Playing possum with politics and religion

The battle for the soul of our nation is now fought on social media. Information mismanagement has become the modus vivendi of this regime. It is apparent that the people the President hired to manage information are sleeping on duty. They never give it when needed or sufficient enough. They have no capacity for proactive handling of events. For most occasions, they simply play possum with governance.

Enemies of the state are conscious of the lacuna and using insane logic, they latch onto this and are gradually succeeding in undermining the state. When President Buhari left the shores of Naija on his now infamous vacation to London, he joked that the press are likely to report that he was wheeled into an air ambulance the next day. Well, they did worse, they announced his death. With that, he now beats the Great Zik of Africa as the first elder statesman to be wished death in an advert, and to read his own obituary severally. I am no longer a huge fan of this president, but since his death would not increase my lifespan, I am totally unfazed about it. As an unrepentant citizen, I am worried for the continued cohesion of this country and it doesn’t seem like the president gets the true picture. This nation could burst into so many flames that your ill-equipped fire brigade would be powerless to quench the fire.

When the President planned to flag off the so-called cleanup of Ogoniland, he was met with stoic opposition and threats. If he had insisted on making that trip, heaven knows where we would have been by now. There was to be another visit to another part of the eastern flank that met with similar threats and forced cancellation. With the intelligence at his disposal, eleven jets on the tarmac this president should be able to take off and land anywhere he pleases before any mischief-maker wakes or dresses up. It is done in other lands, it should be done here.

Between those trip cancellation was the Agatu massacre in Benue, a state controlled by the APC. Again, our strategic general was not only missing in action, he was missing in strong words. In Agatu land as well as parts of Zamfara and Katsina, the story is the same – that Fulani herdsmen were responsible.  When harmattan haze prevented the president from making a trip to Bauchi, he compensated with a special broadcast in Hausa thus arming his political enemies who immediately pointed at this as a practical demonstration of his alleged plan to Islamize the country.

Subsequently, Southern Kaduna became the new killing field. It is just a few hours drive from Abuja and less by air. Kaduna again is controlled by the APC, but not only did the presidency fail to make any meaningful statement on that carnage, his spokesman, Femi Adesina trivialized it on national television. The lame excuse in both instances is that the governors, who have no control of either the police or other agents of coercion are up to the task. Hell no, they were overwhelmed and badly portrayed. It is beyond their capacity.

These actions whether expedient or not played into the divisive narrative of the enemies of state – to wit that the president favours Muslims over Christians and the so-called ‘core northerners’ to their north central or Middle Belt zone. The allegations are devices of a drowning man clinging to straw but they are widely held impressions even though the ubiquitous herdsmen have been killing and stealing in Zamfara for as long as they wanted without let or hindrance.

From street talk, the narrative has moved to the pulpit with the so-called old clip of David Oyedepo first surfacing and drawing the ire of most people of goodwill who say that religious leaders should build bridges, not burn them. Well, whatever and whenever Oyedepo’s video was made and whatever sedition it contained paled in significance to that of his religious godson, Johnson Suleman who went a step further authorizing pogrom.

As the heat of his video began to burn up the social media strata, Suleman organized a function in Ekiti, now known as the hotbed of political shenanigans. It was said that a quaternion of DSS men were on hand to poach him but that Digbolugi Fayose showed up and ‘rescued’ him. This is a perfectly scripted credo-political manouevre albeit a very dangerous one.

Fayose was the architect of the advert saying that a vote for Buhari was an invitation to another state funeral. That advert remains the lowest in opposition politicking. Was it a strange coincident that Buhari’s vacation led to rumours of his death or that he now has the title of rescuer of errant pastors?

Except this president wakes up to the reality that our nation is like a timed suicide vest hung on an epileptic patient being defused in a fit, he may be the last ruler of a united Naija. He needs to show in word and deed that he is president of all and that all lives matter. He needs to be more proactive and more sensitive to domestic matters in addition to seeking regional or international relevance.