Hardball wishes the President Muhammadu Buhari administration well. The President cannot afford to fail. He must not fail. Nigerians don’t want failure. Nigerians don’t deserve failure.
When a leader publicly expresses doubts about the loyalty of some important members of his administration, it is a sign that all may not be well with the administration. When Buhari spoke to Al-Jazeera during his recent visit to Doha, Qatar, he perhaps betrayed his uncertainties and anxieties.
A report said: “When asked to be specific on his submission, which suggested that there were saboteurs in his government, Buhari replied, “Certainly!” He said it would be wrong to assume that government officials, especially those who his government inherited from the Peoples Democratic Party will be 100 per cent loyal to his government.”
The President advised Nigerians , particularly the critics of his administration , “to be fair to us. “ He was quoted as saying that his administration inherited many officials of the previous governments , among them permanent secretaries.
“ So, we cannot assume that all of them are 100 per cent loyal to this government. However, the President did not name these officials, “ the report said.
So, who are these saboteurs? Does Buhari know them? If he doesn’t know them, what is the point in saying that they exist? If he knows them, what is he doing about them? Surely, it isn’t enough to paint a picture of sabotage without having a clear picture of those involved and how to arrest their disruptive actions.
Buhari’s comments were curiously reminiscent of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2012 comments that the extremist Boko Haram group had succeeded in infiltrating his government and planting its members in government agencies and security outfits. Jonathan’s revelation came during a church service at the National Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, as part of the annual Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebrations.
Jonathan had lamented: “During the civil war, we knew and we could even predict where the enemy was coming from. You can even know the route they are coming from, you can even know what calibre of weapon they will use and so on…Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won’t even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house.” Could this observation partly explain why the Jonathan administration failed to make positive progress in the anti-terror war?
The Buhari era is being promoted as a change era and Buhari is described as a change agent. If indeed there are saboteurs in his administration, he should do something about it quickly.
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Big “THANK YOU” to The Nation for this article; nothing can be more direct. If concerted efforts are not made to identify and flush out the saboteurs from this government, the desired change will remain a mirage.
However, I sympathize with our President, because identifying saboteurs among civil servants is a harculean task. There is no denying the fact that politicians in his government cannot he saboteurs, at least they belong to the same party, APC.
Just as the saboteurs in the Budget Office were identified, and purnished, others in every other MDAs must be identified and thrown out. The nation was informed recently by no less a person than the Attorney General of the Federation that saboteurs were behind the unwarranted devillish fall in our Naira against the Dollar. He then promised to start prosecuting them very soon!
We should not be made to wait for too long; effect of the unofficial devaluation has taken its toll on the purchasing power of Nigerians at home.
God bless PMB!
God bless APC!!
God bless Nigeria!!!