2019 Presidential Election: Drumbeats from a confused ruling party

By Ifeanyi Izeze

While it is understandable that President Muhammadu Buhari is discomfited and afraid to face a popular candidate in the forthcoming elections due to his incompetence, for which Nigerians earnestly seek his replacement, engaging in smear campaign, as a means of survival, is completely reprehensible and cowardly.

Rather than being bothered that Nigeria was named the world headquarters for extreme poverty under Buhari and taking cogent actions to redress the shameful ranking, the Presidency and its party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been fully occupied throwing darts at everybody that dares say this government is not working. It is disgusting that Buhari handlers failed to realise that an incumbent cannot be returned to office merely by a slogan or dirt directed at an opponent, but based on his performance in the first term.

It is glaring from all indications that the Buahri people never had Atiku Abubarka in their contemplation as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer for the 2019 presidential poll. So from obvious indications, there was no ready script to launch a quickfire at him. And that explains why the Buhari camp appeared dazed and lost only to wake up and start throwing disjointed and vacuous statements obviously packaged in a knee-jerk manner.

As aptly capture by a brother, Robinson Sibe in one of his comments, someone should blankly tell the Buhari people that, “It is difficult for any incumbent to win a second term on the back of the remix of an anti- corruption single that sounds like a broken record. No, not when the masses can see through the sophistry. A good strategist would tell you this won’t fly at all because the rhetoric is stale and the response wayward.”

This government right from inception never had a single idea or workable plan on how to  improve the welfare and wellbeing of the Nigerians. They just ganged up in herdsmen style for the sole purpose of strangling Goodluck Jonathan out of the presidency. Do we need an outsider to tell us that Nigeria since independence has never had such a disorganised and disinterested government like this Buhari’s? Either that they don’t know what to do or that they deliberately refused to do what should be done for the good of the citizenry.

The Buhari government has used one term to chase shadows looking for whom to blame for their incompetence. Was it not this disinterest in real governance and wrong  focus on trivia that caused Bill Gates to look President Buhari in the eye and tell him that ‘your economic blueprint does not address Nigerians’ needs’?

How can you run a government that all the pointers to the health and wellbeing of the nation including its economy and internal security are heading south-south? Under Buhari, Nigeria recorded the first ever recession in 25 years. Just few days ago, the World Bank downgraded the nation’s human development index ranking Nigeria 152 out 157 in the world. Is this not shameful? Yet operators of the government continue to pretend that all is well with us.

Can this government name just one year that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) grew faster than her population under Buhari?  For 16 years of PDP administrations, Nigeria’s GDP always grew faster than population growth. The facts are there to be confirmed.

If Atiku is corrupt and cannot go to the US, what prevented “Mr integrity” all these years he has presided over the affairs of the country from prosecuting him? Meanwhile, this same Atiku heavily assisted him to become the president: then he was not corrupt. Abegi!

That President Buhari failed in leading a successful personal economic life does not mean that others cannot succeed without being corrupt.

It is not in doubt that unlike Buhari, who had failed in managing both private and public enterprises; who also confessed his failure to successfully manage his own farm and has made no personal contribution to the national development, Atiku Abubarkar is internationally known as a hardworking, resourceful, versatile and successful private entrepreneur, and “vast employer of labour; an ingenious citizen”, who had made immeasurable contribution to national development both in public and private lives.

We are all aware of the serial cases of widespread malfeasance in this government yet no single official of this government has been arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned by the Buhari administration over their many corruption scandals.

Why is the Buhari Presidency suppressing investigation into alleged use of 18 unregistered companies to lift and divert N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil in 2017 and the President’s alleged link with the beneficiaries of this fraud?

They should tell Nigerians how the Buhari era allegedly presided over the stealing of over N18 billion from the funds approved for rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and rebuilding of six northeast states ravaged by insurgency.

How many of the fleet of sleazes can one remember offhand? Is it the over N25 billion meant for health needs of Nigerians that was stolen by the Presidency cabal from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and how the same cabal siphoned the $322 million repatriated by Switzerland, under the guise of sharing the funds to the poor?

What did President Buhari do with the ₦13 trillion loans he took in 3 years (compared to the ₦6 trillion borrowed by the PDP in 16 years)?

 Who are the real owners of the Ikoyi Apartment billions? Who owns the LEGICO Apartments in Ikoyi where the cash deposit was found?

This government should do itself good to speak up on the leaked memo detailing the stealing of N9 trillion ($25billion dollars) through underhand oil contract at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Ministry of Petroleum, under President Buhari’s direct supervision.

It should also speak up on the alleged siphoning of N1.4 trillion through sleazy oil subsidy regimes and those benefitting from the alleged N58 hidden tax per litre which Nigerians have continued to bear since the fuel price increase from N87 to presumably unsubsidized cost of N145.

Can anyone name one former President or Head of State that has not been blamed by President Buhari for the precarious state of the economy he led us into? It has all being shifting of blames to others and not taking responsibility for the pathetic state of affairs in the country.

Abeg, they should just stop the integrity narrative, Buhari does not have it walai and people that believe otherwise, are inversely accepting that the man is pathologically incompetent and we cannot continue like that. God bless Nigeria!

(IFEANYI IZEZE: [email protected]; 234-8033043009)