Buhari And The Child That Was Set Ablaze

By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

A boy, less than 10 years, was set ablaze in Lagos – causing an uproar and condemnation at home and abroad. Yet, President Muhammadu Buhari is silent on this gut-wrenching and barbaric incident. Dead silent! Haba, is he not a father and a grand-father? What would it take for him to address the nation – or at least issue a statement condemning this most inhumane act. 

Does this President not know that in addition to his many other roles and responsibilities, he is the sympathizer-in-chief? Does he not know that he must order the Police to immediately investigate the killing, and send condolences to the parents of the dead child? Does he not know? Or he simply doesn’t care. Showing compassion, and expressing sympathy, is part of what it means to be human and member of the civilized world. 

If this president does not show compassion in times like this, then, he forfeits his claim to respectability and morality. Not only is the President silent, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is also silent – and so is Governor Akinwunmi Ambode (in whose jurisdiction the killing took place).

Members of the clergy are also silent. What manner of a country is this? Where are our men and women of conscience? Is the leadership of the country so out of touch, so inconsiderate, so indifferent, so callous, so iniquitous and so devilish that they are not touched by the killing of a child? Are they devoid of human feeling?

If Buhari, Osinbajo and Ambode refuse to address the people and the parents of the dead child, then, Nigerians must reassess their relationship with these men. If members of the clergy fail to condemn this killing, then, we must think of them as no better than those who killed this child.

May the sleep and happiness of those directly responsible for the death of that innocent child be disturbed. May their lives be forever haunted.

Those who stood by — hands folded or askance, laughing, jeering and deriving joy from the barbarism — are also guilty of the crime. Law enforcement officers and elders who should have saved our child, but who watched without attempting to exhibit their humanity, are also as guilty as those who directly administered death.

Buhari: Six Mistakes In Eighteen Months

By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

President Muhammadu Buhari is not your typical party-man. By that I mean that he is not a politician in the classic sense of the word. Hence, he doesn’t seem to have the full and complete grasp of party-politics. Or may be does, but simply detests it (at least in the way and manner it is being played in Nigeria).  Whether he likes party-politics or not, I have news for him: the sooner he learns to play ball and act like a party-man, the better.

*Buhari 

Party-politics can be dirty, very dirty; but that’s the nature of political association the world over. Even the most honorable of men understands this; yet, they device ways of swimming in the Ocean without being bitten by sharks. They device ways of padding through rivers while evading crocodiles and other hunters. They swim if necessary; and they levitate if levitation is in order. But not so for Buhari who, eighteen months into his presidency, has committed six fundamental mistakes.

First, he is acting as though it is beneath him to get involved in the internal strife of his party. He is wrong! If he does not bring leadership, meaning and direction to the affairs of his party, The All Progressives Congress (APC), his base will fragment and may even collapse.  If he allows the wrangling to get out of hand, the major opposition party, The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will take advantage of the situation and maneuver its way back to power.