We, the masses know our friends; we voted for Buhari, a miracle worker, not a magician. The road to miracles is laid with thorns, but it endures, while magic is instantaneous, but ephemeral.
Rebuilding a nation that has been raped and subjected to serial abuse for decades is a marathon, not a sprint. Unless patriotic Nigerians and agents of change jettison our quick fix mentality, rise against our elites who are inciting the masses against President Muhammadu Buhari because of his anti-corruption war, our journey to greatness may be truncated. Nigeria, a land flowing with milk and honey, blessed with abundant human and natural resources has remained a toddler and a poor nation since independence because of the quick-fix mentally of our leaders and we, the led, and our collective disdain for hard work.
Our Quick Fix Mentality
When our schools, especially the universities, cease to be citadels of knowledge because of instability of tenure, sexual harassment, cultism and other problems, instead of finding a lasting solution, our elites put their kids on the next available flight to all the nook and crannies of the world, even to Benin Republic, in search of quality education.
Our hospitals are now mere consulting centres, and instead of fixing them, we hop on the plane to Europe, America or Dubai to treat all kinds of ailments including headache.
A serious nation will work hard to find solutions to the incessant plane crashes that have characterised our aviation industry, but for our elites, the solution is in the chartering of flights or acquisition of private jets. Electricity supply for a nation of more than 150 million is less than 5000 megawatts; but for our elites, the solution is in the acquisition of all manners of generators.
The refineries are no longer functioning, but fuel importation rather than fixing the refineries or building a new one is the preferred solution. Public taps are dry, the solution is the construction of personal boreholes; and our homes and streets are no longer safe due to poor policing, but the solution for our elite is to employ armed private guards – everyone for him or self, God for us all. One could go on and on.
The quick fix mentality is not just a malaise of the elites, but also of we, the led are not better. The Lagos-Ibadan expressway is blocked because of a minor or an unfortunate incident, but instead of waiting for a while to solve the problem, we move to the other lane and face oncoming vehicles.
Before anyone could say ‘jack’, the two sides of the expressway are already blocked. A problem that could have been solved in 30 minutes with patience and hard work would remain unresolved for 30 hours, with many families, with children, spending the night on the road. In the process, lives may be lost, several man hours are lost, but who cares, as is always the case in Nigeria, its personal interest before national interest.
It is this quick fix mentally that has led many of us to several religious houses, looking for effortless, instant, magical solutions to our problems and challenges, instead of miracles that God promised, which come through prayer and fasting. The media is daily filled with stories of thousands of Nigerians who have fallen victim to fraudulent religious leaders in the search for quick-fix solutions.
Modern day motivational speakers and graduates of Professor Peller School of Magic Arts called pastors, reverends, or imams are making millions of naira daily from these instant-solution loving Nigerians.
Many have lost their lives, many marriages have been broken, millions in cash and materials have been lost, many have temporarily lost their mind or totally lost their sanity, yet millions still throng crusades organised by these sweet-taking magicians, looking for overnight success.
Elites Inciting Masses with Propaganda
It’s our culture of impatience and quick-fix mentality that our elites, many of who are licking their wounds because of Buhari’s war against corruption and pro-masses policies, are using to incite us, the masses, against the government, blaming the current economic woes, which have been with us for about four decades, on Buhari who came into office a few months ago.
Nothing grieves me more than reading or listening to highly informed, exposed and intelligent Nigerians being dishonest in the media and spreading the gospel of lies and hate about the Buhari government.
As one who voted for Buhari in 2003, 2007 and 2011, but decided to do more than voting in 2015, and actually worked and campaigned for him for seven months in the North-Central region before his eventual election in March 2015, I know the change I worked and voted for can never show signs of manifestation in the first twenty-four months.
On return to Lagos in April 2015, I told my neighbours, who were congratulating me that our season of merriment had come, not to expect anything from Buhari in the next 24 months.
As a reporter who is informed, I know that the journey from a raped and destroyed nation to El-dorado is a marathon, not a sprint.
Letting facts speak. The scarcity of petroleum products dates back to the Ibrahim Babangida era. Successive administrations, especially the PDP government that ruled from 1999-2015, when a barrel of oil sold for $100, did not deem it fit to build new refineries or repair the damaged ones, yet, some people are blaming Buhari for the scarcity of petroleum products when commonsense dictates that it will take a serious government at least 18 months to solve the problem; ditto for power, road networking, agriculture, healthcare, education, sports, and other sectors.
Nigeria has been raped and vandalised by the elites and their foreign collaborators for several decades. The kind of looting and impunity that we experienced during the 16 years of PDP rule, especially the last five years under President Goodluck Jonathan has probably never been witnessed or experienced anywhere in the world in the modern era, no sane person will expect a leader to fix a vandalised country like Nigeria in a few months.
Under Jonathan, impunity was the order of the day. Bandits and banditry took over the country, either in the office or on the road.
The better part of the North-East, and some states in North-Central and North-West became the playground for Boko Haram, the South-South was taken over by oil bunkerers who stole millions of litres of oil from national pipelines, and illegal refineries became legal business, while in the whole of the South-East, kidnapping reigned supreme. Armed robberies became the order of the day in the South-West. In my town, Offa, and some other parts of Yoruba land, banks could only open for a few hours because of armed robbers.
Buhari took over a country where stealing was not corruption, where those supposed to lock the barn and keep the goats away from the yams, threw the key away and allowed the goats unrestricted access to the yams.
He inherited a country where impunity was the order of the day. Where local government chairmen were lords; where a minister could seek to justify the death of several unemployed Nigerians during a stampede, claiming they were impatient. I could go on and on; to say he inherited a failed state will be totally correct.
Buhari Deserves Support
In spite of inheriting a raped and wrecked country, what Buhari has achieved in the last seven month is not only unprecedented in the history of Nigeria, but it is phenomenal.
In just seven months, stealing is now corruption in Nigeria. Goats who stole our collective yams are either in court accounting for their misdeeds or are quietly returning our collective wealth that was stolen. Those who killed our children with employment scam are donning Khaki uniform in Kuje Prison.
Revenue from the Nigeria Customs Service has quadrupled within a few months. The monster call fuel subsidy has been crippled. Under Jonathan, Nigeria was paying about N1.5 trillion annually. Today, the oil cabal has not only been destroyed, we no longer pay subsidy and the price of petrol is lower than it was under Jonathan.
The Treasury Single Account (TSA) was a good initiative that Jonathan government could not implement because it lacked political will.
Buhari has not only implemented the TSA, but the decision has yielded over three trillion naira into the federal government account. Before Buhari, Boko Haram were the lords of Northern Nigeria, and when they sneezed then, members of our Armed Forces would retreat. This went on for many years, but today power has changed hands; Boko Haram members are losing battles daily; many of their bases are being destroyed, and many of their fighters are surrendering, all these within seven months.
Dreamers and Wailers Should Embrace Change
Our elites who are dreaming of inciting the masses against Buhari through propaganda and lies in the media must realise that Buhari is not a weak leader that can easily be cowed. We, the masses, know our friends; we voted for Buhari, a miracle worker, not a magician. The road to miracles is laid with thorns, but it endures, while magic is instantaneous, but ephemeral.
Wailers who are wailing because their friends who stole our collective yams are facing trials, that there has been a stoppage of fuel subsidy payments, that the TSA is fully operational and for other reasons can continue to wail; sinners will not go unpunished. It is in their interest to embrace change and support the rebuilding of Nigeria.
For the masses, we need to jettison our quick-fix mentality and be ready for hard work. We need to look inward and embrace home made goods and agriculture, and if we do the above, the change we voted for will manifest miraculously within a short time. Anyone promising a quick-fix is a magician and the gains from magic are transient.
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