Pendulum; President Buhari and His Many Liabilities

By Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, I’m sure most of you are already overwhelmed
by the endless deluge of bad news from Abuja. What makes it sadder
is that for the first in a long while, President Muhammadu Buhari
actually had what seemed a good international outing in Paris,
France, where he was warmly received by President Emmanuel Macron,
CEOs of major corporations and some Nigerians in diaspora. How I
wished his overzealous acolytes had allowed the old man to savor
the modicum of success he recorded on a trip that was nearly marred
at the beginning by some controversy over whether the events would
hold or not.

While the President and his team from the Foreign Affairs as
well as the Trade Ministries were busy working frenetically and
feverishly on making the best of this trip, unlike when he was
nearly picketed in London sometime ago, some members of his kitchen
cabinet were busy messing up back home. This time, the latest
scandal was an acerbic interview granted by no less a personage
than the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mr Abubakar
Malami (SAN), a very handsome man who at age 54 has achieved so
much for himself and his family. He’s one of the most powerful men
in Nigeria today and he has had his fingers in many pies. His word
is supposed to be the law that everyone must respect and obey, and
he is expected to promote justice and equity for every Nigerian and
not for a particular tribe or faith. Unfortunately, this does not
seem to be the case as Malami chose to touch the tiger by the tail
when he spewed some profanities on national television without
considering the repercussions. Since then, he’s known no peace.

Had he known, Malami would have navigated himself away from
saying some of the things he said on Channels Television that
evening. He was even lucky that the anchor of the program, Mr Seun
Okinbaloye, a perfect gentleman, was charitable enough to have
granted him some soft landing by not probing him deeper and opening
him up for public scrutiny and odium. Otherwise, he could have
roasted him with some hotter follow up questions. The obviously
irritated, and easily irritable man, made no visible effort to
control his anger about the raging debate concerning the senseless
and mind-boggling spate of killings all over Nigeria which has
necessitated the usually squeamish Southern Governors to voice out
their frustrations and the unanimous decision to ban open grazing
in the Southern parts of Nigeria. Instead of Malami to sympathize
with the victims of wanton killings, rape and stealing, he was busy
comparing cattle rearing to a totally unrelated venture.

The Governors did not ban the Fulanis from doing their
legitimate businesses. They were only restricted from wreaking
further havoc on haplessly helpless Nigerians under the guise of
traveling long distances with their cattle. Many of them have been
confirmed to be some itinerant and incredibly violent Fulani nomads
from other West African countries. They appear to have been
emboldened by the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the President
and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. Rather than
place the blame for the security conundrum where it rightly
belongs, some Northern elites prefer to blame others for their
spectacular failure despite spending some outlandish budgets on
fighting insurgency.

One of the key reasons Nigerians supported Buhari in 2015 was
the fact that they expected him to be hands on and much more better
and stronger than his predecessors. Even though he was not expected
to know much about other items, like the economy, requiring serious
attention, the general consensus was that Buhari was the best to
save Nigerians from banditry, not to compound it. Sadly, six years
after getting power, Buhari seems definitely more confused than
President Goodluck Jonathan that was called unprintable names. But
patience is very good and ultimately rewarding. The ways of God are
definitely not the ways of ordinary mortals. The Buhari that was
apotheosized to the level of an omnipotent ruler has become a hawk
that cannot even snatch ordinary chickens!
So you can now imagine how Minister Malami rubbed pepper on our
festering wounds by spitting his vituperation without any
justification for doing so.

The Minister displayed no empathy but complete arrogance.
Unfortunately, like all men of power, he forgot that there’s always
a terminal date for all forms of tyranny when slaves will be forced
to kick against the predators. Most leader hardly prepare for that
auspicious moment. Tyrants always take delight in the weakness of
their victims and they just assume they can never seek their
freedom from servitude. This was Malami’s error of judgment and
he’s paying dearly for it right now and the hullabaloo is not
likely to go away soon.

Let’s thank Buhari for some favors he’s done for us. The most
important one is that his government has pummeled us so much and
trampled on us in the mud that he has now opened our eyes to the
fact that “a man who’s down should fear no fall.” Nigerians are now
used to anything they throw at us. Such is life. But many are now
determined to reject the perennial insults. More and more people
are now speaking up and I’m so proud of them. Some of our political
leaders now understand the fact that new power blocks are emerging
from the grassroots and throwing up the Nnamdi Kanus, Gani Adams
and Sunday Igbohos at grassroots levels. These men wield incredible
influence on their people.

Only if the Malamis of this world knew how angered and bitter
most Nigerians are, he would never have dared pounce on them the
way he did in that interview. Now, I can confirm that most
Nigerians have lost hope in anything tangible coming out of
Buhari’s government and they have decided to live and survive like
orphans in the next two years. Malami thus misfired outlandishly
when he compared the herdsmen to spare-parts dealers. He merely
fell short of mentioning the Igbo traders who litter different
parts of Nigeria. One could easily feel his, undisguised, deep
seated anger against the Igbo, whose only “crime” was fighting to
have their Biafra nation. They lost the battle eventually, lost
millions of lives on both sides, lost their properties but never
lost their pride and capacity for hard work. There is nowhere you
go today in this wide world that you won’t find Igbo people doing
great work and performing wonders. But the North in particular
never got over the killings, or more appropriately, the genocide
that took place across the divides. 40 years after the civil war
ended, we are virtually back to square one because we’ve refused to
learn any lesson about true reconciliation.

Malami, wittingly or inadvertently, reopened the old sores. This
he did at a time most Nigerians in the South are sick and tired of
the unbridled arrogance they’ve had to endure for decades from
their Northern counterparts. If truth must be told, this
master/servant relationship between the North and South has reached
its final crescendo. It no longer matters to the people if the
military continue to pursue defenseless citizens into their homes
in the South East while studiously ignoring the main hooligans who
have reduced a once great country to the level of Libya and Somalia
with warlords in every part.

I’m sure the Malamis are misreading the situation in the South
because of some Governors who have been joining the ruling party
APC. Sadly, our politicians never learn from even our contemporary
history. How can any reasonable soul jump into a party that has
clearly divided Nigeria across ethnic and religious lines,
pauperized the people more than ever, over-borrowed to fund
government profligacy, and speedily leading us to avoidable war! Of
what use is a Governor who jumped ship without majority of his
people following him? Of what use is a party that is known and
certified to use and dump its benefactors? By this time next year,
Buhari himself would have become a lame duck and would have carried
a burden heavier than elephant and all those jumping now would soon
realize that they’ve jumped from frying pan into fire! There is no
miracle left for Buhari’s government to perform in less than two
years that he couldn’t do in six years. If all the PDP Governors
like, let them jump into APC. We shall wait patiently to sing their
requiem, sooner rather than later. It won’t take too long. I
remember in the twilight days of Dr Olusegun Mimiko in Ondo State
when he jumped out of the Labour Party that gave him his
gubernatorial tickets twice into PDP. I wrote an article that got
him and his Commissioner for Information angry.

But he later told me that the pressure on him was much them but
that I was indeed right and his wife had also cautioned him against
the decision but it was too late then. Those who think they can be
protected by Buhari and APC would soon realize that they are
actually not the President’s priority. Anyone who has studied
Buhari well would know he does not worry himself too much about
others. APC has since locked out the Tinubus who gave their all to
make him President. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole must still be
wondering what hit him. Dr Orji Uzor Kalu has only escaped, so far,
by the whiskers! But see how courageous people like former Governor
Peter Ayodele Fayose, are managing their lives and able to speak up
their minds instead of being manacled inside a tyrannical party. Is
it not better to serve in heaven than to reign in hell?

A good leader must know his onions. If Malami had hoped to bully
the Southern Governors into submission, he missed his target.
Instead, he got what he did not bargain for when Governor Rotimi
Akeredolu (SAN), Mr Femi Falana (SAN), Dr Mike Ozekhome, Chief
Kayode Ajulo and others released a plethora of legal education and
reorientation for his tutorials.

What the Malamis have succeeded in doing is to unite those who
would never have worked together in the past. Unless the peoples of
the South East, South South, South West and Middle belt have been
spiritually sentenced to everlasting slavery, this is the best
opportunity for them to work together. What can kill the union is
the selfishness and egocentricity of some ambitious politicians who
may refuse to join the search for consensus candidates. If they can
overcome this by agreeing to step down for a very good and
generally acceptable candidate, no matter where he or she comes
from, the battle is over!

Why the IG of Police Must Rescue Lagos

Lagos State, the heartbeat of Nigeria, is under siege and it is
terrible! The bandits have finally penetrated and ready inflict
pain on the people who are already bearing so much under Buhari’s
government. Most of the bandits themselves are complaining of lack
of jobs.

I believe the solution lies in an urgent intervention from the
top. Thousands of security personnel should be injected immediately
into the system before insecurity destroys Lagos.

It is not easy to maintain a mega city like Lagos. The security
architecture should immediately include heavy presence of
intelligence officers.
Lagos is too precious and strategic and should not be allowed to
perish like many other Nigerian cities suffering from all manner of
debilitating challenges…

By Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, I’m sure most of you are already overwhelmed
by the endless deluge of bad news from Abuja. What makes it sadder
is that for the first in a long while, President Muhammadu Buhari
actually had what seemed a good international outing in Paris,
France, where he was warmly received by President Emmanuel Macron,
CEOs of major corporations and some Nigerians in diaspora. How I
wished his overzealous acolytes had allowed the old man to savor
the modicum of success he recorded on a trip that was nearly marred
at the beginning by some controversy over whether the events would
hold or not.

While the President and his team from the Foreign Affairs as
well as the Trade Ministries were busy working frenetically and
feverishly on making the best of this trip, unlike when he was
nearly picketed in London sometime ago, some members of his kitchen
cabinet were busy messing up back home. This time, the latest
scandal was an acerbic interview granted by no less a personage
than the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mr Abubakar
Malami (SAN), a very handsome man who at age 54 has achieved so
much for himself and his family. He’s one of the most powerful men
in Nigeria today and he has had his fingers in many pies. His word
is supposed to be the law that everyone must respect and obey, and
he is expected to promote justice and equity for every Nigerian and
not for a particular tribe or faith. Unfortunately, this does not
seem to be the case as Malami chose to touch the tiger by the tail
when he spewed some profanities on national television without
considering the repercussions. Since then, he’s known no peace.

Had he known, Malami would have navigated himself away from
saying some of the things he said on Channels Television that
evening. He was even lucky that the anchor of the program, Mr Seun
Okinbaloye, a perfect gentleman, was charitable enough to have
granted him some soft landing by not probing him deeper and opening
him up for public scrutiny and odium. Otherwise, he could have
roasted him with some hotter follow up questions. The obviously
irritated, and easily irritable man, made no visible effort to
control his anger about the raging debate concerning the senseless
and mind-boggling spate of killings all over Nigeria which has
necessitated the usually squeamish Southern Governors to voice out
their frustrations and the unanimous decision to ban open grazing
in the Southern parts of Nigeria. Instead of Malami to sympathize
with the victims of wanton killings, rape and stealing, he was busy
comparing cattle rearing to a totally unrelated venture.

The Governors did not ban the Fulanis from doing their
legitimate businesses. They were only restricted from wreaking
further havoc on haplessly helpless Nigerians under the guise of
traveling long distances with their cattle. Many of them have been
confirmed to be some itinerant and incredibly violent Fulani nomads
from other West African countries. They appear to have been
emboldened by the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the President
and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. Rather than
place the blame for the security conundrum where it rightly
belongs, some Northern elites prefer to blame others for their
spectacular failure despite spending some outlandish budgets on
fighting insurgency.

One of the key reasons Nigerians supported Buhari in 2015 was
the fact that they expected him to be hands on and much more better
and stronger than his predecessors. Even though he was not expected
to know much about other items, like the economy, requiring serious
attention, the general consensus was that Buhari was the best to
save Nigerians from banditry, not to compound it. Sadly, six years
after getting power, Buhari seems definitely more confused than
President Goodluck Jonathan that was called unprintable names. But
patience is very good and ultimately rewarding. The ways of God are
definitely not the ways of ordinary mortals. The Buhari that was
apotheosized to the level of an omnipotent ruler has become a hawk
that cannot even snatch ordinary chickens!
So you can now imagine how Minister Malami rubbed pepper on our
festering wounds by spitting his vituperation without any
justification for doing so.

The Minister displayed no empathy but complete arrogance.
Unfortunately, like all men of power, he forgot that there’s always
a terminal date for all forms of tyranny when slaves will be forced
to kick against the predators. Most leader hardly prepare for that
auspicious moment. Tyrants always take delight in the weakness of
their victims and they just assume they can never seek their
freedom from servitude. This was Malami’s error of judgment and
he’s paying dearly for it right now and the hullabaloo is not
likely to go away soon.

Let’s thank Buhari for some favors he’s done for us. The most
important one is that his government has pummeled us so much and
trampled on us in the mud that he has now opened our eyes to the
fact that “a man who’s down should fear no fall.” Nigerians are now
used to anything they throw at us. Such is life. But many are now
determined to reject the perennial insults. More and more people
are now speaking up and I’m so proud of them. Some of our political
leaders now understand the fact that new power blocks are emerging
from the grassroots and throwing up the Nnamdi Kanus, Gani Adams
and Sunday Igbohos at grassroots levels. These men wield incredible
influence on their people.

Only if the Malamis of this world knew how angered and bitter
most Nigerians are, he would never have dared pounce on them the
way he did in that interview. Now, I can confirm that most
Nigerians have lost hope in anything tangible coming out of
Buhari’s government and they have decided to live and survive like
orphans in the next two years. Malami thus misfired outlandishly
when he compared the herdsmen to spare-parts dealers. He merely
fell short of mentioning the Igbo traders who litter different
parts of Nigeria. One could easily feel his, undisguised, deep
seated anger against the Igbo, whose only “crime” was fighting to
have their Biafra nation. They lost the battle eventually, lost
millions of lives on both sides, lost their properties but never
lost their pride and capacity for hard work. There is nowhere you
go today in this wide world that you won’t find Igbo people doing
great work and performing wonders. But the North in particular
never got over the killings, or more appropriately, the genocide
that took place across the divides. 40 years after the civil war
ended, we are virtually back to square one because we’ve refused to
learn any lesson about true reconciliation.

Malami, wittingly or inadvertently, reopened the old sores. This
he did at a time most Nigerians in the South are sick and tired of
the unbridled arrogance they’ve had to endure for decades from
their Northern counterparts. If truth must be told, this
master/servant relationship between the North and South has reached
its final crescendo. It no longer matters to the people if the
military continue to pursue defenseless citizens into their homes
in the South East while studiously ignoring the main hooligans who
have reduced a once great country to the level of Libya and Somalia
with warlords in every part.

I’m sure the Malamis are misreading the situation in the South
because of some Governors who have been joining the ruling party
APC. Sadly, our politicians never learn from even our contemporary
history. How can any reasonable soul jump into a party that has
clearly divided Nigeria across ethnic and religious lines,
pauperized the people more than ever, over-borrowed to fund
government profligacy, and speedily leading us to avoidable war! Of
what use is a Governor who jumped ship without majority of his
people following him? Of what use is a party that is known and
certified to use and dump its benefactors? By this time next year,
Buhari himself would have become a lame duck and would have carried
a burden heavier than elephant and all those jumping now would soon
realize that they’ve jumped from frying pan into fire! There is no
miracle left for Buhari’s government to perform in less than two
years that he couldn’t do in six years. If all the PDP Governors
like, let them jump into APC. We shall wait patiently to sing their
requiem, sooner rather than later. It won’t take too long. I
remember in the twilight days of Dr Olusegun Mimiko in Ondo State
when he jumped out of the Labour Party that gave him his
gubernatorial tickets twice into PDP. I wrote an article that got
him and his Commissioner for Information angry.

But he later told me that the pressure on him was much them but
that I was indeed right and his wife had also cautioned him against
the decision but it was too late then. Those who think they can be
protected by Buhari and APC would soon realize that they are
actually not the President’s priority. Anyone who has studied
Buhari well would know he does not worry himself too much about
others. APC has since locked out the Tinubus who gave their all to
make him President. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole must still be
wondering what hit him. Dr Orji Uzor Kalu has only escaped, so far,
by the whiskers! But see how courageous people like former Governor
Peter Ayodele Fayose, are managing their lives and able to speak up
their minds instead of being manacled inside a tyrannical party. Is
it not better to serve in heaven than to reign in hell?

A good leader must know his onions. If Malami had hoped to bully
the Southern Governors into submission, he missed his target.
Instead, he got what he did not bargain for when Governor Rotimi
Akeredolu (SAN), Mr Femi Falana (SAN), Dr Mike Ozekhome, Chief
Kayode Ajulo and others released a plethora of legal education and
reorientation for his tutorials.

What the Malamis have succeeded in doing is to unite those who
would never have worked together in the past. Unless the peoples of
the South East, South South, South West and Middle belt have been
spiritually sentenced to everlasting slavery, this is the best
opportunity for them to work together. What can kill the union is
the selfishness and egocentricity of some ambitious politicians who
may refuse to join the search for consensus candidates. If they can
overcome this by agreeing to step down for a very good and
generally acceptable candidate, no matter where he or she comes
from, the battle is over!

Why the IG of Police Must Rescue Lagos

Lagos State, the heartbeat of Nigeria, is under siege and it is
terrible! The bandits have finally penetrated and ready inflict
pain on the people who are already bearing so much under Buhari’s
government. Most of the bandits themselves are complaining of lack
of jobs.

I believe the solution lies in an urgent intervention from the
top. Thousands of security personnel should be injected immediately
into the system before insecurity destroys Lagos.

It is not easy to maintain a mega city like Lagos. The security
architecture should immediately include heavy presence of
intelligence officers.
Lagos is too precious and strategic and should not be allowed to
perish like many other Nigerian cities suffering from all manner of
debilitating challenges…