By Martins Oloja
This is not a time for
speaking in tongues. It is a time to tell President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and
all the governing APC chieftains that two years should be enough to see some
light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, as someone once put it comically
too, there is neither a tunnel nor light in the country where mediocrity is
daily nurtured by sycophancy.
Indeed, a season of sycophancy is here again and the cheer leaders and mega sycophants who are members of a mega party called AGIP (Any Government in Power) will heap mega praises on the Buhari administration for dealing decisively with corruption and insecurity in the North East. And we in the media will readily assist them in propagating the ‘monumental achievements’ in the last two years. In fact, their consultants within the media have begun the journalistic legwork. And from tomorrow (May 29, 2017), we will be reading balanced stories with headlines such as “Knocks, Kudos For Buhari’s Two Years In Office”. In the end there will be more “kudos” than “knocks” for the 'wonderful' administration, an idea no force on earth could have stopped in May, 2015. We are indeed in an era of sycophancy that has shaped massive mediocrity everywhere we go in the country.
*Buhari |
Indeed, a season of sycophancy is here again and the cheer leaders and mega sycophants who are members of a mega party called AGIP (Any Government in Power) will heap mega praises on the Buhari administration for dealing decisively with corruption and insecurity in the North East. And we in the media will readily assist them in propagating the ‘monumental achievements’ in the last two years. In fact, their consultants within the media have begun the journalistic legwork. And from tomorrow (May 29, 2017), we will be reading balanced stories with headlines such as “Knocks, Kudos For Buhari’s Two Years In Office”. In the end there will be more “kudos” than “knocks” for the 'wonderful' administration, an idea no force on earth could have stopped in May, 2015. We are indeed in an era of sycophancy that has shaped massive mediocrity everywhere we go in the country.
As I had noted in this column before, I
learned from my pastor, Kunle Omotosho, now in New York, that your best friend really is the
one who can ignore a spirit of flattery and tell you the truth you ordinarily
would not like anyone to tell you. That is why I would like to tell PMB and his
men in APC that there is no substance to celebrate if tomorrow comes. In my
village where I attended a Local Authority (LA) Primary school too, I learned
that if you do not tell the wicked of his wickedness immediately, he will be
the first to proclaim himself as a nation builder. This is a time to tell this
administration that it will come to pass soon when mere “technical defeat” of
Boko Haram, securing the release of 103 of the abducted 276 Chibok girls and
arrest of a few but prominent suspects, not yet charged with specific offences
will not be enough to flaunt as achievements. I think it is not so proper to
hail an administration that has no clue about an economy that is not
performing. Just as it is not going to help either the governing party or the
people of this country should we continue to doff our hats for a government
that cannot create jobs for its teeming population in a country where churches
and mosques are daily springing up where factories used to stand.
There is therefore a sense in which we the
people can say today that freedom for some of the missing Chibok girls and
not-so-technical defeat of Boko Haram insurgents and largely media trials of
corrupt people cannot be used to answer a pertinent question at this time:
where indeed is the change promised? Two years on, the superman and change
poster boy from Lagos ,
Babatunde Raji Fashola is still speaking in tongues about radical changes in
the works and power sectors, let alone housing. So, it does appear that the
action man from Lagos , BRF has been largely
inactive in a strange political environment called Abuja . Yes, Abuja, a land that mysteriously demystifies
and paralyses its brightest. BRF is in a den of unarmed killers of dreams; a
work environment that most times elevates its dullest and demotes its best. No
one has heard about any worthy policy thrust from one of the pillars of the
administration from Port Harcourt ,
Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, in the realm of transportation. Aviation industry he
supervises is facing some strains.
Transport (land,
railway and maritime, et al) is experiencing stresses. What is more, the health
sector being supervised by a Professor of Medicine, Isaac Folorunso Adewole is
not yet a place to be proud of. What is more telling: the president is
receiving medical treatment in a country that 60 years ago developed for us a
University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan that used to be a world-class
hospital. The education ministry headed by one of the president’s well-known
men, Malam Adamu Adamu, cannot be proud yet of any significant changes in the
sector.When the cock crows tomorrow for the hours of reckoning for PMB, Adamu
can only clap with one hand. What about the critical Justice system? There will
be a not-so-loud applause tomorrow for anti-corruption fight.
There has been so much noise about exploits in
this sector of the criminal justice system. But I dare say that even the
Attorney General of the Federation who is not too sure that he is charge of the
anti-graft bodies cannot join the bandwagon of celebrators tomorrow to claim
that it is well with both the EFCC, ICPC and CCB. The two bodies can only praise
themselves tomorrow and members of AGIP will clap for them. But they cannot say
that their investigations have been thorough, transparent and fair. It has been
noted here that only a reform of the system that recognises the prime place of
the Attorney General in this connection, will benefit from war on corruption.
Besides, beyond media trials that many citizens have been complaining about, it
is only when the war on corruption can also focus on recording breakthroughs in
preventing stealing in the public sector that we can celebrate. There have been
indications that current public servants are still very involved in stealing
public funds. And so if the next administration can still find “execu-thieves”,
“legislooters” and “judi-sharers” in the current administration, it means the
whole exercise has been a charade, after all.
As the PMB administration steps out tomorrow
to mark second year in office, even the head of the presidential bureaucracy,
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation will be missing in action.
The SGF, Mr. Babachir David Lawal was on April 19, 2017 suspended from office
on corruption allegation. This is not a credit as some cheer leaders would want
us to believe. The federal bureaucracy and indeed the entire machinery of government
have been incredibly epileptic under PMB. Most of the federal agencies
including economic, health, education ones, and extra-ministerial departments
whose heads were removed since 2015are just getting replacements. Most Of them
are still without substantive heads.
I complained in this column a few weeks back
that even most of the diplomatic missions abroad whose envoys were also
recalled two years ago are still awaiting replacements. These include priority
ones such as United Kingdom ,
United States , Germany , France ,
Russia , Spain & Vatican
& China .
The ambassadors-designate have since been cleared by the Senate and service
orientation done for them two months ago. But the powerful procrastination
spirit in the presidency has not lifted its ban on operational efficiency
there. Despite the unnecessary delay in selecting them, the envoys have not
been posted. It is doubtful if the acting president now surrounded by a wily
cabal will approve the posting of diplomats that even the foreign affairs
ministry didn’t know when they were nominated.
What is worse, I just confirmed that even the
unique administration of the Federal
Capital Territory
under the APC’s two-year old government has been uninspiring too. Two years on,
the FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello too has not constituted the Executive
Council members to manage various sectors such as Education, Health & Human
Services, Engineering, Public Works, Legal Secretariat, etc. The implications
are clear: there have been no political heads for all the mandate secretariats
since the last minister left office in 2015. Besides, there are no substantive
directors in the bureaucracy. Most of the directors in the FCT bureaucracy have
been in hibernation mode: And all the acting directors were appointed from the
rank of assistant directors, not from deputy director’s cadre. And wait for
this: the acting directorswho were appointed long ago through a press
statement, have no appointment letters yet. That is why critical infrastructure
in Abuja , our Abuja too has been degenerating before our
very eyes. Which was why a shocked resident once reported sarcastically that
the FCT Minister posted by PMB since 2015 has not assumed duty. This is part of
the ugly faces of the APC administration that they won’t want anyone to see tomorrow.
I mean even the beautiful 41-year old nation’s capital has been violated by the
APC administration. We need to tell them to wake up from their deep slumber
from tomorrow.
*Mr. Oloja, former Editor of The Guardian, now sits on the Editorial Board of the paper
No comments:
Post a Comment