Determination.
Sheer determination!
Though he was not poor; he was not rich either. He has one head, like everybody else. But where others worked hard to keep their cheek rounder and their pot-bellies bigger, he was contented to keep the tiny tummy he has. The Daura-born General had only one treasured possession: Spartan discipline: and upon this he built his gut, incorrigibility and uncompromising dedication!
The APC Backbenchers: Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (middle) flanked by former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku (Right) and Dr. Danjumah Dabo
Like Abraham Lincoln, he had lost every election he contested; like Abraham Lincoln he kept his head unbowed; and as a converted democrat, he rushed, each time to court, seeking redress; but again each time returning home, with a black eye. No wonder everybody believes that the judiciary under this man would not only be more vibrant, but also more dynamic and discipline!
“I belong to everybody and, I belong to nobody!” he told the world shortly after he was sworn in as President, Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29th, 2015; affirming what everybody knows to be true. He could not be a boot-licker, a rubber stamp or anyone’s errand boy and still retain his sanity, his vision or his altruism. Of course, he was independently minded, or how else could he have retired as a Head of State, and Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces; and all he could show for his effort, was Only two houses: one in Daura, his country home and the second in Kaduna.
He had no house in Abuja. He kept coming to campaign in Abuja from his Kaduna home, until a wealthy “good Samaritan” assisted him with some space in Abuja on temporary arrangement. For Buhari, life was nothing but an opportunity to demonstrate discipline. For Buhari, life could also remain, forever like that as well, but for one factor:
The masses, one by one were coming to realize that the country had stopped ‘spoiling’. The country had finished ‘spoiling’. The country had begun to ‘decay’! Light had disappeared; having been hijacked by generator cabal. So, everybody- individual or corporate was running on generating plants.
The health sector went under, having been hijacked by Health Contractors, who ensured that only those who could afford to fly into India, Germany, Dubai, Egypt or Saudi Arabia got noteworthy health attention.
The masses major mode of transportation, the railways was sabotaged, with new co-join vehicles cabal emerging. Overnight, the NUP-PENG and PENGASSAN became a group which, when they sneeze, the Government catches cold, while the individual Nigerians scrambled on ‘panicky-buying’ of petroleum products..
The decay finally moved into the agricultural sector, laid waste the weak platform the institutional incentives was supposed to build. Tastes changed as food cabal took over, hooking the citizens palate to rice from Thailand, India; and fish from Finland, Sweeden, etc.
Subsequently, the purchase of cars, even 17 year old fairly used (tokunboh) came to symbolize a mark of prosperity or ‘arrival’ marked by Special thanksgivings in Churches and Mosques.
The Super-rich, being the pace setters, in gleeful show of ‘class’ quickly went into massive acquisition of private jets, highlighted by several congratulatory advert placement in national newspapers and televisions!
Sadly, those who should guide the nation had lost the vision. At a point, they even publicly campaigned for Vision 2010, forgetting that a 2010 vision could not in any way be a perfect vision. The Centre had caved in; and no one needed a PhD or a Chinua Achebe to know that things would naturally, consequently fall apart!
Meanwhile, things deteriorated fast. The infrastructural ruins therefore, began to decay.
A young girl asked her father, “How good, was the good old days?”
The father smiled ruefully; and recalled that in 1973, when the Naira was born and in diapers, so as to replace the Pound Sterling, its babyish value was N2 to a Great Britain 1Pound. The Naira grew teeth, yet even, with milk dentition in 1985, at the beginning of Babangida’s reign, yet it was still so strong that, a US$ was a mere 90 Kobo!
The father went further: “Few years earlier, Malaysia, a country which secured independence on August 31, 1957, also from the same British people like us, was so proud of Nigeria, particularly our country’s sense of industry, acumen and diligence, that its people came here to beg for a few palm nuts and a few untutored farmers to go with them, to teach them how to plant and manage the palms. They were absolutely enamoured by our palm oil, palm kernel industry.
“Today, one US $ is about N205 and the Great British Pound is over N350. Today,, we are monthly importing ship-loads of palm oil from Malaysia!” The little girl was shocked.
“Daddy, are you saying we have gone more than 200 steps backwards?”
The father answered in the affirmative. The little girl was stupefied.
“Dad, from Babangida till date, who were our Ministers of Finance? I know only of Okonjo Iweala…”.
The questions were getting trickier, even from a little kid. The father told her: “Nneka, did you say you know of Okonjo Iweala? Then, don’t worry. If you know of Okonjo Iweala, you have known all of them dear!”, the father said, concluding that “All of them went to same school of financial logic like Okonjo Iweala. So, you already know all of them!”
But as the ruins stared the masses in the face, one thing became unmistakable: discipline was conspicuously lacking; and this was one trait that Buhari, abundantly possessed!
The rest is history!
We would miss Jonathan!
Chances are now higher, that we may soon have light. And may soon forget the agony of sleeping under the noise of generating plants, The citizens may also have better roads, an improved GSM services and a more secured environment.
In return, the citizens would be expected to forfeit the freedom to urinate anywhere, anytime, anyhow…
So, how long would it take, before we begin to complain on the rigour of having to queue for everything, in every place, and at everytime?
We have endured pains. The pains, that comes, from the reality of doing nothings. But Buhari, if we know his antecedent, pedigree, would task all of us, to go productive; to do something; and that is when our cacophonous complaints would become deafening!
We are Nigerians. We love freedom. A freedom that only a clueless government foisted.
Change is permanent. Jonathan has gone. And also, the freedom for everyone to do nothing. To go to work and do nothing. And sometimes, not to even go to work at all, because, nobody would do anything about it.
We blame NEPA or Power Holden Company of Nigeria (PHCN) for not working. But the culture was that nobody works. So, we brought in light contractors, called distribution agents. Expectedly, they too, did nothing. If the top, the leaderships did nothings, why would the followers do something?
Annointing after all, flows from the top!
Bye bye Jonathan. We will miss U.
Welcome President Buhari! But, how much do we have to pay, now that basic things are set, to properly work?!
