MAN is inherently an idol worshiper. He has a tendency to place another man or an object above the living God. So idol worshiping is not peculiar to Nigerians. However, the propensity of Nigerians to do the extraordinary is legendary. We are by nature boisterous people. When we organise parties, they are usually loud. When we hold telephone conversation, someone who is 50 metres or more away would probably hear our exchanges and hearty laughter. When we talk ordinarily we are usually animated. To the extreme. Sure ours is a big country, the largest black nation in the world. And big is often associated with bad. If you are in doubt ask all big companies in any part of the world. In Nigeria Shell Petroleum Development Company is big and it is perceived as bad. In the United States of America and elsewhere Wal-Mart is big and it is usually perceived as exploitative and an oppressor. Here our governments, whether at the state or federal level, are big and Nigerians view them with suspicion. It is so bad that given a choice, Nigerians would in spite of the implications and consequences vote for the scrapping of governments.
It’s the proclivity for idol worshiping that led Nigerians to surrender their country, and by extension their fate to one man during the presidential election in 2015. The refrain then, ahead of the presidential election, was that if we installed Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as the president our problems would be solved. It appears not to be so again. We are 19 months into the administration of President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) political party and the ship of state appears to be floundering. Our problems seem compounded in virtually all sectors. I am therefore minded to draw a parallel between Nigerians and the Israelis during the time of Prophet Ezekiel. I am guided by a commentary on the scriptures a I read a few days ago. God opened the eye of the spirit of his prophet Ezekiel and showed him all the idols and gods the Israelis and their pious priests were worshiping in their closets. In the open and with their lips, and their lips only, the chosen people of God pretended to be worshiping the Almighty God. They ultimately paid a huge price for what they did in secret including being scattered abroad into exile. In Nigeria we chose our idol consciously and in the open. We installed him in the Villa and proceeded to do obeisance. We are also paying a price.
In the beginning it was considered a high crime akin to treason to voice a contrary view about the choice we had made and the path the country was headed. The supporters of Buhari and the APC (not usually one and the same people) attempted to shout everybody down and to shut everybody up. If you merely suggested that a country that aspires to live in the 21st century and a country that desires to move forward should not engage the reverse gear by anointing a relic from our inglorious past to be the path finder, you were hounded and branded a wailin wailer and a beneficiary of the irredeemably ‘corrupt’ regime of President Goodluck Jonathan. For Buharideens everything the messiah-president did was right and God ordained. When Buhari labeled his yet to be nominated cabinet ministers as noise-makers, we were euphoric. When he said each minister that would be appointed to serve the country would be a surplus to requirement we clapped. When he regaled us with the tale that permanent secretaries were the ones running the ministries and that he would appoint ministers just to obey the Constitution we concurred. We said he was spot on. During those heady days our president elected to live almost permanently on a jet plane and to govern from the sky, and when on ground to govern from off our shores, we said it was the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria. This was in spite of the fact that there was no government in place. We were told with a touch of swagger that Nigeria would have collapsed if Buhari had not been created as president. In other words Nigerians should be grateful for their good fortune.
At the time Buhari acceded the throne there was a slight improvement in public power [electricity] supply and our comatose refineries started spurting a few litres of petrol, and we were regaled with the story of how the ‘body language’ of the no-nonsense new leader had worked the magic. The Buharideens claimed the arrival of a new and sane order because there was a ‘new sheriff in town’. Voices that attempted to moderate our misplaced excitement on the appearance of ‘steady’ power supply and that tried to explain that the water level in our hydro power plants due to the rainy season was responsible for our temporary relief were muzzled. When the rains dried up we returned to reality. When the spurting refineries were gripped by severe cough we quietly returned to wholesale importation of petroleum products. But the die-in-the-wool supporters of Buhari would not be outdone. In collaboration with the APC they returned to the usual refrain: the 16 years of the governance of Nigeria by the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] had done severe and possibly irreparable damage to our country. The story about the new sheriff and body language were conveniently and shamelessly dropped.
Now we are in a bind. Our country is dying before our very eyes. Those who have done the most disservice to the fatherland are the rabid and blind supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari. They transformed a mortal who aspired to lead our country and make his own contribution to national development into a messiah, a god. I did not believe that Buhari was the solution to our myriad national problems back in 2015 and I still do not believe he is equipped to lead our country in this age. It’s been 19 months of serial bungling. The war against corruption has neither rhyme nor rhythm. It’s unorganized. It cannot lead to sustainable convictions. It will not endure after this time. The arms of government – legislature, executive and judiciary – are working at cross purposes. Until recently there were no consultations between the presidency and the national assembly (NASS). Not surprisingly the ruling APC is in a mess. It has been kept at arm’s length by the administration it was supposed to have formed. It’s leaders are at one another’s throat. Mired in embarrassing controversies, the first budget of the Buhari government failed even before it took off. The other day this administration corruptly and shamelessly awarded itself a budget performance of 70 per cent. It holds Nigerians in contempt. The usual tardiness of this administration has led us to the era of rejection of government’s proposals – $30billion off-shore loan rejected by NASS. Medium Term Expenditure Framework rejected. Ambassadorial nominees rejected. 2017 budget in the limbo. Recession biting, inflation spiraling, unemployment a nightmare, crime on the rise and hope diminishing. The same government that promised a bumper farm harvest and food security has now raised the alarm of imminent famine. Trust this administration to make excuses: the looming famine will be caused by farmers and middlemen who have embarked on massive export of farm produce. We created this idol because we are in love with idolatry. So we will live with it.

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