Few years ago, Nigeria witnessed transition in power at the central government from the erstwhile Goodluck Jonathan of the then ruling political party to a newly conglomerated party of Muhammdu Buhari, now the ruling party.
The Buhari administration assumed the helm of power like a pack of hounds, descended on the ousted one, with the aim of tearing its flesh into pieces. It would be simply connoted as a ‘blame game’ over the past years of Buhari’s reign
Afterward the uncommon transition that Nigerians experienced, an account of the transition has been set forth by one major player in the transition voyage. It was on Tuesday, November 20 that the former President Jonathan blatantly exhibited a book embellished with the account of his actions and inactions towards the transition of power. He titled; “My Transition Hours”
At the launch of this book, personalities gathered from the walks of African countries in Transcorp Hilton, Abuja to dart the book to the public domain.
I was privileged to order and get this book of accounts some hours after the public presentation as a concerned Nigerian full of burning desire not to be oblivious of the saga behind the tortuous transition moment.
Swiftly so as not to make this lengthy, the spat by Jonathan premised on his claims that five canons exited him from office, of which those tripodal issues of Boko Haram, fuel subsidy dilemma, Chibok girls, he was perceived at the sight of power couched as cluelessness and a fifth, his estimated inability to stop the drift of massive corruption – in view of the stealing is not corruption in his government. Indeed, all these contributed to his exit.
Fiam! The clueless leader of the most populous nation in the black race has been ousted but a worrisome quest sets in, if in all senses of reality we admit that those five canons were the scourge that led to the transitional shift in power as at when the electorates spew, has the newly substitution in Buhari effectively fixed the five lashes laced on Jonathan?
Mean while, the rhetorics would have been different If Jonathan had won the second term bid, Nigerians would have been unable to measure or stretch a yard stick for the worthwhileness of the changeover in government.
Jonathan in his ‘transitional hours’, confessedly spew that the insurgency contributed hugely to his exit, and barely a year into the new administration, Lai Mohammed, the government’s propagandist, kindled the oil of the propaganda by stating that the insurgents had almost been totally decimated.
In as much as this piece is handicapped with statistics of casualties during the era of the former and the present, but it’s evident insurgency still maintains a major threat in the North eastern part of the nation. As Boko Haram terrorists launched attack even just before the end if the book presentation on 157 Task Force Battalion in Borno State where they killed many soldiers. The pastoralists and farmers clash in the North Central part of the country also lingers.
Howbeit, winning the war is however not an easy matter. Asymmetrical warfare is very difficult to win because the insurgents can hide and strike almost at will. Winning the war is virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place. This, the present government fails to admit.
Ex-President affirmed that his initial perspective of insurgency and the abduction of school girls centered around the Northern elites who were against his administration because he’s from the minority part of the nation, he didn’t believe initially that hundreds of schoolgirls were kidnapped from Chibok. He admitted it took a while before the reality dawned on him to take action. This, undisputedly cemented claims of his cluelessness in government, which the Buhari propagandist rode on to secure votes against him. Though he dished out vast reasons/facts to back his claims in the fourth chapter.
Meanwhile, in a similar manner as counterpoise to the present administration, Dapchie girls were also kidnapped by the insurgents under the new administration that preached vigorously against this abduction to gain public apathy in the 2015 race. Just before you raise an argument that Dapchie school girls were freed, you’re aware that just a fraction of the Dapchie girls were released, the whole world knows this.
As regards the fuel subsidy dilemma, this also maintained the front burner that undergirded Jonathan’s government. However the dimensions of fuel subsidy drama under the Buhari government has sprung to be a cankerworm which has risen to N2.4 billion daily in May, from N774 million in March, 2018. Isn’t this legendary?
On cluelessness allegations, one must have been expecting a transitional shift of leader to one who is well focused and has the manifest capacity that can get our create jobs for our teeming youth and women, improve the quality of our education and other welfare amenities, deliver quality infrastructure, not just on paper but on the ground, and address the security situation with the political courage required, instead of this sentimental approach that has given the terrorists and herdsmen the upper hand in their killing spree.
One expects a president who will tackle the issue of power generation and distribution, and sanitize all the forty plus sectors. Just imagine cluelessness of the highest order. So, I realised that Jonathan’s nimbleness does not mentally translate to understand the enormity of governmental power, but for, Buhari is not only mentally incapable to understand power, he is too weak and decapitated to turn things around.
Nonetheless, this is not in any way to contribute to the ongoing hustings by politicians ahead of the election but to set the records straight by tendering quest that should we have ‘Jonathan’ed the past to witness this ongoing ‘Buhari’fying moment?
Written by a journalist manqué and public coverage commentator.
