FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiSunday, July 24, 2016
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Bonn, Germany

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PRESIDENT BUHARI'S HEALTH AND MORE (CONCLUSION)

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Continued from Part 2

In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king (Desiderius Erasmus)

Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until they are 78 (Benjamin Franklin)

When you have cancer, it's like you enter a new time zone: the Cancer Zone. Everything in the Tropic of Cancer revolves around your health or your sickness. I didn't want my whole life to revolve around cancer. Life came first; cancer came second (Regina Brett)

Nigerians are shocked that a president who prided himself as belonging to no one and belonging to everyone will conceive a policy clearly designed to favour a particular ethnic group which also happens to be his ethnic group (Reverend Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi)

Our constitutions purport to be established by 'the people,' and, in theory, 'all the people' consent to such government as the constitutions authorize. But this consent of 'the people' exists only in theory. It has no existence in fact. Government is in reality established by the few; and these few assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent being actually given (Lysander Spooner)

t was George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who wrote that "If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience". I pray that the Yar'Adua's scenario will not be repeating itself, otherwise, the president will be on and off in office, spending more time in London, undergoing medical treatment, than he will spend tackling Nigeria's problems. It was alleged that President Buhari refused to commence the treatment of the brain cancer, the last time he was in London for medicals, because that would have put him away from office for at least six months, and the president "loves" his job so much that he couldn't afford to stay away from it for such a long time. I hope the president knows what he's doing, because health is more than wealth or office, and no matter whatever he thinks, his health should be of paramount importance to him than anything else.

Plunging Nigeria into a more complicated political situation for selfish reasons is the last thing the country can withstand at this particular time. Yar'Adua's scenario again will be catastrophic for Nigeria. We still remember how the former NAFDAC Director General and Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili, OFR, of the blessed memory, was bold to speak truth to power, when Yar'Adua was incapacitated as the president, and still, the cabal in his government refused to allow the then vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, to take over the leadership of the country. In a tribute, Mr. Francis Agbo, reminded us how Prof Akunyili averted the looming constitutional crisis in the President Yar'Adua days through her letter, urging the Federal Executive Council to pass a resolution to make the then Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, acting president pending the recovery of Yar'Adua. The country can't afford such a situation now, as things are far worse than they were then. Nigerians are suffering now more than ever. It has never been so bad before:

*There's food crisis in the country: Nigerians are dying daily of hunger and malnutrition, and the worst affect people are the women and children in the northern part of the country;

*oil production is almost hitting the zero mark, due to the activities of the various Niger Delta militant groups, as such that Nigeria is contemplating importing crude oil, for the first time, to meet internal demands. According to dailyglobewatch.com of July 20, 2016, "The ongoing disruptions of crude oil production due to the bombing of oil installations by militants in the Niger Delta and current efforts at boosting refining capacity by private investors may force the country to become a net importer of crude oil in the nearest future, an oil and gas expert has warned".

*The federal government can no longer meet all its financial obligations, and for that Nigeria is falling apart more and more. The Central Bank of Nigeria has warned that, if things continue this way, as from October, that the federal government, and infact governments at all levels in Nigeria, will be unable to pay salaries. It means that there will be no more monthly federal allocations to the states and local governments, and then, the workers at the state and local government levels will receive no salaries also. Better to imagine, rather to experience, what will then happen. Infact, it has started happening already: The Citizen Online on July 23 reported that:

"The grim reality of non-payment of workers' salaries in most states of the federation is biting harder. At least over 1,300 civil servants and retirees have died in most states of the federation as a result of hunger, sickness and frustration, among others. It was gathered that most of the workers and the retirees died because of their inability to pay for medical treatments amid other challenges. A recent report had indicated that no fewer than 27 states had been unable to pay their workers' salaries. Investigation revealed that the largest number of the deaths was recorded in Osun State".

Post Nigeria wrote: "The cash crunch that has gripped the Nigerian economy appears to be worsening by the day, as the Federal Ministry of Finance, has failed to release the second tranche of the N350 billion, projected to be part of its expansive fiscal spending, to reflate the economy. Recall, that Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, David Lawal, last week, declared that the Federal Government would not be able to fully implement the N6.06 trillion 2016 budget, because the revenues of the government had dropped by over 50 percent, contrary to projections. Post-Nigeria reliably gathered, that the non-release of funds was having a devastating impact on the Ministries, Department and Agencies, MDAs, as they are barely able to pay salaries, while every other obligation, particularly execution of capital projects, have been put on hold. "With the excruciating hardship, and inflation rate hitting 16.5 percent, Buhari should do the needful, by tendering his resignation letter, having failed 180 million Nigerians".

The north, knowing that it might have been shortchanged once again, is not leaving anything to chance. Some of the northern elite prevailed on Buhari, upon his taking over, to northernize the Nigerian Army's leadership, and to secretly order the army to take over if anything unbecoming happens to Buhari before the expiration of his tenure. That must have informed the retirement of mostly southern army officers few weeks ago.

Some northern leaders are not only worried that the Yar'Adua's scenario might repeat itself, but are unhappy that President Buhari is not up to his job, as he can't lead, because his government has no clear cut economic policies. Infact, President Buhari's woolgathering has handicapped his government. Some of the northern leaders have been looking for a way to ease Buhari out of office. It was alleged (not yet confirmed) that some northern leaders met somewhere outside Nigeria, probably in England, and decided to ask President Buhari to allow the military to overthrow him, as was done in 1985, so that a younger and vibrant northerner will became the head of state, and will in short time conduct another election that will be rigged in favor of a northern presidential candidate. It was alleged that President Buhari rejected the suggestion, insisting that he will continue as the president despite the challenges. The northern leaders offered the suggestion to President Buhari in order to avoid the Yar'Adua's scenario repeating itself, and Osibanjo, a Yoruba, becoming the president.

The above allegation of a planned coup to replace Buhari as president makes sense, if one thinks of what the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), a body of different militant groups according to naij.com, said on Tuesday, June 21, when they warned President Muhammadu Buhari that some top army officers are planning to sack his government through a coup d'�tat. The militants alleged that the people behind the coup plot were getting ready to instigate anarchy in the region, as part of their ulterior motive to overthrow Buhari's government, adding that some high ranking army officers involved in the plan of the coup approached the leaders of their group, with an appeal that they should continue with the ongoing attacks on oil installations and petroleum pipelines. The JNDLF, according to naij.com, alleged that the "coup plotters" wanted to use the continued destruction of oil facilities as the real reason to overthrow the federal government. In their words: "We are constraint to let the cat out of the bag today that President Mohamadu Buhari should be wary about the security of this country as some military men are making move to remove him from power by instigating civil unrest in the country. Some top military men through their civil agents approached us to cause and continue the vandalization of the oil and gas pipelines in the Niger delta region so as to use that as an excuse to take over the government from democracy to military rule in the country. We said no, as such plan will not work and is not in conformity with our genuine desire of agitation. The military want to disgrace him now and let him quickly look into the issues and make pronouncement for his administration to be in peace. Let the president analyze certain memo from the military concerning Niger delta region before taking action or otherwise the military will use that as a platform to remove him. We know the issue of Niger delta is political and we preferred political solution to resolve it".

Many people knew about Buhari's illness and did nothing to dissuade him from contesting, although, I can still remember that many prominent southerners and few northerners warned against Buhari's candidacy during the election, as they claimed that Tinubu foisted Buhari on APC, and then on Nigeria, so that the Yar'Adua's scenario will repeat itself, in order for him, Tinubu, to use the opportunity to actualize his own presidential ambition. Remember that the story then was that Tinubu made Osibanjo Buhari's running mate with the agreement that if Buhari/Osibanjo's ticket wins, that Osibanjo would resign after 6 months in office as the vice president, and then Tinubu would take his place as the VP. It was alleged that Tinubu did that in order to circumvent the issue of a Moslem/Moslem Ticket, but, one can now infer, and some people accused him of such then, that Tinubu knew about Buhari's health condition, and speculated that he will not outlast his tenure, as that would afford the VP the chance of taking over, if Buhari becomes incapacitated or if he dies. I think Buhari caught the gist earlier on, and nipped that Tinubu's ambition in the bud.

But why is Tinubu so selfish and desperate? Remember that he wanted to do the same thing to Pastor Tunde Bakare in 2011, but the fiery pastor refused to yield to Tinubu's machinations. Pastor Bakare did openly admit that he refused to sign a resignation letter that would have seen him hand over his vice presidential position to Senator Tinubu had Buhari been successful in his presidential campaign in 2011.

The southwest zone made it possible for Buhari to become the president, because of the support and votes the region gave to him. But, unfortunately, the zone is now regretting voting for Buhari and betraying Goodluck Jonathan. A network of pan Yoruba groups, the Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC), Oodua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC), Oodua Liberation Movement, (OLM), Yoruba Renaissance Movement, (YRM), Agbekoya, Movement for Yoruba Autonomy, (MOYA), Yoruba Revolutionary Vanguard, (YRV), Oodua Autonomy Coalition, (OAC) amongst others, berated the lopsided appointments by the President Mohammed Buhari's administration, saying that the President's main mission is to re-launch Hausa-Fulani domination of Nigerian ethnic groups. In their words: "President Buhari is on a dangerous mission. He is seeking revenge where there should be love. We are not opposed to the anti-corruption crusade, but he has left the root cause of corruption which is the lopsided structure and institutions that represent eternal faultlines of Nigerian imperfect democracy". The network said that the alliance between the Yoruba and Buhari were put together by "shortsighted and self-serving people" who appear to be guided by self interest rather than the overall interest of the people they represent. The network stated "It should be clear now to any reasonable person that the alliance with the Hausa-Fulani has collapsed. The Yoruba people should begin the process for the realization of their own Republic for there lay the future of the Yoruba people".

No matter how the whole thing plays out, my advice to the Vice President, Osibanjo, is that with time, he should be ready to lead the nation for a long time, as his boss will concentrate more on his treatment regimen, and less on running Nigeria (his boss would always be on transit). I advice the vice president's handlers to work on his image to reflect the new role he would be playing, from time to time, as from now. They should brush him up! For now, his image is that of a "house boy"; his handlers should upgrade his image to that of the one who can be an acting president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on a short notice.

I must say it here, without any fear, that if the allegation is true, and if anything happens to President Buhari, that Nigerians should hold Tinubu responsible for foisting a frail and dull-witted president on Nigerians again, for his own selfish ambition.

TIT BITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxKqXRPYmI0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-uXgcXpYVY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vNtT3we_WI

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 2

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