The End of Nigeria Incorporated Is Nigh by Babayola M. Toungo
The PDP campaign has crumbled for all practical purposes though to be fair to them, it never really took off. The PDP presidential campaign council and leaders of the party built their whole campaign strategy of projecting Buhari to Nigerians as one of their kind and it seems the strategy has backfired woefully going by the kind of receptions Buhari’s campaign train receives wherever it docks. I know the campaign has crumbled the moment I saw the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the Capo of corruption Olusegun Obasnajo plus the unmanageable number of campaign spokesmen trying to create doubts in the minds of Nigerians regarding the conduct of the forthcoming elections. Realizing that all the mud they threw at Buhari failed to stick, they have now resolved to throw everything at the president, including the kitchen. They do not care if the reputation of the country is tarnished.
The verbal assaults targeted at INEC and other bodies involved in the delivery of a credible, free and fair elections have become strident and taking a comic turn. The recent yowling from Obasanjo and TY Danjuma shows Nigerians that the masquerades behind Atiku’s candidature are now emerging from the shadows. After buying the presidential ticket for Atiku at the Port Harcourt PDP convention, they retreated to their world of darkness believing Atiku has the nous to defeat Buhari and reclaim Nigeria Incorporated for them. Realising Atiku’s unacceptability, the Board of Directors of Nigeria Incorporated (Obasanjo, TY Danjuma, Babangida, Ali Gusau) decided to join the fray in order to safeguard their investment. Buhari’s ascension to the office of the president of Nigeria is akin to a hostile corporate take over to these pirates. It is unacceptable and therefore must be fought and won by means fair or foul. Planting the seed of doubt in the minds of Nigerians on the neutrality of INEC will make them feel good after they have been defeated.
The recent attempts by these conscienceless group to cast doubt in the minds of Nigerians on the credibility and neutrality of INEC shows how low they are ready to go in order to remain relevant and continue to emasculate the people and deny them basic rights and privileges. After Obasanjo alleged that INEC and the APC are colluding to rig the forthcoming presidential election in a rambling, windy letter, TY Danjuma also made the same allegations barely a week after Obasanjo’s. It should interest Nigerians that these two are the butchers of Odi and Zaki Biyam and have been holding Nigeria by the scruff of the neck since 1976 after Murtala Mohammed was killed. The support they pretended to give Buhari in 2015 was forced on them by the prevailing political situation in the country in that year. The Buhari phenomenon at that time (and still going on strongly) was akin a moving train, which could have crushed anyone standing in its tracks. After weighing the option of opposing that mass movement, they decided to throw-in their lot with Buhari. The thinking then was that there wouldn’t be any harm in “donating” power to a rank outsider for a period of four years. Buhari was not meant to contest for a second time because they are to take back what was “loaned” to the people through Buhari using one of their ‘boys’ as a Trojan horse.
They believed Buhari’s popularity would wane with the hurdles they will place in his path. This is why you had Islamisation agenda, ethnic and religious conflicts, farmer/ herder crisis, Buhari’s death, Buhari’s double and so on. All failed. The man survived all their shenanigans and came out stronger. Religious leaders were hired to use their pulpits as platforms for demonizing Buhari and selling their candidate. This also failed. It only demystified hitherto respected Mullahs and Pastors. “Elders” were not left out in the frenzy of “reclaiming” Nigeria for the Directors of Nigeria Incorporated from “usurpers”. All failed. Woefully and spectacularly.
The big masquerades are then forced to come out from the dark world in order to attempt to salvage a hopeless situation. With imperial haughtiness and a false sense of relevance, Obasanjo and TY Danjuma pronounced Buhari guilty of ‘intendment’. That the president, his party the APC and the electoral umpire are in cahoots to rig the election before the first ballot is cast. Incidentally Obasanjo was at the Council of States meeting barely two days after his caustic “state of the nation” epistle where the INEC Chairman briefed the Council on the preparations made so far to ensure the delivery of a free, fair and credible 2019 elections. The Council praised INEC on its readiness and Obasanjo did not give a dissenting view. The two former power brokers, in their illusions, believe people still have respect for them. Their inflated egos will not allow them to see beyond their tunnel vision.
It will be entertaining to speculate upon the nature and causes of Obasanjo’s and his minion’s illusions. I believe their causes of illusions are not pretty to discover. They may either be vicious or tragic. Or even both for such an uncaring bunch. They hate Buhari not because he is bad but because they consider him an outsider. They hate him because he has certain standards of what is good which run contrary to their own. Buhari’s standard of what is good is based on egalitarianism while theirs is based on crude capitalism. 2015 was written-off as a bad dream and bad defeat and they are willing to take the hit. But just once.
They thought Buhari will be killed before 2019. The man refused to die. They strongly belief with a National Assembly filled with carpetbaggers and headed by one of their inheritors, Buhari will be impeached; for where! They contrived all manner of crisis all over the country believing that Nigerians will revolt against Buhari. This ended up to fertilise the man’s immense popularity. Puppeteers who hitherto refused to show their hands did all these. Now they are forced to come out.
Nigerians must also come out to finally retire these crooks from our national lives. What the Hausa man call “fito na fito”. We must show them in no uncertain terms that we are fed up with being slaves. Let’s use our votes to chase “…dem crazy bastards out of our lives…”