They Came, They Stole, But They Would Never Conquer By Femi Adeyeye

Overtime, the Nigeria political and elitist communities have found fulfillment in squandering the limited resources, some to their private purses while most who claim to be “saints” splash the resources on issues of banalities yet come out to their ever-believing Nigeria people through the media
to educate them on recession, put up some leadership campaigns ( #ChangeBeginsWithMe), set up a committee of their friends-in-government to discuss circuitous issues that would keep the masses at their mercy, they come in the guise of the discrepancies in the constitution as I have said earlier on this medium that the Nigeria criminal is a studious criminal who studies the constitution very well for its defects, non-provisional effects and discrepancies before committing crimes.

I have been passive on social justice for a while now due to the fact that we live in an ever-believing, non-litigious society where inhabitants are fatiloquent, they speak of fate at the slightest injustice.

God has allowed the fuel price to rise!

It was God’s plan that you will not be admitted into the university this year.

To someone who was sacked unjustly days before her wedding - God knows why it happened like that, it is for you not to be arrogant to your husband!

To that police officer who has been promoted but has not been paid his arrears for a year- God has plans for you, He wants you to spend the money very well during your retirement.

To those who could not buy foodstuff any longer due to the hike in price- God knows best! If you eat too much, you can contract diabetes.

If you venture into business and you become rich, you would contract the sickness of the rich - cancer. Some religious leaders who are leading a blind congregation when they themselves are blind would mount the pulpit with all egoistic attributes to pray that, should the fuel pump price rise to N1000 per litre, the member would be able to buy. At the call of the prayer, one would see all forms of acrobatic displays like a gymnast under the influence of steroids. What a gross benightedness! These energies should be channeled to revolt against the ruling class that suck with reckless abandon the milk and honey that should flow on the land. It is not just the problem of leadership, the bane lies with the followership.

This is a country where the chairman of an Okada Association owns and drives jeeps and the members keep paying "dues" to him. Those who in their “modesty and modalities” operate thrift/credit societies are usurious in a manner. Nigerians would be vassals to their fellow countrymen and suffer for a long time until social revolution breaks out.

I stumbled on the special interview Col. Abubakar Umar, the former Kaduna State Military governor. granted TELL on the 1st Jan. 1996. Until yesterday, I never knew a man like him exist(ed). This is a man whose activism is top- notch despite his military and elitist acquaintances. He prophesied all the happenings today, from deregulation to diversification of the petrodollar economy and so on. On the “midget” corruption then; he said this:

“But I understand they also know that there is a lot of talk about money being spent on areas that produce nothing. I think it is highly exaggerated. If you are looking for this money you better look at the accounts of the elite. Most of this money, I believe, is stashed outside. Not too much of this money has been spent on provisions of amenities in this country. So, when Shell is telling people that if we abandon (the LNG project), the common people are going to be affected, you find that it is largely the elite that will be affected. The common people are having a very raw deal. There is nothing as bad as you knowing that you are producing wealth and not seeing the evidence of that wealth.”

The news account of a Nigerian journalist I read sometime reinforce the truism that, “what goes around comes around”. The Nigerian journalist had migrated to the United States with his family through the Visa Lottery programme and had the privity of being at University College Hospital, Los Angeles (UCHLA) where Mariam Babangida had been admitted at the height of her health predicament.The journalist had revealed how Babangida had been prevented from entering the United States because of his annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections but had to be granted visa on compassionate grounds at the height of his wife’s health issues. He further revealed how disrespectfully the nurses and paramedics had treated Babangida, unaware of his presidential status. The journalist decided to intervene when it appeared the disrespectfulness and cold-treatment to Babangida was not going to stop. It was at that point that Babangida realized that the man sitting across from him at the reception of the Hospital building was a Nigerian. Babangida later came to sit next to him and thanked him. The journalist told him that he (Babangida) was part of the reasons he had migrated to the USA and that while as the Military Head of State, if he had revolutionized the Nigerian Health Sector, the best of Nigerian doctors would have been treating his ailing wife with all treatment befitting of a president. He said at that point Babangida became remorseful and apologized for all of his failings. Today, the same Babangida has been battling health issues.

What a people!

Nigeria is a very strong country, you don’t try the kind of money-laundering that goes on here in economies like Ghana’s and Kenya’s. These countries would run into unrepairable and insurmountable crises. We should not forget that at this moment, Buhari, the anti-corruption crusader, has just played on our intelligence with the change mantra. I just hope that by 2019 he does not say he failed to perform because Nigerians refused to change. It would be a battle of words between me and the old man. I and other well-meaning Nigerians worked assiduously with no incentivization; talking to people about Buhari on the premise of his integrity we read in history books. So, did we work for all these we are getting today?

Jonathan, we all understand was a president of circumstance. He came in when Nigerians needed just a president. His cluelessness might be pardoned and excused.

What do we then say of the man Buhari, who had longed for the Aso Villa seat for 12 years before the victory of 2015? Do we say he wasn’t prepared enough? Does that mean that for 12 years of his political struggle, he had no economic plans for Nigeria and Nigerians? I write with all gloominess of heart that this man has hijacked the Aso Villa on a revenge mission and has surrounded himself with his kinsmen as his soldiers; an undertone of nepotism but it is “defected” under sections 47 and 147 of the 1999 constitution: the Nigerian problem, legal reforms – the way out.

On assumption to the throne, he went after Dasuki but recently we heard of Dasuki’s re-appearing image in his cabinet – Abba Kyari, the chief of staff who is the dramatis personae on which the MTN fine scandal is centered. I have summoned all the watch-men in my area to come out with torches fully lit as we search for the change even in broad day light. It is unfortunate we live in a world full of deceit, who do we trust?

“Until a lecture theatre is built in Unilag or any other school and the name of the looter is printed on it like this – THIS LECTURE THEATRE WAS BUILT FROM THE LOOTS RECOVERED FROM ABACHA AND HEREBY COMMISSIONED FOR THE USE OF HUMANITY TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE SHAME OF THE FAMILY, I will never take the anti-corruption war serious,” a student activist protested.

I have decided to be mute on the sale of national assets because it did not start today. Privatization started as far back as 1988. Education as a national asset has been sold long ago, unity schools have been commercialized. We only centre our focus on the JV of NLNG and NNPC under discourse but I tell you the negotiation and the sale have been concluded long ago.  You don’t fight many enemies, many have advised, told them all that my rustication and the political victimization students and youth activists are facing is/was as a result of cycle/myriad of problems. For the purpose of record, I will say myrustication was as a result of victimization which came from an undemocratic body who could not tolerate students protesting, the protest was as a result of poor welfare conditions on campus, the poor welfarism came as a result of bad management and underfunding. Underfunding happens to be a product of austerity measures. Austerity measures were orchestrated by the mismanagement of the ruling class; it is therefore a cycle. There is this saying in Yoruba; “You do not leave a mad man with the corpse of his mother, he could eat it.” We would not leave this Buhari–led administration with the economy, we would keep the said “technocrats” (or Samsungcrats) on their toes till we get a revamp of this situation.

This is a solidarity call to all students and youths to unite and become formidable against the forces that be. We have the solutions with us. The country started folding up when the youths slept off. Not only did we sleep, but we also snored orchestratingly.

We must stand up to keep asking why and how our fathers have brought us here. Things must cease to continue like this, or else the national anthem will be remixed and the labor of our heroes past will be in vain very shortly.

Femi writes from Lagos.