Before the 2015 Presidential election, ‘Sai Baba’ cries pervaded every corner of the country. Everybody wanted change. Although the then incumbent president had pleaded for more time to consolidate his achievements in all sectors of the economy, having gathered most of the sought-after experts as his team, Nigerians seemed to be tired of the gradual transformation; they needed a drastic change, hence Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was kicked out of Aso Villa.
As soon as the current ruling party won the election, it started pleading for more time from Nigerians, saying that nobody should expect miracles from them, the same thing the immediate past president pleaded for.
Where are those trekking from one part of the country to another to celebrate APC victory at the national level? This is the appropriate time to do so owing to the lingering fuel scarcity. They trekked when there was abundant fuel in the country but have refused to trek since fuel scarcity pervaded the entire country. What self-deceit!
Jobless youths were promised N5000 stipend per month before the election, later the party said the stipend was only for indigent citizens and yet again for aged citizens. It’s almost a year into this current administration and the money is yet to be paid.
The Presidential media team is always ready to defend all actions and in most cases blame the past administration for anything that goes awry in the country. Just recently, it was rumoured that the federal ministry of agriculture wants to import grass from Brazil, and when that fails the past administration will expectedly be blamed. Even the global climate change was once blamed on the past administration.
In January 2012, there was a nationwide protest because of government’s proposed increment on petrol pump price. Some Nigerians lost their lives in the protest organised by the Nigerian Labour Congress and her sister organisations but today Nigerians are comfortably buying fuel for between N150 and N300 per litre from private petrol stations.
The late Fela Kuti called such an ugly situation ‘Suffering and Smiling’. We have a president, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum, and yet Nigerians are happy with the current fuel situation in the country just as his media team has linked the fuel crisis to the past administration. Remember Nigerians almost did not encounter any fuel scarcity when the alleged corrupt past minister superintended the ministry.
Even if the past administration made several mistakes, Nigerians voted the current administration to bring the change they promised. Would Nigerians have clamoured for change if the past administration were perfect? They should forget this blame game and give us the change they promised us.
During the last Ekiti State governorship election, APC decried the use of military in that election and now with APC as the ruling party, a great show of shame was displayed at Mile 1 Police Station, Port Harcourt, when a mere civilian commandeered about 600 soldiers to the police station simply because he is close to the seat of power. Under the current administration, elections, no matter the size of the constituency, are always declared inconclusive.
Now, if it takes a month to conclude an election in a state, will it not be logical to envisage that the 2019 general elections may take up to 37 months (one month for each of the 36 states and FCT) to be concluded. I do not want to talk about the free meal promised our school children. The same fuel subsidy they claimed did not exist during the last administration is what they are telling us they now want to remove, who is really fooling who?
Most worrisome today is the fact that suspects are being investigated, tried and convicted on the pages of our newspapers. At my level, I do not accept all allegations against a person unless I hear the person’s defence as enshrined in Section 36(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
In stable democracies, suspects are charged to court and their conviction will depend on the evidence and witnesses brought against them but in this current administration, every suspect is as guilty as charged hence the suspect must be kept in custody to psychologically bring him down before the court hearing begins. I do not believe in mental torture and anybody who wins me in a contest after mentally torturing me can never be regarded as my winner. All suspects should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise by a competent court of law.
When the citizens are no longer sure of the power of our judiciary, they will definitely not honour invitation by our security agents. One striking case is that of Tompolo. Our people say that it is only a tree that hears of its death and stands still. I am aware that Tompolo might have been following the different court injunctions/orders for the release of Nnamdi Kanu and Sambo Dasuki. When an arrest by our security agencies means life jail for the suspect, then citizens will be wary when invited. I will only believe that the fight against corruption has started when the scope of the investigation and arrest extends to APC members because if PDP is corrupt ( as they want us to believe ) then majority of the current APC members were once in the PDP and they must be probed too. Anything outside that to me amounts to vendetta.
In conclusion, for those blaming the past administration, Steven Graham said that excuses are the tools with which persons with no purpose in view build for themselves great monuments of nothing. For those who are on a revenge mission, Francis Bacon stated that a man that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. In the same vein, Frank Sinatra stated that the best revenge is massive success. We, the objective political analysts, cannot easily be hoodwinked along with the citizenry since we know that most politicians follow Napoleon’s principle of placing their iron hands inside velvet gloves.
John wrote in from Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
