Tuface Rally: Genuine Or Counterfeit By Goke Butika

I am in support of the Tuface led rally against President Muhammadu Buhari administration, for Nigeria cannot continue to remain stagnant just because we should display unalloyed love to a man with Spartan discipline. A leader must be morally upright, but it takes more than morality to govern a nation that is as complex as Nigeria. The rally is timely and needed if and only if…

Tuface Idibia

Of course, Nigeria was in bad shape when the former President, Goodluck Jonathan relinquished power, and it was obvious that the nation had been badly looted before President Muhammadu Buhari took over the mantle of leadership in 2015, but it is disheartening to see the country that was craving desperately for change in all motion without movement.

The ecstasy that trailed the defeat of Jonathan and ascendancy of Buhari was very sprawling. The poor were celebrating because, they were subjected to untold oppression by the hat-wielding clueless leadership; the disadvantaged fed themselves with hope as breakfast; the unpaid workers breathed in on the fresh air the change of power brought along; students thought they would now have value for their time and money in schools. For months, it was the joy of having a new Sherriff in town.

Unfortunately, Buhari who appears as a moral figure together with his brilliant vice, Yemi Osinbajo, whose priestly honesty is not in doubt came at a time their job could not be envied. Nigerians were earnestly expecting much delivery; people wanted to sacrifice to make the nation work; workers were ready to wait; the poor and unemployed were bidding for time to realize their potentials. Nigerians waited patiently for action, but the hope which was served as a breakfast is fast becoming a bad dinner, and the elasticity of the patience of the people is getting to the limit of its stretch.

I know as much as anyone who reasons from his head not anus, that being a moral figure does not automatically lead to prosperity of a nation, and for any President or governor to succeed in governance in 21st century, such a leader needs a long table with people who are compliant with the demands of 21st century. It is not a rocket science, let a man who has requisite qualification with impeccable character man Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), he would work out modalities to use for the stability of the foreign exchange; using the same mono product Lamido Sanusi used to do the yeoman job, but Emefiele appointed by Jonathan does not belong to that class, he is a Bureaucrat in banking sector who only knows how to fix and withdraw forex. Unfortunately, Buhari is too archaic to know the modern economies.

Our leaders do not read. If my President had read Adams Smith’s Wealth of Nation, he would have shown Emefiele the back door for long. Another disaster was that the President assembled some individuals who had bankrupted their states with inexhaustible greed and misapplication of priorities as Ministers, and that was after the nation had been kept waiting for the news of the new breed. I foreclosed any possibility of positive change immediately I saw the names of tired hands Buhari hired. To the best of my knowledge, it was a misstep that threw his government off balance.

Agree the nation is foisted with “feeding bottle” federalism, where all states must go to Abuja cap in hand every month, but it beholds on any thinking governor to know that there is a lesser honour in beggarly allocation. For whoever chooses to run for the seat of the governor, it is expected that such an individual should first figure out how funds to execute his promises should be unearthed. Is it not stupid to attribute non-performance or poor delivery to dearth of allocation from Abuja? But that is the music on the lips of our governors today.

In Nigeria, we have learnt how to celebrate electioneering campaign with fanfare, but we have not understood how to deliver on promises using “bottom-up” approach, where the very people we want to govern would be at the centre of the government programmes. Quite pathetic, the poorest of the poor, the rejected and the oppressed who wield only one power-vote, have still not realized how to use it, rather they would be looking for another set of rich men who would give them money for insalubrious soup in exchange for their votes in the next election.

So, the problem with Nigeria is a collective wreck, and it takes a concerted effort to retrieve this nation from the cliff of poverty and crime, because it takes two to tango. For the reason stated above, let the Tuface led mass protest hold; let some experts in economy speak there; let the selfless youth and the genuine activists speak; and let others with moral ground address the rally, but if people like Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state or chieftains of any political party raise their hands, then it would not be recognized as genuine protest, but carnival of sort.

Goke Butika

Butika writes from Austin, Texas, USA