I lost my vote for Buhari

Were I to be Nostradamus or one who was capable of reading the akarshic record of the universe, I would have known clearly that a vote for Buhari during that election for the second term was going to be wasted, whether counted or not.

I waited endlessly taking refuge under the scorching sun at Abadina Quarters University of Ibadan to vote for General Mohammed Buhari for this second term in office as president of Nigeria. I thought that his propensity for redivicism would be wittily and practically reviewed manifesting with radiant empirical power.

I thought that the flame was there! While about to vote, I murmured surreptitiously that he would dramatically arise with a flame which would lighten our darkness. I was wrong and now am wrong! I have waited for this political drama or melodrama to occur but I am seeing that I am waiting in vain. If anyone shall be a president, any president of any country and he cannot do anything dramatic within the one hundred days in office, the rest of the term, whether five or ten years would be waited years. All his first appointments in the beginning of his second term were heavily loaded in favour of the north and there was no improvement in so many of the subsequent ones like no other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Many opinions have been expressed against this action by Nigerians including condemnations from the progressive and forthcoming northerners.

I see and hear many names in appointments like no more Yoruba in Nigeria again, I am bitter on this. One of the grievous sins of General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguyi Ironsi in 1966 was the issue of ethnic appointments including the elimination of regionalism by decree 34 of 1966. He in his own case operated unitarism and totalitarian centralism. I offered vivid description of the scenario in the 1000 page Power Dynamic and Social Integration. There is utter exclusivism and there is obvious segmentations which are implementing this subjective conditions.

The tactical actions of the president should abolish the segregations. One is either from the ethnic nationality that is in power or deprived from accessing the good things which the country should give to the citizens. That is why it is always fight to finish when to elect the president. Ministers use their next of kin as personal assistant to work under strict instructions.

Fighting corruption and other hidden and the ones in public glare need some personal actions from the president.

President Buhari should ensure that if any food is provided in the state house, it must be from his salaries. If anybody would stay long in the Aso-Villa, he should eat at home before coming there. He would not prepare the food for the poor of the country. The food is for the elite. Rather, he should make research based provisions for the poor of the county not provisions which are lopsidedly politicized and refusing to eat his own food until the last poor man in the country is fed. He should remove the generating sets in the state house and forcing all agencies of government including the ministers not to use generators. When everybody is in darkness, those concerned shall be forced to give the nation the power it needs.

The chronological incompetence of the state will encourage revolution and secession. The integument of state power is being gradually allowed to burst and if revolution is not feasible because of the complex nature of the country, secession may triumph in the end. Consolidating the political integuments is not about winning elections by violent actions.

It is about a deep rooted political research which is able to stand the test of time: Nature provided snail the shell so that it shall be able to live; hair is provided on human head so that man is not too scorched by the sun; the horse has hoofs so that the legs will be protected; nails are covering the fingers and toes; When one is to talk about a serious political issue the Nigerian politician is not ready because he is not ready for truth. That is why Nigeria is unable to produce great statesmen. The new social order which caters for the citizens is urgently required and the president is still unable to do this. If some infrastructure is being provided, the inherent political contradictions must be removed.

There are fundamental inadequacies. They are subjective conditions. To operate objective conditions is not the function of a political demagogue. Political wizardry is expedient. I always remember the fault in the five point mistakes made by the president of the presidium in the old Soviet Union, President Leonid Brezhnev: meeting force with force. His mistakes accelerated the dissolution of the Soviet Union 1991. Who are those sharing the security votes? The process should be tactically reviewed.

Dissuade the national assembly from taking salaries but allowances. The body language of the president should discourage the receipt of any form of gratifications from overzealous public servants and contractors. There should be the wisdom to end the boko haram insurgence. It is too prolonged. If the present crop of rulers and the military were the ones who fought against the secessionist in 1967 to 1970 Nigeria would be no more.

There are so many things missing and that is why the country is where it is today. Some evil propagandists have insisted that the president should continue to borrow until Nigeria will be recolonized for failing to pay her debts. The fund in Nigeria is still too much than we need. Very few people are having access to this mountain of fund. The president is certainly not providing the highly skilled and witty political leadership which is able to alter the aberrations. Unfortunately, to advise the president one must be in club of the chosen elite.

Osunbote, former Secretary General, NIPR.