgeted remains unknown.

Regardless of what Mr. President sees as his exclusive monopoly role in the current Nigerian enterprise, the truth remains that the people, through their representatives, whose faces he doesn’t like, have the power to direct him on expenditure. This power is earned by constitutional fiat and must be respected as such.

From this glorification of self righteousness, the President is again laying yet another foundation for the non-implementation of budget 2001.  This is precisely what he means by saying “THEY SHOULD NOT TELL ME HOW TO SPEND THE MONEY” .  This amounts to saying that he has the power to spend the money outside the authority of the legislative since “they should not tell (him) how to send the money”. By saying so, he means that he is the one to tell them how to spend public funds in the way he likes regardless of the position of the law.

To play with budget 2001 as he did budget 1999 and 2000, would spell very serious disaster for this country, both politically and socially.  To drag the country for three years without productivity and anything to show for the huge resources wasted, may force the people chase out ALL their elected representatives at the appropriate time.

Both the Executive and the Legislature cannot afford to toy with the 2001 budget as they did with the others. Members of the legislature must be bold enough to see to it that the budget is implemented to its latter and should be prepared to act appropriately should any willful violation occur.

Finally, I hope Nigerians have learnt about the abduction of one Lanre Shittu by the Americans on the alleged approval of Mr. President, the Minister for Justice and the NDLEA boss, whose appointment, in the first place, was approved by CIA agents before it was announced.  Shittu’s case was in court, yet he was abducted from Nigeria without the due process of law.  His abductors told him that court or not, the three persons above  gave the go-ahead.  Where is this administration taking us to?  By the end of four years we don’t know what would become of Nigeria in the hands of Mr. Knowall’s foreign friends. May Allah save the fatherland.        

 WADA NAS

You can read more about my views in my webpage http://www.gamji.com/wada.htm

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