U.S-based Nigerian lawyer, Oyinye Gandhi has criticized the President Muhammadu Buhari administration over the spate of killings across the country.
The primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people. This is the basis of the concept of social contract, and the reason why a government that can neither secure nor cater to its citizens is not deserving of their loyalty and cooperation, and must be dismantled or sacked by popular will.
Since our nation’s founding, the Nigerian people have consistently suffered the indignity of having their affairs and collective destiny determined by a corrupt, selfish, and incompetent oligarchy – drawn from all corners of the country – whose hedonistic comforts and obscene wealth are sustained by the people’s poverty, misery, and death. Mr. Muhammadu Buhari happens to be the latest representative of this lazy and predatory oligarchy, and must be exposed and rejected.
Mr. Buhari conned his way to power last year on a false message of integrity, strength, and courageous discipline. His message was timely as it contrasted sharply with his predecessor’s open embrace of corruption and a cowardly incapacity to protect our people from domestic terrorists.
However, as with his many other deceitful campaign promises, the strength and courage Mr. Buhari projected have turned out a facade as the nation burns under his watch. His pledge on security now rings hollow and, just like Jonathan before him, he appears utterly clueless, resorting to lame excuses where strategy and action are required.
Worse still, Mr. Buhari’s incompetence is now taking a huge toll on our people who have had to pay immeasurable costs in tears and blood even as they bear the burden of economic hardship and systemic impoverishment. A government that has consistently failed to provide for them has also now failed to protect them.
Burnt and mutilated corpses of innocent citizens, especially defenseless women and children litter the streets, farms, and villages of Adamawa, Yobe, Borno, Benue, and Plateau. Indeed, since Mr. Buhari assumed office, almost every part of the country has witnessed horrific bloodletting while he stays aloof and largely unperturbed.
Mr. Buhari’s shameless defenders who like to absolve him of any blame even in the most glaring cases of incompetence, now tell us that his political opponents are responsible for the killings. They however fail to explain how a president with the full complements of the nation’s armed services; a president who recently launched overt military operations in largely peaceful parts of the country, is suddenly powerless before a genocidal horde of criminals slaughtering our people up North.
Curiously, a certain Danladi Ciroma who chairs the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association to which Mr. Buhari is a Patron, has all but claimed responsibility for the recent killings (He has issued a denial). But rather than interrogate Ciroma’s claims and possibly bring him and his cohorts to book, Mr. Buhari has chosen to play deaf, and has instead urged the nation to pray!
I should point out that I strongly disagree with the indiscriminate and blanket use of the term ‘Fulani Herdsmen’ to describe these soulless mass murderers. I believe it is unfair to the many poor men and women of Fulani extraction who neither support, nor participate in these killings, and who are also victims of the failed leadership of Mr. Buhari, his Fulani origins notwithstanding.
More so, the ethnic, political, or religious identities of the culprits in these killings are only relevant to the extent that they help in their capture. A criminal should be treated as one regardless of their identity.
But Mr. Buhari’s response to the killings is what really matters, and in his 3 disastrous years in office, he has amply demonstrated that he couldn’t be bothered if Nigerians are slaughtered. He never visited any of the distressed communities to comfort and mourn with grieving families whose grief was the result of his failure to do his job. Meanwhile, he gleefully attends elitist weddings and campaign events across the country.
His recent visit to Jos was clearly because elections are near. He seeks to again dupe our people into handing him another 4 years to spend public resources treating ‘ear infection’ at a London hospital while our hospitals lay decrepit and abandoned. This is a disgrace!
There is no doubt that Mr. Buhari has failed our people on every measure of leadership. But his inability to secure the country and protect our citizens is the more damning. The cost of his incompetence has been very bloody for us, and we must collectively resolve to kick him out at the polls next year.
Written by Oyinye Gandhi, he is an Attorney, International Finance and Investment Consultant, Policy Analyst, Public Speaker, Humanist.
