FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiSaturday, September 24, 2016
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Bonn, Germany

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DID PRESIDENTS OBAMA AND BUHARI TAKE STOCK OF THEIR CHANGE IN NIGERIA, DURING THEIR MEETING IN NEW YORK? (1)

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One year 3 months, Buhari brought nothing but chaos, destruction, division, fear, deaths and shame to Nigeria (Fani-Kayode)

resident Buhari has no programme. He had only one ambition. He wanted to be President and by the grace of God he is now the President. He has got what he has been awake to get, which is to be president of Nigeria, and after his four years he should give way for somebody who has programme to come in and restructure Nigeria economically and geographically (Former Chief Press Secretary to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, when he was Military Head of State, Alex Nwokedi)

If you tell a "beautiful woman" that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It's no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing. But if you tell an "ugly woman" that she is beautiful, you offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty. To "love a woman" for her virtues is meaningless. She's earned it; it's a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices is to defile all virtue for her sake, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem (Ayn Rand)

This article hinges on the fact that President Obama of the United States, for reasons I have mentioned, time after time, in some of my previous articles, covertly supported the election of President Buhari of Nigeria. What President Obama wanted to achieve, by supporting Buhari against the then incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, during the election, is still not within reach till today, and Nigerians are really suffering for it. President Obama might cloak his disappointment with President Buhari and his leadership style, and might say nice things about him in public, but, behind closed doors, Obama must be grieving and asking himself how he made such a mistake in supporting a rudderless person to lead Nigeria.

President Obama met President Buhari on the sidelines of the 71st edition of the United Nations General Assembly few days ago. And we were told (no one knows if that was true or not) that "President Obama described President Buhari as a man of "integrity and honesty," saying: "We have confidence in your leadership. There are some difficulties you face, but this administration is willing to assist in the short time we have left. You have made real progress in defeating the brutal organization called Boko Haram, and that was achieved because of your leadership." President Obama offered a hand of fellowship to Nigeria "in the final and comprehensive defeat of Boko Haram, resolution of the Niger Delta crisis, which would help ramp up oil production and increase revenue, resolving the humanitarian crisis in the North East, recovering stolen money, and revamping the economy." Describing Nigeria as a big and important country in sub-Saharan Africa, the American President said his country looked forward to a framework for sustained partnership between the two nations" (Vanguard).

I want to tell President Buhari that he should not take what President Obama told him "to the bank", as Obama might have made a jest of him (without Buhari knowing it) with the "integrity and honesty" words, because he knows that Buhari possesses no such qualities, but have deceived many with such claim in the past ( with the benefit of hindsight, we now know that Tunde Idiagbon was the force behind Buhari's military government in the 1980s, while he, Buhari reaped the praise for doing nothing). Also, President Obama's days, as the President of the United States, are already numbered, as he can't do much before a new president takes over in January 2017, in other words, President Obama is now lame-ducked! Even if President Obama has the time, he has his hands full at home to offer much to any other country now.

I hope that President Obama knows the real situation in Nigeria now; I hope the American president understands that it hasn't been so bad in Nigeria before (in a peaceful time), as many Nigerians are now eating lizard, frog, leaves etc to survive; I hope that President Obama knows that the "Change" he helped to midwife has turned into chains, has only taken Nigerians from grace to grass, turned our democracy into dictatorship, moved the country from the rule of law to selective justice, made the fight against corruption to be only vindictive, and what we see is only lopsided appointments, high-handedness in dealing with armless agitators by the security personnel, and most of all, the "Change" they brought to Nigeria has taken the country from economic boom into recession, making many businesses to close up shop with the attendant high unemployment and suicide rates.

I expect President Obama to sit down and think why every Buhari's coming, as the leader of Nigeria, only brings calamity. Nigerians are not amused that President Obama secretly helped put Buhari in power, but never visited Nigeria to see, first hand, what Buhari has turned the country into. Nigerians are angry that while President Obama took America out of recession, President Buhari, he supported during the election, has taken Nigeria into recession. Nigerians are irked that while President Obama appointed some of the best brains in America to help him bring their country out of recession, President Buhari has failed to utilize some of the best Nigerian brains to help him in running the country for the good of all, in other words, while Obama appointed round pegs into round holes, Buhari appointed square pegs into round holes.

Most of all, some Nigerians are afraid that Nigeria will never be better, as those running the affairs of the nation have no idea about leadership, are unpatriotic and selfish, no matter what they say, and as such, many will not forgive President Obama for helping in creating the mess in Nigeria now, because, while life got better for pretty much every American under Obama, almost all Nigerians are suffering under Buhari. To buttress this point about the good life in America now under Obama, the Chicago Tribune, on August 31, 2016, published an article written by Christopher Ingraham in The Washington Post captioned "Life got better for pretty much everyone under Obama, Gallup poll finds":

"How Americans feel about the state of their lives have improved markedly in the eight years since Barack Obama was elected president, according to Gallup data. In 2008, fewer than half of Americans said their life was good enough to be considered "thriving," according to Gallup. But that's changed: "The 55.4% who are thriving so far in 2016 is on pace to be the highest recorded in the nine years Gallup and Healthways have tracked it," according to the report. Not only that, members of each ethnic or racial group in Gallup's study feel better about their lives."The percentages of U.S. whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians who are thriving have all increased during the Obama era," Gallup notes. The percentage of blacks thriving has risen by about 6 points, as has the percentage of whites and Hispanics. Asian thriving has risen by about 10 points since 2008.The Gallup numbers, showing improving self-assessments of blacks' quality of life, reflect this. They also show that, contrary to some perceptions that white Americans have been losing out, Obama-era gains aren't limited to just one racial or ethnic group. Gallup notes that Obama's second term "shows an improvement in whites' life evaluations -- particularly those of white Republicans." In a previous 2013-2015 Gallup survey, about 55 percent of white Republicans were thriving, up from 51 percent in the 2011-2012 survey. The Gallup numbers suggest that for many Americans, fewer things today need fixing than they did eight years ago".

Instead of making Nigeria great, the leaders want to sell off Nigeria, as the National Economic Council, comprising of the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, and the 36 state governors, has endorsed plans by the Federal Government to sell some national assets as part of efforts to address the current economic recession in the country. That will not bring any respite to Nigeria's economic woes. They just want to sell our patrimony to themselves, while the poor masses will continue to suffer. That was how Atiku Abubakar, as the vice president during Obasanjo's era, and few others, bought all our national assets through BPE, and today, they go about as billionaires, without explaining the primary source of their wealth. I concur with Senator Sani from Kaduna State, who wrote in his Facebook Page, that "those backing the call for the sale of the country's assets are "economic predators." He added: "The call for the sale of our national assets and investments is condemnable. The proponents (of the call) are economic predators and parasites who want to profit from the recession. Nigerians must resist and rise up against this heist and roguery. They don't want to buy the Ajaokuta Steel Company because it is not profitable; they don't want to invest in solid minerals, agriculture or science and technology, they don't want to invest in the exploration of oil in the Chad basin or Benue trough. They want to buy NLNG and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Many but not all Nigeria's captains of industry are fronts for captains of politics."

I call on all Nigerians to resist this planned robbery of our national assets in the name of selling them to address the recession. The recession was caused by lack of foresight and planning. Let the government bring in those with management skills and expertise to take the country out of recession, instead of trying to steal our assets by trick. Those who caused the recession want to sell our assets to cover up their incompetence. No way!

One of the marks of a good leader is promising little and achieving more, but our own President Buhari promised Nigerians heaven on earth, but, has taken them to hell instead; he promised to give Nigerians "change", but is today demanding "change" from Nigerians, and his spokesman, Garba Shehu, had the guts to tell Nigerians that "President Muhammadu Buhari is a victim of massive expectations.". Hear Shehu: "President Buhari promised good things, but he didn't promise Nigerians that the sun will rise from the west or that he can use his palm to cover the sun. No. He is not a magician. It would take time to restore, to bring out Nigeria from the depth from the cesspool of corruption that it has been sank by years of PDP misrule." Imagine such words from a spokesman of a president who was churning out one promise after the other, during the campaign, but has been unable to fulfill even one of them? Nigerians don't expect President Buhari to perform magic, but to be doing something towards making Nigeria a better place. Buhari and his government are asleep at the wheel (there's lull everywhere). Nigerians are only angry, because Buhari is making no genuine effort towards rulership.

To digress: Let me tell President Obama that his conscience will always chastise him, guilty conscience will continue to "terrorize" him, as long as he lives, for helping in foisting Buhari upon Nigerians. Much was expected of him, but Obama failed Nigerians and Nigeria. President Obama should have taken his history lessons very seriously, as he should have known that Nigeria was a mis-creation, and is on the rocks, unless it's quickly restructured, just as Prophet Nwoko warned that it is in the interest of political leaders to plan for peaceful separation, as Nigeria as a nation was a 'fraud' by colonial masters and was doomed to crash".

Chuks MasnDore posted the true crime of Goodluck Jonathan thus: "Nigeria from inception has been ruled as a dukedom; an enclave, a fiefdom of sort with feudal lords over it. But in came a man from least of lords respected quarters and dared to transform slaves into free men. He did them much evil by doing that, and that's the only evil Dr. Goodluck Ebere Jonathan committed against the Nigerian Nation: becoming her first ever Leader in the stead of Ruler! Jonathan gave right to pigs, baboons, goats, tortoise, lizards and all, and turned around to the Lion as the king of the jungle to inform him that though he is the king, but without these other smaller ones with him there in the jungle, his kingship will lose its glory: This is that unpardonable sin of a man so meek that even beggars call him names, and he smile over it".

President Obama should know that Nigerians are saying that if Buhari can't change Nigeria for the better, he should at least bring the country back to the level he met it in 2015. During Goodluck Jonathan's time, at least Nigeria was moving forward, but since Buhari became the president, Nigeria have moved backward, that even this time is worse than the civil war era (those who experienced it know it). As Kemi Flash posted: "Let's be honest. We miss GEJ.?

He was slow "they said" but he was moving.

He was quiet yet we were kept informed.

He was soft yet Boko Haram was fazing out.

He was dark but we had light.

His administration was a vector quantity, it had direction.

He was reserved yet we had fun (thanks to Patience).

He was a hero yet we never praised him.

He promised little, he gave more.

But I guess we wanted much more. So we were deceived.

They condemned his strength and exaggerated his fault.

They painted 'Nigeria's problem' as 'Jonathan's problem'.

They promised the impossible. Just to get our votes.

And so we were deceived with their cry for 'change".

To be continued!

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duRkRY5IgJw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W6jNIoiJzo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0h_21BYLU&index=1&list=RDYu0h_21BYLU

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!

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