By Jude Ndukwe
General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, must be a rare genius in a class of his own.
A man who tenaciously pursued his ambition of ruling Nigeria till he eventually became president after failing three times, must be acknowledged and saluted.
His love for this country is so great that he would not give up on his ambition to lead Nigeria out of the woods, from the proverbial Egypt to the biblical Promised Land. He is a great example to those who are wont to easily give up on their ambitions at the slightest obstacle or challenge.
That is why I have chosen to stand with Buhari!
I choose to stand with Buhari because of the way he was able to cajole a good number of Nigerians to vote him into office despite alleged deficiencies in leadership and anti-democratic credentials arising from when he was military Head-of-State.
I choose to stand with Buhari because just like the chichidodo bird (apologies to Ayi Kwei Armah) that hates faeces yet feeds on maggots, Buhari’s main campaign issue was to fight corruption to a standstill, and he is living up to that billing because right before him, 10 months after he was sworn in as president, Nigeria’s corruption rating has hit an all-time high, no thanks to the padded and fraud-ridden 2016 budget that was signed and personally presented by the retired General himself and has just been passed by the National Assembly.
I stand with Buhari because that budget is, indeed, a budget of ‘Change’ as gleefully explained by Mr President to the National Assembly on the day of presentation. It was a budget that had fraudulent, frivolous, repeated and non-existent proposed expenses to the tune of about N668bn as signed, sealed and presented by the president himself.
The National Assembly passed the budget after removing about N17bn from the N668bn fraudulently inserted into the budget with an undeclared instruction to the executive to “go and sin no more”. Never in the history of our nation have we ever heard the term “budget padding” until this era of “change”. Even the president himself alluded to this fact. Only geniuses are pacesetters. Our president is a pacesetter, reason I stand with him.
I stand with Buhari because he inherited about 5,000 megawatts of power from the previous administration but just 10 months after assuming office, power has dropped drastically and hovers around 2,000 megawatts while darkness has risen sharply in geometric progression up to 10,000 megawatts.
Rather than measure power, we now measure darkness in megawatts, no thanks to Buhari, APC and their “change” agenda.
I stand with Buhari because no other president in the world knows how best to reward those who were gullible enough to vote for him despite his obvious bogus and unrealistic campaign promises than him.
The best reward for such people is to make them sleep endlessly at the filling station while waiting to buy fuel that would never come.
Even the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has since waved the white flag over the fuel scarcity issue saying the federal government has no idea about how to find a quick solution to the problem.
I choose to stand with Buhari and I have no regrets about my decision because in the history of our nation, no president has ever seen the naira fall so helplessly like it is doing right under Mr President. At N325/$1 and with the possibilities of further slide, our economy is surely growing stronger! Sai Baba! I stand with Buhari because since he came to power, all the elections conducted have been inconclusive.
Our president is so ingenious that we shall be having reruns of reruns in Rivers State. Never in the history of our modern democracy have we had that.
While Jonathan oversaw elections that were largely peaceful even at the highest levels, conceded defeat without rancor and handed over quietly, elections conducted under President Buhari, even at State House of Assembly level, have witnessed avoidable bloodshed, militarization of the process, compromise of INEC officials and continued inconclusiveness.
Surely, Buhari is growing our democracy. I still choose to stand with Buhari because under him, food prices have gone up, jobs have been lost in droves, the judiciary is intimidated and harassed, citizens’ rights are arbitrarily abridged and abused outright, dissenting voices are hounded, innocent and defenceless citizens are mowed down by security agents especially as it was in the case of IPOB members at Aba and Shiite Muslims at Zaria; Fulani herdsmen have become audacious in their wiping off of communities and occupying such without resistance or challenge by security agents. In fact, to borrow the lyrics of a popular Nigerian musician, “Nigeria scatter scatter”.
These are the lofty reasons why patriotic Nigerians and I have decided to stand with Buhari, and we shall remain standing with him!
Ndukwe, a political commentator, writes from Abuja via jrndukwe@yahoo.co.uk Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Nice piece. Sai Baba! Nigeria is sending man to the space. The height of cluelessness incompetent and dry joke. Jesters.
ReplyDeleteJude Ndukwe, your write up is not an intellectual piece for you have only highlighted the issues of the day but undermining Buhari's stride. Only fools will expect the strengthening of Naira in the face of the present oil value. Besides the official Naira rate has remained unchanged since the president resumed office, he has refuse to devalue our currency by 10kobo. The forces responsible for exchange at the parallel market links up directly with the economic culture the current government inherited and not her making. Nigerians in civil service have been responsible for budget paddling and not the buhari government; if you have evidence to the contrary come up with it. Yes, we have power issue but is it true its only 2000mw Nigeria has been using since May 29, 2015? Inconclusive elections in Rivers was since the days of Jonathan. The leaked audio of Fayose's election is there, you didn't mention it, now you come up with pretence and seeking cheap popularity with your weightless piece. The present administration may not have gotten it right completely but it's far better than the previous one even in the face of the current hardship. Its always darkest before dawn. You never wrote about the success in fighting boko haram, you were mute about Dasuki, mute about the revelations of deep financial mess that characterised the previous administration. My conclusion is thus, you have no intellectual capacity to judge the present administration. Long live Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your writeup.long live Nigeria
DeleteDamilola you said it all. Long live Nigeria
DeleteWhat do you expect from Igbocentric Biafran propagandist? They have never their disdain for Buhari and will never see anything good in him. The stealing and looting of our common resources is their main interest hence they applauded GEJ in his journey to perdition the effects are the well articulated lamentations in the write up.
ReplyDeleteOnly a fool will put the blame on Buhari.
I am also impatient will the snail speed of Buhari's government and only hope he will start doing something with the funds locked up in CBN's vault.
I'm also not impressed with the Economic Retreat, that certainly was not what Soyinka was canvassing for. We expect Buhari to put together technocrats, Economic Profs, selected members of his cabinet and representatives of professional bodies.
Not rabble rouser like Fayose and other misguided pretenders.
I agree with you we should always try and balance the truth
ReplyDeleteThanks, @Mr. Damilola Olawunmi for yourr replied to that Jude ndukwe. EFCC will soon visit all of them
ReplyDeleteThanks, @Mr. Damilola Olawunmi for yourr replied to that Jude ndukwe. EFCC will soon visit all of them
ReplyDeletePls pls pls, I want GEJ back as president bcos d sole-called buhari I voted for is a set back. How can u so far so good recovered billions in hard-earned currency and 9ja is still like dis. No light, no fuel, for god's sake am frustrated even black market is no where to be found. BUHARI is just saving all dis recovered money for the next-available thief(next president). In my village when dias generous donation for a project, dey execute it immediately not a day after. Buhari has recovered unbelievable amount of money to turn nigeria into a paradise without touching d nations account and still dis ape refuses to execute wat my last born has d sense to do. Am highly disappointed in both myself and d ape I voted for. D worst part of it all is, if buhari cannot do d job, mark my word nobody can do it bcos even the unborn child who will b d president of nigeria is a thief.
ReplyDeleteAre you surprise @ damilola? Most of the criticism he gets are from south east people.I have always thought that they have been marginalised and deserve to have the presidency zoned to their area as well.Inlight of what has been happening after jonathan left office,nigerians will be stupid to elect a president from that area.The biafra issue would've been valid during jonathan's administration but they were quiet until we elected an hausa man.They are very tribalistic and are filled with a lot of hatred that needs to dissipate.With that being said,they are one of the most illustrious and good hearted ppl if they can get over this hatred that have for the other tribes.This people clamouring for biafra has some more damage to their cause than they realise.With all the chaos from the biafra issue,they need to realise that it will make all d other tines nervous in a general election and thus make d majority vote for someone else.Democracy is a game of number and not sentiment.To win a general election in nigeria,u will need to win the north and south west by virtue of them having the most local government and numbers.The last election was a good example,the south east and south south voted for Gej but he still lost.it is time they let go of the hatred for the interest of our nation
ReplyDeleteDamilola! thanks for your factual and intellectual rejoinder to this ndukwe's bias write up. Most people already know that you can't expect any good statement from all this 'BIAFRAUD' about Buhari because they are always non-factual, sentimental, greedy, senseless and close their eyes to any positive change achieved by Buhari's administration. This is simply because of their fake and greedy demand of their so called BIAFRAUD perpetrated by some selfish and evil set of igbos. As you have said Damilola, if only he has mention a single positive change this Buhari's administration has done as you have gracefully highlighted then he may be fair. Now everyone can sleep peacefully overnight (Thanks to GOD and credits to Buhari) so they can say rubbish to suit their selfish interest? hope they can at least remember the ugly and bloody days of Jonathan when Nigerians wake up to experience gruesome multitude death from the hands of deadly boko haram and all the heartless Jonathan keep saying was 'bringing culprit to book while his administrations was the culprit. Then Nigerians were only thinking about survival and safety in public places every blessed day. Alot to say but no time..... This set of greedy igbos (not including the good and right thinking igbos) can not detect for any president or Nigeria as a country as long as Nigeria is still Nigeria. They should go create BIAFRAUD country in no man's land because Nigeria was created as Nigeria not Oduduwa, Arewa, Eastern or Southern region independently. James from Abuja!
ReplyDeleteIt is a pity that some Nigerians become intellectual and starg writing all sorts of articles when stolen money stops entering their pockets. Shame on this writer, you better leave Abuja and return to your village because even the padded portions of the budget will not reach any of you. Buhari will only release what can be accounted for and the nation will end up saving money so all this noise about padded budget is just noise.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the average Igbo man does not see anything good in Buhari and would always be antagonistic to him and his government. The good thing is he doesn't even have the time for their bellyaching. The rest of Nigeria is behind him and would continue to support him. For all we care you can go and jump into the lagoon and keep weeping for the ``ineffectual buffoon'', Jonathan. We await the time when an Igbo man will present himself for the office of the President of this country and we would come out and show you that for your intolerance of others you will not be deserving of that office. Bunch of clowns.
ReplyDeleteBuhari is a static illiterate with good intentions to take nigeria to d next level but he lacks d common sense nigeria needs to transform. Buhari shud nt save d looted/recovered money for d next available thief(next president). He shud use every penny of it and develop nigeria esp d power sector. If possible only d power sector.
ReplyDelete