Five monsters orbited around the dark universe of the doomed Goodluck Jonathan administration. The monsters were corruption, impotence, indifference, arrogance and wastefulness, all symbolising the five fingers of a leprous hand. From its outset in 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party left no one in doubt about where it stood on corruption as several retiring rogue military generals shed their dollar-strewn khakis and transmuted into sparkling white umbrella-dotted agbada amid mischievous winks and conspiratory grins, belching, “Nigeria na we own.”
The PDP was corrupt; it spent billions of dollars on invisible power supply during the eight years of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo hypocrisy rule. A few years later, mouths flung agape in shock when the son of a fisherman, Goodluck Jonathan, cuddled, kissed and defended corruption openly, saying, “Stealing is not corruption.” Overnight, Jonathan’s civil servant wife, Patience, became the richest known first lady in the history of the country, pleading an out-of-court ‘amicable resolution of all cases’ filed against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which accused her of fraudulent personal enrichment to the tune of $50m, excluding her enormous real estate wealth.
The PDP was arrogant, boasting of its willingness to lord it over Nigeria for 60 years. The PDP was impotent, snoring when Boko Haram broke the peace of the night and carted away over 120 innocent Chibok schoolgirls in a region where education acquisition is a miracle. The PDP was awful, but it never pretended. The PDP was the merciless witch popularly called Iya Osoronga, that devours the brains of its prey through the arm, and gobbles the innards with bizarre beaks and sinister talons, leaving telltales of sorrow, tears and blood. That was the PDP, the monster.
When on March 31, 2015, the country stepped through the threshold of history and walked into the light of a new dawn via the victory of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) at the polls, a majority of Nigerians felt the nation was on the path to redemption with thunderous shouts of ‘Sai Baba!’ drowning the ebbing sound of the splashing river as the Ijaw canoe sadly sailed back home to Bayelsa with the fisherman’s son paddling.
On April 1, 2015, I took to my Twitter handle @tunde_odesola and said a very short prayer for the country, “May the incoming Buhari administration deliver on its promises.” Immediately after I said the prayer, I left Twitter, never to go back there again until yesterday – when I revisited to ponder my five-year-old prayer of a tweet. I went back to my April 1, 2015 tweet in order to recapture the mood the country was five years ago when Buhari emerged President and the mood the country is today.
As I reconsidered the emergence and rulership of the All Progressives Congress at the national level in the last five years, the motif of the rat as a virulent rodent flooded my stream of thought. Rat is ‘eku’ in Yoruba, ‘oke’ in Igbo and ‘bera’ in Hausa. ‘Eku Eda’ is a particular type of rat in Yoruba. Wanting a deeper meaning to the rat symbolism nudging my thought, I called world-renowned Ifa priest and Araba of Osogbo, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon, and I asked: “Sir, what is ‘Eku Eda’? Is there anything symbolic about ‘Eku Eda’ in Ifa corpus?” Baba Elebuibon responded, “There’s nothing symbolic in Ifa corpus about rats, though there are lines that refer to rats in Ifa verses.” He went on, “There are a variety of rats, among which are ‘Eku Eda Ile’ and ‘Eku Eda Oko’. ‘Eda Ile’ is the ‘Ofon’ – the bandit house rat that comes to dine at your table in your presence while the ‘Eda Oko’ is the edible bush rat that lives inside anthills. Both rats have white hairs on their chests. Both have no regard for population control, breeding being their forte. ‘Who is an ‘Eku Eda’?, I asked Elebuibon, and he said, ‘’Eku Eda’ is also a metaphor for the mischievous fellow with a matchless penchant for wrongdoing or immense capacity for causing confusion or chaos.’’
Wow! It’s adding up now. “Aboru boye o, baba,” I greeted as I offered my thanks to Chief Elebuibon for the insight he just gave me on Yoruba worldview about rats and I hung up.
On Jonathan’s watch, the PDP was justifiably accused of cluelessness. But there was no deliberate, outlandish and sustained unwritten policy designed to force Fulani hegemony down the throats of other ethnic regions – as we have today. There was also no time in the history of the country when religion became the biased scale with which the Federal Government measures its responsibility or irresponsibility to the masses.
My jaw dropped last week when Buhari took up the job of Boko Haram spokesperson and said Muslims accounted for 90% of those killed so far by the terrorist group. I wondered what could make the supposed leader of 199.9 million people rationalise the killing of his countrymen and women along the cusp of religion. Is Muslim life worthier than Christian life? So, Buhari is unconcerned by the sanctity of life? In arriving at this pitiable pass, I see a President chained to arrogance, steaming in stale ideas, flailing in exasperation, and ultimately, disillusioned by reality. This is the progression of Buhari’s deterioration. He has surely graduated from clamping into jail southern Second Republic politicians and leaving out the head of the Republic, President Shehu Shagari, a fellow Fulani, whom he overthrew on account of corruption on December 31, 1983. Ha, Buhari now speaks to justify Boko Haram killings!
As I contemplated my five-year-old tweet, I looked back on Buhari’s electioneering promises during the countdown to the 2019 presidential election. The promises include public declaration of assets, state and community policing, ban on government officials from seeking medical care abroad, provision of allowances to discharged but unemployed NYSC members for 12 months while in skills and entrepreneurial development programme, replacing of state of origin with state of residence, creating 2million new homeowners in first year of governance, construction of 3,000km superhighway including service trunks; reducing maternal mortality by 70%, amending the constitution to remove immunity from prosecution for elected officers in criminal cases and amending the constitution to devolve powers to states.
He also promised the completion of Ibadan-Kano rail link, completion of Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail line, completion of Second Niger Bridge, 35% female inclusion in government; completion of 365 road projects nationwide, sustain anti-insurgency war and curb insecurity, develop six geopolitical industrial parks, resuscitate Ajaokuta Steel Company, fight corruption and revamp the economy, among others. What an endless list! Major-General Buhari, Nigerians want answers to why none of the promises has been fulfilled, including those with immediate effect and one-year durations.
It’s heart-wrenching that despite not fulfilling any of the above-listed promises, which include security and state/community policing, President Buhari’s view was jaundiced by ethnic colouration as he condemned Amotekun, a security network being put together by the six Yoruba governors for the South-West. It’s disturbing that a President who swiftly condemned Amotekun has since lost his voice since Operation Shege Ka Fasa was launched by his beloved northern region. A true leader would have condemned the brains behind Operation Shege Ka Fasa because it’s not only a derogation of the South, it’s also an open call to war. Shege Ka Fasa means, ‘You bastards, run!’ Buhari must’ve smiled satisfactorily upon reading, Shege Ka Fasa, but would’ve unleashed the military, police, DSS, EFCC etc if any region had used such an inciting expression against his North.
A few days ago, I heard the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, lament that service chiefs shunned an invitation to come and brief the parliament about insecurity in the country. How can the almighty northern service chiefs heed the call of a mere southern speaker? Gbajabiamila must be kidding. The South is Buhari’s conquered territory, period!
Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
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