Who is afraid of Babangida, Obasanjo, Saraki?, by Taju Tijani

Nigeria is a constellation of wonder. A wonder that keeps invoking emotions of anxiety, anger, mass brutalisation, bastardisation, confusion, disorder, sadness, loss, stupidity, hopelessness and regret. An unknown philosopher once said: “When truth is kindled within, its brightness soon beams forth in the outward life and in our conversation.” Truth may injure the teller, the hearer and the person concerning whom the truth is told. Therefore, if truth telling can relight a healthy conversation of the proper state of play in Nigeria, why then do we allow hypocrisy to take center stage in our national life? Who is afraid of Muhammadu Buhari, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki or a dunce called Ayo Fayose?
Today, we have to say it as it is and tell truth to power. Before I purify today’s discourse, let me hang my thought on this: To be or not to be that is the question. I will also add that to say or not to say that is not the question. We have to say and say it loud – on the mountains, across the Lagos lagoon, the Niger River and Victoria Island Atlantic beaches. We live in the millennia of open freedom, open discussion and open rebuke. We live a universe of social media quake where every questionable integrity has to be fairly judged and sanctioned. We have to take note of social media deviation of fake news that is fast corroding truth and reducing important issues to triviality and shenanigans.
Within the contested field of today’s politics in Nigeria, one can fairly say without any hint of contradiction that all the present and recycled actors from the dawn of independence till date have failed the people of Nigeria. Politics in Nigeria has always contained the essential ingredients of Shakespearean drama: murderous lust for power, backstabbing, impunity, rivalry, blackmail, jealousy, tribal permutations and godfatherism.
Ex-dictator and ex-military president of Nigeria General Babangida ruffled the already tottering pillars of the administration of President Buhari few days ago by calling on him to resign or step aside. The Niger State bulldog and the acclaimed Maradona of Nigeria’s politics wants youthful Generation-X aspirants to shape Nigeria’s future destiny. He is sick and tired of seeing geriatrics in the saddle of governance in Nigeria. Babangida should shut up and enjoy his retirement in peace in the fortified mansion on the rock in Minna. He is the thief who allowed the extension of an aggressively voracious stealing of national wealth into our politics.
Babangida once pushed the pendulum of political betrayal to the extreme, when, in June 2012, he ignominiously annulled the legitimate victory of Bashorun MKO Abiola as the elected president of Nigeria. This singular act of democratic poison has continued to darken Nigeria’s democracy till today. He presided over a Gestapo kind of government that assassinated Dele Giwa, the Newswatch editor. He mocked good governance and reduced the canon of democracy to settlement. So, who is Babangida to tell Buhari to step aside? What can an average Nigerian remember him for? Hmmm….you are scratching your head.
I wrote on Obasanjo’s insane vocalization of his selfish, holier-than-thou attitude last week. His 18-page epistolary sortie into the public domain was meant to disgrace, destroy and decapitate the integrity and administration of President Buhari. The letter was the height of prideful presumption. Obasanjo loves the limelight. He loves to hug the fast lane. He is the shameless and ubiquitous purveyor of manifold heresies, morphing ever lower as he drifts further and further from the safe anchor of political respectability, statesmanship and wisdom. He was a leading actor of the discredited People Democratic Party, the party that bankrupted Nigeria through 16 years of mindless corruption and insane looting of national wealth.
Obasanjo is a manipulating and crafty old man completely ill-equipped morally to make pronouncements on the affairs of Nigeria. He has been tried, tested, dusted and dumbed into the dustbin of history as one of Nigeria’s villains, whose deviant political orthodoxy of ‘do or die’ into our democracy, has made Nigeria a hostage to this philosophy since.
In Nigeria, politics is becoming a clash of convictions. We all know that we have dotards, rogues and unpatriotic politicians all over Abuja, that land of demonic defilement. Nigeria’s digitalized politicians have a disproportionate prejudice for opulent living: prestige cars, billion naira mansions, private jets, foreign homes, empty pomp, sexual orgies and blissful philandering. They all desire to continue to satisfy the narrow agenda of tiny elites than accede to the nobler dream of creating a prosperous, equal and progressive Nigeria.
Enter Saraki, the self-acclaimed president of the Nigerian Senate. Anytime I see this guy on that desecrated chair, my blood boils. What form of obsolete political formula made this sly, crafty and profoundly ambitious man the number three man in Nigeria’s hierarchy of power structure? This urchin of the feudal, aristocratic dynasty of the Sarakis of Ilorin is a desperado. He is currently and cunningly carving up and inhabiting a grey area between ambition, desperation, patriotism and betrayal. Today, scattered across the National Assembly are cheerleaders egging on Saraki to become the president of Nigeria.
Here, let me urge all Nigerians to use the relational nature of both the social media and global space to deny Saraki from being made president of Nigeria now, soon or in the future. This feisty ratty politician first cornered Kwara State and bankrupted the state and later colonized the National Assembly as a self-acclaimed president of zombies whose talent for stealing is unequal in the universe.
As I write, Dino Melaye, the dancing clown of “ajekun iya”, is pushing a dangerous agenda to make Saraki Nigeria’s next president. In the whammy silliness is Ben Murray-Bruce, the foreigner who is pretending to be a Negro by the force of being born in Nigeria. We must ensure that Saraki is the test of our resolve to cut off all the remnants of elites from our polity. We need a permanent and complete shift from our tragic system of sustaining few elites to the great exclusion and extinction of over 180 million capable, honest, patriotic and integrity-driven Nigerians. It amuses me when I see and observe a tiny, greedy, myopic, fear-driven idiots orate publicly as if Nigeria is their own commodity.
Yes, Saraki is begging to return to PDP……Hmmmm!!! If that is not the mark of a man who is totally lost in the index of integrity, tell me who he is. I have said it as it should be said.
. Tijani writes from tajutijani@hotmail.com and can be reached by sms at: +447424701166.