It was almost a dissenting tone against the All Progressives Congress and its campaign of change on the floor of the Senate in the National Assembly on Thursday, January 28. It came as a shock, a rude awakening if you like, not because of the message but the bearer of the message. A voice so at odds with the ‘change’ mantra we’ve come to associate with President Muhhamadu Buhari and the APC that it has been described in some political circle as rebellious. But the message was loud, clear and simple. Things aren’t going according to script in the inner caucus and someone has finally decided to tell Nigerians what we, in fact, know and suspect given how a certain Lion of Bourdillion has relegated to the backwaters of the affairs of state by his political benefactor. And Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the wife of the Jagaban, the APC’s national leader, has given us a sneak preview.
What were her observations? She went vocal on no other subjects but those tied to the contentious 2016 budget. The budget that never went missing but got its details revised in the dark of the night and switched with an earlier document filled with some of the most outrageous proposals. Ones that proffer anything but change from a government that has made change its cardinal message. The same appropriation bill that was leisurely prepared, never recalled after its submission to the National Assembly but reportedly still being tidied by the administration as revealed by the Minister of Budget Udo Udoma to the National Economic Council last Thursday. Senator Tinubu veered into that controversial issue that no one else would want to be caught in between. And my God, she did deliver the message very well.
Coincidentally and unfortunately for the senator too, Information Minister Lai Mohammed, who served under her husband and has been under his political tutelage, on the same day was invoking curses on anyone, and everyone, that criticizes the social, political and economic stance of President Buhari’s administration. At the communion of Lai Mohammed with heads of media houses in Abuja, he told them that pseudo analysts like Senator Tinubu and some hack writers were on the prowl. Informing them that the ilk of the senator who disagree, criticize or condemn some of the current administration’s policies have been paid to disfigure the perfectly captured appropriation bill, a first of its kind for the Nigerian masses and to undermine the ongoing farce that its calls anti-corruption war against those accused of pilfering our commonwealth.
But I can relate with Senator Tinubu. She was venting out the frustrations that comes with being dumped especially having helped Buhari win the presidency that has eluded him for so long. She may not be acting or playing the script of anybody but those of the real change agents and of how transitions should look like. How the socio-politico economic metamorphosis should really be, real change. What they should admit, abhor and the elements that it should excommunicate from its tracts, warning against uncontrollable and obsessive liars who can’t differentiate between propaganda and public enlightenment and re-education.
As President Buhari’s administration progresses, there is need to accommodate and endear the spirit of listening, especially to all discerning voices for or against various steps of government programs to form balances. The dissenting, the critical and those in the king’s pantaloons of old and today’s noise makers. Recognizing the fact that from the clime where we copied democracy and other conventions, being a member of a party does not translate to subjugation of individual freedom of expression and rights to be heard on personal opinions or even disagreements against a party position or government policies. And also, it does not necessarily translate to animosity or enmity and consequent annihilation of members who share a contrary opinion or stance of the party on particular issues.
The same treatments should also play out in the case of the individuals who are non-partisan or partisan. They don’t need to be knocked off the bridges of life because of their position for or against the government of the day at any given time. It is unpopular to accuse, intimidate and threaten those who hold opposing views against a government by a supposedly information manager. The pronouncement and actions of such people hired by the government are held as laws by law enforcement agents to detain all opposition voices with impunity and unlawfully because they dare to speak their mind as a result of their observations.
Reading a report on the continued detention of a Kaduna State University lecturer over his opinion on Facebook while out of the country but quickly arrested on touching down at the airport in the country confirms a dictatorial trend against rights of expressions as embedded in the Nigerian constitution. A denigration on the supremacy of the constitution as it applies to the government and the individual. The many other cases left unreported could work against the image of this government as it continues the draconian suppression of contrary opinion and views of individuals and groups.
The contradiction is that each time these incidents occur, the leader is kept in the dark not really knowing the true picture of what’s being portrayed out there no matter how much he tries to X-ray the situations. Quick and effectual results have actually come from such criticisms though. Just while I was still on this piece the President in faraway Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, pledged to swiftly disburse funds for projects that are associated with the development of women and in giving and paying much attention to the women ministry and it’s suppose marginalization. That is power of constructive criticism. Senator Oluremi spoke and she was heard by the President but if she had not considered it a worthy observation there wouldn’t have been any mention of such from the executive arm of the government. President Buhari did not also call her names but accepted that there was an anomaly in that direction
Day in day out political aides paint terrible pictures about leaders, rewriting their interests and concerns towards the growth of the nation as against their personal interests that are geared towards self-aggrandizement through self-services. President Goodluck Jonathan was often mocked as clueless, was described recently as an “ineffectual buffoon” by the Economist magazine. And that’s due, 99 percent of the time to the actions and inactions of his aides while in office. Former dictator Sani Abacha was hoarded from the people by creating a scary environment despite his purported good intentions in a military regime. In the same vein late President Umar Yar’Adua was impressed on the people despite suffering a terminal illness. We all know how he was hidden away so his cronies help sway in extravagance while his reputation for prudence was tarnished beyond repair. At the end of it all, leader is responsible for everyone working for his administration. The buck stops at his table.
Such should not be the case in this instance of this administration of change. This government is a deviate from the past. The change era, giving reason to hold the leaders to their oath of office. To be fair to all, Christians, Muslims, Animists, party faithful and opposition members alike in the cause of executing their official duties as the elected for the masses.
Months after the presidential election was won and lost and a new government installed, the name calling has continued with people still turned against themselves on the created divides. Those who seem to study and understand the body language of the president like members of the now ‘directorate of shoe shiners’ make life unbearable for perceived enemies of the government. This is not supposed to be. Democracy allows the practice of human rights, upholding the principles of rule of law and not holding people captive or denying them certain privileges because they say their mind or informally advice the government against any of its policies that may be unpopular to the people.
If the president had held staff of the department of states services in contempt over their role during the build up to last year’s presidential elections, such attitude on which he held them in disrepute should not be accommodated while he is in the saddle of leadership. That is what governance is all about. It’s about re- assessments, stocktaking, accommodation, equity and not intimidation, partiality, eye service, shoe shining and other diminutive role of name calling being carried out by those with bigger assignments of strategizing and drawing up policies with about 40 billion naira in their control and their collaborators who cannot stop harassing writers and analysts on the pretense that the regime has relapsed into a draconian rule.
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