Buhari and Abike Dabiri as Poster Boys for All that is Wrong with Nigeria

Buhari and Abike Dabiri as Poster Boys for All that is Wrong with Nigeria

with Reno Omokri

FFor Nigeria to grow into a nation that fulfills its destiny as the Giant of Africa and a beacon of hope for the Black world, it is not corruption we have to kill. Corruption is a symptom. It is not our disease.

The disease plaguing this nation called Nigeria is that we are a forced union. Over the years, it was expected that we would become a real nation, but the actions of many of our rulers (we have had few, if any leaders) have served to exacerbate the artificiality of our union, with the present Buhari administration being the biggest culprit I have seen in my lifetime.

This administration started out heralding its tribalistic nature from the get go. Fresh from his first term inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari signalled the fact that he would create first and second class citizens by saying in Washington that “The constituents, for example, gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%.”

I have not added or subtracted to his words. Those were the President’s exact words. And he has introduced policies and surrounded himself with people whose words and actions give effect to that statement. One of these persons is Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Mr. Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant Foreign Affairs and Diaspora.

Miss Dabiri-Erewa has not hidden her disdain for people of a certain part of Nigeria. This much was evident after the Dubai robbery incident at the Al Ansari Exchange on March 20, 2019 Miss Dabiri-Erewa was one of the first government spokespersons to react to the incident.

This is exactly what Abike said precisely 2 months ago, while reacting to the Dubai robbery “We need to tell our brothers behaving badly to behave. Let’s get the names of those involved to NAME and SHAME them.”
The threat was obviously carried out and we soon knew the identities of those involved. They were of the Igbo ethnic nationality from the Southeast.

They came from the heartland of “the constituents, for example, gave me 97%”. But when multiple Nigerians were either executed or arrested for drug related offences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and another set for Internet and credit card/mortgage fraud in the United States, Miss Dabiri-Erewa did not feel the outrage she felt over the Dubai incident.

There was no burning desire to “name and shame” those involved. And when Saudi Arabia and the US (not Nigeria) eventually released the names of those involved, I could understand Abike’s dilemma. The names were too close for comfort. Too close indeed. They were not 5 percenters. They were 97 percenters.

The words and actions of Mr. Buhari and his appointees, like Miss Dabiri-Erewa, make clear that in their world view for Nigeria, people of Igbo descent are second class citizens not worthy of the full love, protection and projection of the state.

A while back, I said those marginalising the Igbo race in Nigeria are simply, but unknowingly to them, carrying out God’s plan of creating an atmosphere that forces the Igbo to leave Nigeria and fulfil their destiny of dominating the world.
This week, I am further vindicated as I celebrate Kaycee Madu, an Igbo who was first elected an MP in Canada and has now been appointed a minister of Municipal Affairs. All over the world, there are many Igbos like Mr. Madu.

I thought Abike Dabiri would celebrate this feat. She did not. My question is this: How does it make sense to highlight the Dubai robbery and downplay this amazing feat?

President Muhammadu Buhari very often likes to say that ‘if we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.’ He is wrong. Nigeria is more corrupt today than in 2015 because ‘ if we do not kill tribalism, it will lead to corruption, which will kill Nigeria’.

Nigerians are not corrupt because we are genetically given to corruption. No. The corruption in Nigeria stems from injustice. When you use the instruments of government to favour your tribe and religion, you are watering and fertilising corruption.

Neither President Buhari, nor his Senior Special Assistant Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, have acknowledged Mr. Madu. This is a government that would acknowledge their favoured tribesmen if they win even a zobo drinking competition.

Last August, Five girls from Regina Pacies Secondary School, in the Southeastern state of Anambra, won the 2018 Technovation Challenge on 9 August 2018. It is the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering abs Mathematics) Olympics. Neither President Buhari nor Abike Dabiri-Erewa seem to be aware of their feat. If they had been robbers. We would not have heard the last from the duo. It is these obvious and latent tribalism that is eating at the fabric of our nationhood and preventing us from fulfilling our destiny as a nation. That is why Nigerians do so badly in Nigeria, but when they go abroad, they perform so well, to the extent that even books, like Amy Chua’s Battle Hill of the Tiger Mother, are written about how to train up your child in the West, like a Nigerian parent.

Until we stop electing leaders who think tribe and religion, first, second and last, we will continue to chase our tails and think foolishly that we are chasing corruption.

That is why President Buhari believes that General Sani Abacha, a man convicted by multiple courts of law in Europe for grand theft, ‘did not steal’, yet believed that all his other professors, who have never been convicted, are thieves.

That is why Abike Dabiri-Erewa will celebrate Nigerians from one part and denigrate citizens from another part.
Hopefully, when Nigeria needs Mr. Madu’s help to secure aid and investment from Canada in future, the government will belated acknowledge his feat. Until then, I will not hold my breath.

Reno’s Darts
In Nigeria today, you can condemn anyone to death by doing any of the following:
* Make them travel Abuja-Kaduna road
* Employ them as Kogi civil servants
* Give them farms in Benue
* Relocate them to Zamfara
* Transfer them to Southern Kaduna
* Make them a trader in Katsina
* Deploy a soldier to Borno
* Convert to Shia and become a Shiite
* Voting your conscience as an Igbo in Isolo, Lagos
* Visiting Kajuru Castle for your holiday
Under Buhari, life in Nigeria is almost a death sentence #RenosDarts

Reno’s Nuggets
Never confuse a man who has been humbled by life for a man who lives a humble life. One is by force, the other is by choice. Many poor men look humble. But in fact, they‘re not humble. They have been humbled. Let money come and they become prideful. God loves some people too much to give them wealth in their present condition. They can be close to God in their poverty, but as they become successful, the gulf between them and their God increases as their success increases and they may end up in hell #FreeLeahSharibu #RenosNuggets

 

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