Reactions to the reported appointment of APC chieftains into INEC by President Bola Tinubu are quite baffling.
In saner society, murder is treated with fiat discharge to duties; those who see something will say something. The police or security authority to which the case is reported will swing to action. Investigation has started suspects are tracked, arrested, evidences are arranged and case established, accused(s) are brought to court. Justice is awaited!
Nigerians are the only people in the world who in hope of harvesting cocoa will break the okro pod to reach for its seeds, plant it and wait for 70 days to harvest a fruit that usually will take 1,460 days, this deceptive approach to life, truth, process, and nature abhor.
I still find it preposterous to hear most Nigerians expressing surprise at Buhari’s eight ruinous years. The most troubling of our situation is that we have not learnt from the mistakes we made in supporting leadership based on selfishness, deceit and nepotism. In just six months, look at the lies about subsidy, outcome of foreign trips, large size of government, inflation, poverty, governors expenses, the inglorious N5 Billion Presidential Yacht, N1.5 Billion First Lady Vehicle, for an unconstitutional office of our lady of means. A pastor who while standing on the altar of God at the national temple of Christianity in Nigeria the Ecumenical Centre, said; she, her husband and family are already wealthy, they don’t need our money!
How true the song of Bisola Ologunde’s song; 200 million Mumu, (the bitter truth) is!
Just that our mumu data is up by 30 million between the year of production of the song and 2023!
Let’s relate with extracted lines from the song;
Mumu times mumu
Leader is wicked but the followers are “wickeder”.
The big man is wicked but the common man is wickeder.
Na you be dem, na dem be you!
Just like dem, you be thief!
Majority na corruption, minority na exception!
Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo ATI IRE GANGAN (and you in particular) you be thief!
Many, for bigotry and tribalism are already calling on Nigerians to be patient with Tinubu. Buhari’s failure was evident from his first 3 months. We were asked to be patient. There reason; Nigeria was stolen dry by Jonathan and his crew. Our patience were sustained by propaganda of looted funds and their recovery. With all that was recovered from Dasuki and his cohorts, Buhari plunged us into multidimensional poverty. Buhari is gone, Tinubu is in, APC propaganda pattern is sustained with recoveries for Emefiele and his gang. APC doesn’t mean well for this country, and Nigerians shouldn’t be patient to harvest failure in 2027. Time to rise and demand accountability uncompromisingly from Bola Ahmed Tinubu and its APC is now! I will be glad to be wrong on this going forward.
What is exactly causing the hullabaloo about this unpatriotic and inciting appointments of an APC chieftain into INEC as REC? Have we forgotten so quickly how an APC sympathizer who was INEC REC in Lagos during the last election, with reckless abandon contracted the logistics for movement of sensitive election materials to MC Oluomo, the chairman of State Park Management and a notorious APC chieftain? I wrote an article to call out the INEC REC and this woke the docile opposition from their slumber to approach the court. The court eventually nullified the unholy, senseless and provocative engagement.
It is either we are hypocrites on this or we are suffering from memory amnesia.
We have tasted it all in Lagos and that is why Lagosians voted against Tinubu in the February 2023 Presidential Election, his loss in Lagos was the reason for the tribal spin that the governorship election witnessed. All the promises you hear now are the same propaganda their government will stand on for the next four years, God forbid it’s more. Their stock-in-trade includes name dropping, figure dropping and manipulation, fact bending, wicked lies, twisting, weaving and spinning. The days of dangerous attacks on all known and imaginary enemies have just returned.
I wouldn’t know the type of security Nigerians could expect from the incumbent President when he was not able to provide one when he was the Governor and Chief Security officer of Lagos State. One of the cases that always come to mind is the assassination of Engr. Funsho Williams, a prominent and leading opposition figure who was murdered in his bedroom in the highbrow Dolphin Estate of all places in Lagos. Tinubu’s government and his selected successors saw no moral justification for unraveling the death and bring perpetrator(s) to book. While William’s killer still lives among us possibly on immunity and feeding fat on our taxes. They expect Nigerians to take them serious when mouthing security strategies to combat crime and ensure safety of lives and property.
I want the opposition in particular and Nigerians in general to know for free that this government is intolerant, desperate and manipulative. They cannot tolerate any opposition not to mention an organized opposition. They will never allow an organized opposition to see the light of day in this country. They will infiltrate and disrupt it. You can see from their body language and utterances. Do you think they appointed over fifty media jackboots they designated “Media Aides” for nothing? Their brief is to attack and drown every voice and comments that do not align with their lies and keep zombie posture.
On the REC appointments, this brought back to the fore the evil this current military Constitution is doing to our democracy in particular and our nation in general. A constitution that empowers the President to appoint all the officials that will conduct an election where he has interest or candidates. A Constitution that surreptitiously ensures that the leadership of other arms of government, the legislature and Judiciary cannot emerge without the President. A Constitution that keeps individuals above institutions. This constitution has unleashed travesty of justice and fairness which is responsible for our instabilities and failures to date. The earlier we trash it, the better for Nigeria and Nigerians.
From unfolding events, Nigerians can wake up tomorrow to the appointment of Gandollar as INEC National Chairman. The impunity APC cannot perpetrate does not exist. The docile silence of the opposition parties had unwittingly kept Yakubu as the Chairman of the INEC despite the monumental failure record in the last elections that have seen the Judiciary clearing the avoidable mess he created. What a disgrace he has brought to the prestigious professorial circle.
Instead of a reprieve from the last election debacles, the ruling party is already strategically positioning its men in the election agency to unleash further mayhem on Nigerian elections for the foreseeable future. You are warned!
It will be suicidal for anyone to think things are normal. We need to demand for what will make Nigeria work seamlessly. The current structure of this country cannot and will not work. The military never wanted democracy to succeed. Their transitions were designed for failure ab initio. It is grand deception and sheer wickedness lying to Nigerians. Let the country be restructured and given a Constitution by all Nigerians, not a sectional or elitist constitution
The call by the former Vice President, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar for constitution of a strategic opposition to rescue the country from APC lies and abracadabra is a very welcome development but it is better not embarked upon if the intention is not people oriented and service to the people is not its bedrock.
Nigeria needs an opposition structure that can mobilize professionals, led by those of the fourth estate of the realm that will look into government policies and projects, predict the outcome and warn Nigerians. Nigerians deserve an opposition that will keep the government on its toes by monitoring projects and feeding Nigeria with the truth. Nigerians will benefit from an opposition that will continuously call out each Ministry, Department and Agency where and when the people’s interests are compromised.
The move by Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State chapter, faulting the appointment of Etekamba Umoren, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is highly commendable. We may need more than press conferences and television interviews to achieve decency in our polity. Unusual times calls for unsual approaches.
Nigerians should remember that this was how Buhari brought his “Change” to steal and waste eight irredeemable year from our nationhood. Tinubu has brought “Emi lo Kan”. “The turn” he is saying is becoming clearer in just six months in office as all figures are showing doom. In just four months of our oil subsidy misery, “O” and “O” registered to do business in Nigeria as Oando is better than contemporary companies without lifting a finger! Who are the “O’s” in Oando?
Let it be known. Nigerians are today contending with a different brand of APC called ASIWAJU PROPAGANDA CAUCUS. This a cult that espouses lies, brainwashing and hypnosis.
Etekamba Umoren is a card carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State who had openly campaigned for the APC during past elections. The man has no moral right being an umpire if a free and fair election is the goal.
What I see coming from Akwa-Ibom is the murdering of Democracy. I saw something, I have said something, it is left to YOU IN PARTICULAR, (ire gangan) apologies to Lagbaja to do something!
We have a nation to save from pretending enemies in government. All well meaning Nigerians should voice out when things are not done right. See Something, Say Something and Do Something.
Dr. Bolaji O Akinyemi is an Apostle and Nation Builder, Convener Apostolic Round Table, ART. Also the BOT Chairman Project Victory Call Initiative, AKA, PVC-Naija.
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08033041236.
