Leading up to this year’s elections, as Boko Haram stepped up its perverse campaign and terrorized, the All Progressive Congress, APC, found its niche to discredit the efforts of the Goodluck Jonathan administration. It hauled, through various means, disparaging assessment of the former President. Nigerians bought in and handed the government to the APC on the mantra of “change”.
The APC used poetry to sell the urgency of its intention to change Nigeria. At this moment, we witness 4 months of APC’s victory with its mantras and sound bites still fresh on our minds.
The APC said terrorism will end within months. President Buhari said Boko Haram is on the run and its “infrastructural capacity” was weakening; APC said Buhari would clear the menace of terrorism. President Buhari moved Central Command to Maiduguri and all Service Chiefs; He went and formed alliance with neighboring countries (a move he criticized President Jonathan for) President Buhari gave an order to dismantle security checkpoints across the country- as APC and Gov. El-rufai cheered and applauded such a shallow idea (he changed his mind later).
Today Nigeria witnesses a forceful and violent return of Boko Haram to Abuja, killing tens of people. Imagine if President Buhari’s plan to remove checkpoints was carried out the impact it would have had on kidnapping, terrorism and other forms of crimes.
All of a sudden, the APC apologists like Lai Mohammed, El-rufai, Amaechi, and others have gone silent. They were cautioned that changing Presidents alone wasn’t the solution to Boko Haram. Calls for collective efforts and less politicization were ignored. They ignored calls to lower expectations.
Today we mourn those that have died from the bomb blasts in Abuja (Nyanya and Kuje) this past weekend. Since Buhari became President, about 2000 Nigerians have lost their lives. And instead of coming out swiftly to condemn these acts of terror, he waited hours, and sent his staff to assess the scenes like the lives of Nigerians mean nothing.
It is worth mentioning that while President Jonathan was in power, the APC called for his resignation after almost every bombing blaming him for the attacks and castigating him for not visiting Chibok which is more than 500km from Abuja-yet Buhari couldn’t make a 46km trip from Aso Rock to Kuje or 30km to Nyanya.
This is a President that has no problem globe trotting and showcasing how much world leaders are comfortable with his ascension but can’t take out minutes to assess the scenes or condole families.
Mario Cuomo former Governor of the State of New York once said, “You campaign in poetry and govern in prose”. This fits aptly into the mood of the nation. Enough with daily campaign-like vilification of Jonathan, where strange money figures are thrown to the public by the half baked minds of Oshiomole, Amaechi and El-rufai with no evidence; enough with the name-calling and apportioning of blame; enough with the denial of campaign promises and postponement of delivery; enough with the excuses for why results are not seen and pleas for patience.
Get to work and Nigerians will make the excuses for you. It is time for a clear strategy that is thorough and reflective not sentimental and in poetry.
The election is over. No Nigerian should die from terrorism again. Mr. President get to work for the sake of our lives and stop this clueless tendency to always jump into campaign poetry. We need prose. We need action. We need a functioning government and not a campaign organization.
