A Government Of Wasters And Wanderers -By Kene Obiezu

Wonders they say will never cease.

But Nigerians can wonder no more as it is now beyond every shred of doubt that there is in place in the country a government that has not only come to waste eight precious years out of Nigerians time, but is determined, as it retreats to the refuse dump of history, to leave behind a country plagued by a wasting sickness.

Charity abroad, austerity and hypocrisy at home.

For the APC-led federal government, charity obviously begins abroad, in a riotous inversion of everything the aphorism ‘charity begins at home,” stands for, an inversion that reeks of an invasion.

While Nigerian undergraduate students approach their sixth month, grounded at home by a strike action midwifed by the insensitivity and mendacity of the federal government, and no little complicity by the Academic Staff Union of Universities( ASUU),it is a thing of wonder that a government that watches and does nothing as the clothes on the bodies of those who elected it are worn down to rags, can come up with cash to stock the fleet of vehicles available to the presidency of another country, where the president is rumoured to have cousins. Perhaps, it is time those who cursed Nigeria with bad leadership stepped forward to spell out what must be done in appeasement to life the plague.

A cabinet of curiousities

Were the Nigerian public official not so criminally thick-skinned, perhaps, the ministers who attend the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting every Wednesday will look at each other and feel some shame at what the country has become under them. But no.

They go in there, talk gibberish, come out and blare into media cameras and microphones with all the arrogance of demi-gods.

Thus, when Zainab Usman, Nigerias Minister of Finance, was asked of the allegation that the Buhari administration had spent 1.4 billion naira to purchase vehicles for Niger Republic, it was with a straight face that she confirmed the reports before going on to defend the decision, concluding her extremely brittle defense with the nauseous line that it was a decision she could not question.

That appropriation of Nigerian public funds to a foreign country leaked. But how many more of such appropriations have disappeared behind Nigerias towering walls of secrecy and silence?

In these days when the National Broadcasting Commission moves around like a walking corpse seeking media houses to sanction for breaching a code draped with draconian dictates, how much of Nigerias money has been frittered away to foreign, Muslim-majority countries, in the name of security assistance?

A historic mistake

Hindsight is always so beneficent and with it, Nigerians can see that the APC-led government they elected in 2015 and again in 2019 has been a disastrous mistake.

What has not happened to Nigerians under an administration that took all of six months to knock its cabinet into shape? What have Nigerian eyes not seen under an administration where insecurity has become a nightmare for many Nigerians? In Igbo folklore, when an old woman falls twice in the course of her itinerary, an inventory is taken of the contents of her basket. Are Nigerians taking count?

Are Nigerians using their tongue to count their teeth? A national population census is billed for next year, is it corpses that would be counted?

Neighbour or nightmare

To defend spending 1.4 billion naira on vehicles for the Nigerien government at a time when the country can do with every kobo those who occupy do not fail to account for, the Minister of Finance spoke of how Nigers security is also Nigerias security, and how helping the country stay secure is also in the interest of Nigerians.

But do Nigerians know that there isn’t more to it? In a country where many of the terrorists running rural Nigerians ragged are said to be from foreign countries, do Nigerians know that Niger republic is doing enough if anything at all to stop criminals from pouring into the country through its borders?

Cross-border cronyism

It appears that this time around, Nigerians do not have to wait for long to see that the entire display was a mating strategy.

For an APC-led government that extols nepotism and cronyism, it is no coincidence that at about the same time the Minister of Finance was embarrassingly scrambling to defend the purchase of the vehicles for the Nigerien government, dubious Nigerien national awards were awarded the sextet of Sarki Abba( Senior Special Assistant, Household and Domestic Affairs,to the President), Lawal Kazaure( State Chief of Protocol to the President), Aliko Dangote( President of Dangote Group), Abdulsamad Rabi’u( President BUA Group), Badaru Abubakar( the Jigawa State Governor) and Mohammed Matawalle( the Zamfara State Governor to commemorate the country`s independence day on August 3.

When these awards are put side by side with the fact that all the awardees are close associates of the current administration which is scrambling to defend the purchase of vehicles worth 1.4 billion naira to the Nigerien government, the connection is unmistakable.

Of the lot, the case of the Zamfara State Governor, Mohammed Matawalle, is the most curious. He was awarded for promoting national security in Niger Republic, including the donation of five Hilux vans to the country. While he crosses the border to play the role of Father Christmas with public funds, Zamfara State where he is governor is being overrun by terrorist bandits.

Nigerians must bewail that day in 2015 when they first stepped up to usher in the current administration. But more than lamentation, Nigerians must refuse to repeat the mistake of the past next year.

The songbirds of sophistry and casuistry
With the 2023 general election coming ever close, those who wish to deceive Nigerians again are already all over the place. They are promising to build up the same country they have been actively involved in destroying in the last seven years.

Nigerians must read between the lines and be prepare to take back their country from the predators who pose as public officers.

Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com