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.
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