…. The Inheritors

It is bad, very bad and it does not matter whether you are a Buhari supporter or you hate his guts. It is that bad. We all know that crazy things happen in government but to have these things in such stark details? And these are not details from an investigative journalist nor a member of the opposition who you may accuse of bias but from someone hitherto thought to be a core member of the Buhari administration… that document leaves you breathless.

I actually believe that President Muhammed Buhari owes a ton of gratitude to whoever leaked the memo sent to him by his Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu. You cannot sweep this under the carpet or hope that it will go away. How? Those close to the President should let him know that how he deals with the content of the Kachikwu memo will define whether he is the leader of the Federal Republic or he is a leader of some people within the Federal Republic. His place in the politics of Nigeria is under attack. Please the attack is not by Ibe Kachikwu but by those who forced Ibe Kachikwu to write those words.

“I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody” so declared the former army general on the day he was inaugurated as the democratically elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To me, those words are the most memorable words ever spoken by Muhammadu Buhari. Those words are his contract with the Nigerian people. They were expected to set up the moral compass for a presidency many hoped would attack the lack of moral compass in the way Nigeria has been run.

A major part of the crisis that the Nigerian nation has faced since Buhari was elected is that there are many in the country who believe that despite Buhari’s words, he does not belong to them. That has been underlined by those who by their actions and body language tell you that Buhari does not belong to everyone but to them and them alone. These people believe that they are ‘the inheritors’ of Nigeria and the inheritors behave like the are conquerors of the Nigerian nation who are not bound by the law. After all, they now own the country and they are the law. They believe that due process is a buzz term meant for others and not for them, after all, they now own the country. I have personally encountered this behavior and these people are running amok.

What the Kachikwu memo has done is to lay out the tendencies in a very frightening manner and the only one who can deal with the matter is Muhammad Buhari and I do not think that he has a lot of time. While the President fights those he may consider his enemies, his biggest enemies after all may be those he had considered his friends.

The words, “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody” must now have meaning if the Buhari brand is not going to be irretrievably tarnished. The President must show that he is not the one encouraging the rabid corruption and impudence brought out in the Kachikwu memo. Put simply, heads must roll and roll soon.

See you next week.