2018: Long Walk, Long Wait For Change By Bayo Oluwasanmi #Ontopnigeria
Thousand and Eighteen.
Two Sundays ago, Premium Times reports that Osinbajo
during an interview with journalists after a church program
in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, said "There are lots of
people who will say where is the change they promised?"
"People will condemn and shout," says Osinbajo, "but we are
focused, calm and extremely confident that God is on our
side and this country will not be the same," the preacher VP
assured a doubting and restless nation. Still preaching to the
body of citizens with expired hope, he said "In another
couple of years, in 2018 we will see the difference."
By now, Nigerians are familiar with the fire wall of blame
game erected by both President Muhammadu Buhari and
Vice-President Osinbajo around their failure to deliver their
signature campaign slogan of "change." Osinbajo's
statement sounds unrealistic with a biting satire of
optimism. Muhammadu Buhari administration is "focused
and determined to ensure this country is put on the right
track," says Osinbajo. As if on the pulpit, the preacher-pastor
VP is fired up: "All of us have a part to play in the change.
Nigerians must be patriotic in our dealings and daily
activities. We should be committed to the nation," says
Osinbajo.
By the way, whose change is it? For who and by who? Who
owns the change? Who promised change? Who needs
change? The campaign of "change begins with me" concocted
by the Buhari-Osinbajo administration is a manipulative
reverse psychology of blaming the victims (Nigerians) for
being victims of the regime's deception, incompetence,
inaction, and mismanagement of the economy that has
brought more misery than relief to Nigerians in the past 16
months.
The political strategy of blaming the previous administration
and shifting responsibility of change to the Nigerian people
by this administration is a wild and dangerous invention. It
would only fern resentment, anger, and hatred from poor
Nigerians against the government whose campaign
cornerstone was "change." No doubt, the progress report
card of the administration in the past 16 months has
destroyed to a large extent its credibility. It has eroded our
trust and loyalty
The Buhari-Osinbajo preference is to appear like they're
solving the problems for which we duly elected them to
tackle, rather than actually tackling them. We're inundated
with the same repulsive regurgitating mantra of why the
"change" they promised isn't forth coming – soon. Listen to
the second part of the VP's sermon: "One of the reasons why
we are in a recession is the fact that we lost about 60 per
cent of our revenue due to the vandalisation of the pipelines
on the Niger/Delta and we lost almost 40 per cent of the
gas." "These are challenging times," Osinbajo reminds his
Nigerian congregation. "It is very obvious and we know the
reasons. It is high level of corruption and we have dealt with
that. We are controlling government expenditure. Once you
can control corruption, we are out of it.
We're tired of the sickening repetitive excuse of dwindling
revenues from oil as one of the reasons for the
incompetence of the administration. Buhari-Osinbajo knew
way back that revenue from oil had fallen before they came
into office. It's no new news. We have dealt with corruption?
How? How can you control corruption when corruption is
dictating the terms of engagement in the war against
corruption? What results have you gotten? Is there anything
to celebrate in the war of corruption when a thief only
refunds chicken change of a million or two from billions of
heist taken from our treasury? Is there any reason to roll out
the drums when the looters particularly the most prominent
and the ones with the most pile of stolen Naira like Bukola
Abiku Mesujamba Saraki, Sambo, and other baron looters
still out there untouched, unmoved, unaffected, and free
from prosecution and conviction.
Mr. VP, what's the status of war on corruption now with
these thieves? What happened to their cases? How long
would it take to prosecute and convict them? What
happened to the proposed corruption courts? What's the
purpose of fighting corruption without corresponding
punitive punishment that could deter other elected thieves
from stealing?
We know change is incremental. It comes in bits and bites. It
won't be a wholesale one-time event. Fact is, we've not even
seen any small change taking place, except from the
screaming headlines of arrests of looters by the EFCC on
pages of newspapers and the paltry refunds from the
thieves. It's all deja vu again – it's change without change.
The unfulfilled promise of change by this administration is
an ominous climb-down from its pre-election claims and it's
a destructive weapon typical of political con artists.
We now know that the APC campaign slogan of change was
an empty promise and trade mark arrogance that made the
change mantra both despised and disturbing. If there was a
time when the joke of Buhari-Osinbajo administration lost
all its humor, it's clearly now. Change? What change? It's a
change we can't believe in: undiminished unemployment,
the daily aggravated starvation, the unmatched penury of
families, the unattended health problems of millions of sick
and the infirm, the tone deaf attitude to constructive
criticisms and suggestions coupled with the administration's
ineptitude of not acting faster, promptly, properly,
proactively, and decisively. But the most relentless drag on
the administration that promised change is even more
ominous. It's the country's fatalistic sense of hopelessness
and helplessness arising from the stalled moribund
economy which remains intractable.
The change vis-a-vis the war on corruption seems to have a
prosecutorial gene. Its failure to get conviction speedily and
successfully against the public faces of corruption whose
membership includes high power and high visible
politicians. The Buhari-Osinbajo led federal government has
neither aggressively prosecute corruption nor compellingly
worried by the snail speed with which it fights corruption.
Indeed, the unannounced truce reached on corruption
between the government and the thieves makes President
Buhari looks like he's fronting for the crooks and the thieves
even if he's not.
Buhari-Osinbajo administration is guilty of transgression of
undelivered change that it promised Nigerians. As we
confront the disappointment of heart wrenching political
malpractice, a troubling sense of malaise and despair casts
a pall shadow on the lives of our people. Nigerians are
boiling with anger for the failure of the government to
respond adequately and aggressively enough to the massive
wave of sufferings because of rising unemployment and
resistant poverty. The failure to respond directly by targeting
the needs of our people makes mockery of a government
that boasts of change.
The sermon on change by Osinbajo is a quick-witted farce
that doubles as the most disengaging and comic filled buck
passing of a campaign promise. Nigerians, brace up and
fasten your seat belts – it's going to be a long walk, long wait,
for change in 2018, a year before the demise of the Buhari-
Osinbajo government.
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