Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta
‘‘Indeed, they brought as a result of their nefarious activities, a new reference point to the polity: instability, upheaval and rot. They met gold in 1999 as they came to power, but turned it to dung hill in the name of governance by 2003.The story of how Nigeria is being bled white by these gross incompetent individuals, nitwits, who are putridly corrupt, is a subject of another book: people with demented conscience.’’ Quoted in Nowinta’s book, 2009: Where We Are (page 133).
Honestly, I had planned to discuss the inconclusive Governorship Election in Bayelsa state today, where sitting Governor Seriake Dickson against all odds has proved himself to be a gallant fighter.
But as the details of how an individual became a tin god under the nose of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan kept reeling out I decided to change my mind.
Quickly, I want to posit that what we have seen in Kogi and Bayelsa states about the governorship elections in those places shows clearly that a lot still have to be done about our electoral system
Even with the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and the wonder, called Card Readers Device (CRD), available for the electorate to utilize during elections the issue of unbridled violence and other electoral malpractices still persists.
As a result of this excruciating reality, a situation where professional election riggers are still breathing fire and fury during electioneering process, the Presidency and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must put in place Electoral Offence Tribunal as a matter of urgency.
If Nigerians know they will go to jail if caught and found guilty in electoral matters they will think twice before risking their lives, and it will bring electoral violence and rigging to the barest minimum.
Now coming to the sad issue of Dasuki and the forty bandits. The questions that keep ringing in my head are as follows: What happened to the Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan as soon as Col Sambo Dasuki was smuggled in as the nation’s National Security Adviser?
Was it that the Boko Haram’s insanity unknowingly overwhelmed him that he subsequently lost control in Aso Rock Presidential Palace?
Was Dr. Goodluck Jonathan under some spell that the man became so powerful, dominating and omnipresent in the name of national security?
I want to believe that those that planted Col Sambo Dasuki inside Dr. Jonathan’s government did their homework pretty well.
For sixteen years (since 1999) a group of people had their ways incredibly, enriching themselves while majority of the citizens of Nigeria suffered untold hardship; still bleeding mercilessly.
What Dasuki and his band of rogues have done is simply beyond pardon. I am particularly amazed about the role ex-Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala played in the whole saga.
Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s role in the Arms Deal suggests that he was quite a figure head like how Alhaji Shehu Shagari looked the other way when Adisa Akinloye and Umaru Dikko of this world savagely swept the treasury in the Second Republic.
Particularly humiliating was the wastage of the Abacha loot which took several precious time and efforts before the money was returned to Nigeria.
For the enlightenment of those who did not know, General Sani Abacha held the nation by the jugular from 1993 to 1998 and went on to surpass his predecessors in office in the business of shameless stealing of our commonwealth and gross human rights violation.
How do we explain a situation such as what Sambo Dasuki and his cohorts have perfected? That in sixteen years of phony democracy we are back to square one where General Abacha dumped us all?
That the Abacha loot too has gone the way of the man that first stole the money? Why did the forces that control the status quo refused to shift; refused to blink in the reckless wastage of our commonwealth?
What a bad leadership! What an unscrapable wounds inflicted on the body polity and the ordinary people! It is most unfortunate that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure too has become a story of top grade conspiracy, of tricksters and manipulations of mercenaries in power.
Never before have the Nigerian people been so brazenly betrayed in a systematic manner.
Now I only sincerely hope President Muhammadu Buhari will uncompromisingly handle all those that committed a crime against the people that are suffering and bleeding to death daily today!
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
