The Minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, is obviously an empirical reason why it is sometime not wise to multi-task on certain aspect of information management. Once a person has been identified as a propaganda voice for a political party in opposition, the best you can do is to allow that person to remain the party’s spokesperson. This way, the parochial negative visions of the person will not contaminate the government in power, but instead remain an inheritance of the party to be used against other party platforms. Alhaji Mohammed has brought more hate to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration than any other minister in government since 2015.
What Alhaji Mohammed did effortlessly as a spokesman in opposition has turned against him now that he is in government. He was “perfect” as a propagandist but a loose cannon in government. Awarding best jollof rice to Senegal against his own country has further lowered perception over mentality of that man as government spokesman. It might be “common” jollof rice verdict, but that mirrors the ease with which Nigerian leaders toss away opportunities for other countries lesser than us to take the lead. It was shameful for his kind of person, disrespectful for hard working creative Nigerian cooks and disastrous for a minister who should be promoting our own culture.
Nigeria is a country so blessed with human and natural resources yet so cursed with leaders who have nothing to offer the country. One may blame our leadership recruitment system, which is largely based on democratic monarchy, but the 2015 transition of power saw the common man deciding his fate through the ballot against the tide of incumbency. Thank God we are gone past the era the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo acted god. According to Obasanjo, he brought late Umar Yar’adua. He said former President Goodluck Jonathan was a mistake, insisting: “He was too small to rule Nigeria.” He further added that he was not the first choice for a vice president. It is indeed clear how Nigeria has bumped blindly on its path to nationhood based on decision of one person or group of people with narrow and shallow understanding of what the country actually needs. Curiously, this government is the “peoples” government and yet the same people who ruined Nigeria are still in government with shallow understanding of true leadership fashioned to accommodate our multiplicity. It is not yet uhuru for Nigerians. Our leaders are yet to get cure for their limited understanding of leadership.
Back to the position whether or not it has been uhuru for Nigeria since the All Progressive Congress took over the mantle of leadership in 2015. The answer is certainly a no. It is true the war against corruption, recovery of proceeds of corruption is on going with traceable impact against people largely in the opposition. The well being of Nigerians has crashed all time low on account of faulty policies and programmes of public officials, poor choice of leaders and their ethnic based ideas. Sadly, in their blind rage the masses voted in anger against the Peoples Democratic Party to usher incompetent, corrupt, vindictive politicians.
More than two years down the ladder of incredulous gaffes in less than strategic economic decisions that plunged Nigeria into depression, price of petrol was increased by 67 per cent, between 2015 to 2017 the naira lost its value by 70 per cent, unemployment rose from 6.5 to 26 per cent. Despite the woeful strides of the “peoples” administration, many Nigerians continue to offer excuses for them. Each time government or the die hard loyalists of the administration find reasons to invoke the former President Jonathan administration to hang for the failings of the Buhari government. The reality is that Nigerians unknowingly voted for a group of leaders with nothing to offer but vengeance, hate, while we applaud in error thinking the war on corruption is people based.
In the midst of all the blunderings of the present administration, former president Jonathan has suddenly found his voice; to challenge “tacit investigation of his family on corruption charges” and to “contest result of the 2015 presidential election” result. While it is sad that Jonathan has very poor advisers, it is indeed a sad case of the jollof rice mentality of our leaders to goof each time the dust seems to settle on their previous mistakes. Why am I not surprised about the former presidents recent audacity? The incumbent president is sick, weak, too frail to inflict the stings of anti-corruption venom at opposition leaders like Jonathan and his ilk. That is why many Nigerians want to know the health status of our president. The country need to know who is actually ruling, it is also important to know why some people are having “running mouth”. It was embarrassing but not unexpected for the embattled Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, to ask journalists “which presidency” when he was confronted with questions of his “sack”. The center is becoming weaker. We must address the situation before it spiral out of control with serious security implication.
.Ebije lives in Abuja and can be reached via ebije05@gmail.com.
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