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Suddenly and for no apparent reason, anarchy is loose upon Anambra State. The people are in shock and wondering why. Why Anambra? Why this time that we have a new leadership with a great vision to reposition the state and reset development?
Prof Soludo is passionate about his vision anchored on five key pillars of development aimed at transforming the state beyond petroleum into the digital world of the 4thindustrial revolution. He has been methodical and vocal about the direction he is headed. But, little can be achieved amidst the spate of insecurity in the State. The primary purpose of government is to protect lives of the citizens, without which government will be of no value. The government alone cannot secure lives and property without the cooperation and participation of the people; hence security is a collective responsibility.
The criminals causing violence in the state are not fallen angels. Whatever is the grouse can be addressed. We the Igbo have lost many lives and wasted so much blood. We must understand that we do not have any more blood to waste. I urge those killing people under whatever guise to stop. The unacceptable gruesome murder of Fatima Jubril remains fresh. She was murdered along with her four children – Fatima (nine), Aisha (seven), Hadiza (five) and Zaituna, two years.
These are Nigerians whose only crime were to be citizens of a country where law and order has broken down and life is worthless. There is no mistaking that the killers of Fatima and her children are criminals. I share in the grief of Harira Jubril. Only God can console and comfort him in his moment of grief because what he is going through is one of the worse experiences for anyone to lose a pregnant wife and four children at a go.
The killings are unacceptable and the criminals do not represent our values as Igbo. They are criminals who will not find peace on earth and in heaven. Their aim is to instigate ethnic and religious crisis but they will fail. The state must spare nothing to fish the monsters out and bring them to justice.
Insecurity in Nigeria is not peculiar to Anambra. Everybody agrees the country is in bad shape. President Buhari was APC’s ‘knight in shining armour’ in 2015, but they were wrong; the growing list of failures of the government manifested early in the life of the administration when it took the new president nearly seven months to form his cabinet. By the end of his first term of four years in 2019 , the party found out the hard way that the president they foisted on Nigeria was a flop but they could do nothing about it but continue to hail him as their hero, champion of all things and the defeater of ‘clueless’ Goodluck Jonathan.
To his followers, Buhari could do no wrong. He was the great military General who would save Nigeria from insecurity and corruption. But, with less than 12 months to the end of his second term in office, things have grown from bad to worse. The administration has failed miserably across board, particularly on its key agenda to end corruption, insecurity, create jobs, grow the economy, infrastructural development and you can name it.
Nigerians are completely fed up. Northern Elders recently asked him to resign if he cannot fix insecurity in the region. In his home state of Katsina , bandits are killing people , raping women and kidnapping for ransom. Inflation is biting so hard that people can barely survive. The only profitable business is corruption, banditry and kidnapping. Corruption and crime have become so massive that the country has become numbed.
Eighty to 90 per cent of crude oil production is stolen. NNPC remains the only oil company in the world reporting zero profit. The Accountant General of the Federation reportedly stole over N80bn, and another of the president’s appointee reportedly stole trillions. Academic Staff Union of Universities remains on strike as tertiary education is disrupted. In absence of jobs the youths are recruited by bandits, insurgents and ‘unknown gunmen.’
Despite our differences and polarization which make it impossible for us to agree on anything, Nigerians are agreed on one thing, that the country is in bad shape and require rescue from Buhari. Even his party has turned against him to the extent that almost ten of his ministers resigned to contest for the position of president which he presently occupies and all of them promising change.
What are they going to change that they didn’t change working with him? Does it mean the leader is the number one problem? But his foot soldiers like Lai Mohammed will tell us to shut up. My friend who is his spokesman will tell us to be grateful that Buhari is the president and that without him, Nigeria would have collapsed. That’s interesting because I don’t even know whether we still have a country or not.
Every day, you are just inundated with seemingly negative headlines that leave you in sour mood. Yet, the leader wonders why we are angry and unhappy. He is not aware that he has ruined our politics, our interfaith, our social cohesion, our unity and our economy. The country is completely broken. Someone said the country is at a point of no return and may crash because the leader is asleep and when he is not asleep, he is not aware – a complete definition of incompetence.
On the political terrain, things are changing fast, as you know you can tell how fast they are changing the way people talk about politics. Just today, one of my heroes in PDP dumped the party to join Kwankwanso in NNPP. That move immediately changed the way people now viewed 2023, especially the Igbo who have very deep feelings of their political marginalisation. They think the two major parties APC and PDP have been immoral in handling the Igbo question and that the much-anticipated revolution has started with Obi teaming up with Kwakwanso.
I don’t want to rush into a quick conclusion but Obi’s move with Kwakwanso is going to create some nightmares for both the PDP and APC. However, I don’t know how APC intends to win the 2023 election given the abysmal record of this administration which has done nothing to improve people’s welfare. And there is no evidence that if given another chance, the party will improve the life of Nigerians.
Every promise they made in 2015 turned out to end in disaster. Now some of them who served in the disastrous regime are saying ‘give us another four years’ and we will turn Nigeria into London. I doubt anyone believes them.
Adjusting adults learn from humiliating failures and not so can be said of APC leaders because they hardly accept responsibility for their failures. First they need to accept that what they packaged and sold to Nigerians was a failure. That instead of fixing the country, they destroyed it. At his inauguration, President Buhari promised hope, he promised ‘to be for everyone but for no one’, but in the end, he delivered division and rage. Nigerians are today killing each other without fear of consequence. That’s why Deborah Samuel was murdered in Sokoto by extremists, Imoh Joseph was lynched in Lagos, Fatimah Jubril and her four gifted children were killed in Anambra and Hon Okechuku Okoye was beheaded. Indeed the country is in bad shape and needs to be rescued.
