Features: GOOD MORNING NIGERIA Jun 08, 2015 ABUJA, NIGERIA - The last time Nigerians had this kind of feeling was in the month of May, 1999. General Abacha had died in 1998, paving the way for General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Abdulsalami promised a short transition period of eleven months. Nigerians took it with a pinch of salt. This was because of the experience we had with General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida smaradonic dance of a little to the right and a little to the left. After the failed Babangida political experiments, Abacha took over and started afresh. He registered five political parties described by someone as the five fingers of a leprous hand. In his bid to remain in power, he cajoled the five political parties to adopt him as their sole and consensus presidential candidate. Then God intervened and General Abdulsalami stepped in and announced a short transition period from military to democratic rule. It was with the experience of that previous fifteen years (1984 1999) that Nigerians viewed his transition programmes. Will he keep to his promise and allow a free and fair election without truncating the process? He did. The weeks and days leading to the handover date was full of excitements. Eventually on 29 th May 1999, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo took over power as Nigeria s civilian democratically elected president after fifteen years of military rule. The joy in the land was electrifying. After fifteen years in isolation from the meeting of democratic nations the world turned to Nigeria again. World leaders started visiting Nigeria in droves. Bill Clinton, then President of the United States of America also came here. Obasanjo, his government and party, PDP enjoyed the good will of Nigerians. We called him so many pet names; Uncle Shegee, Obj, Baba Iyabo, I dey Kampe. He sang and danced for Nigerians and we laughed with him. Everyone, even page 1 / 5
those who were older than him called him Baba. He is our president, chosen by us. He gave us yabbis and we clapped for him. Let him continue for he was our desire. After his first term in office things started turning sour. It started dawning on Nigerians that we may be in for a long rough ride. He secured a term in office with pains. Then we started hearing rumours that he may not want to go after his constitutionally allowed second tenure. The rumour had it that he was prodding the National Assembly to alter the constitution to accommodate his ambition of a third term. That made it easy for Nigerians to detest him. He became a cheap article for our teaming comedians thriving trade. It was our turn to laugh at him as the comedians cracked jokes about. First we laughed with him, then we laughed at him and eventually yearned for his exist. He handed over to another elected person but our joy at the dawn of democracy in 1999 was never sustained. I started writing this piece on my laptop using the last bar of the battery s life. We had not had electricity supply from DISCO or GENCO for four days. There was no gasoline to fuel the private generating sets, so banks and offices were shutting down hours before closing time. Airlines cancelled scheduled flights and mobile phone companies warned that they might shut down services in 24 hours because they had no gasoline to power the masts. Motorists went through hell sleeping at petrol stations not because they imagined that they could get fuel but they did not know where else to go. When one of my friends told me that he bought 20 litters of petrol for N6,500 I doubted him until I bought it at the same price myself. Well, President Buhari, the agony of the last week, preceding your takeover of power is a practical handover note. It is because of pains and sorrows such as this that we all went out in the rain and sun to effect the change we hope you are. We bore this last punishment with stoic and dignified patience because we imagine it was just a week away to Eldorado. In the midst of the heightened pains and suffering of the last week, Nigerians were upbeat about the handover of 29 th May. Our prayer has being that the incoming government will not dash our hope again. The wait has been long just like the transition to civilian regime in 1999. How did PDP lose the good will of Nigerians? page 2 / 5
I do not claim to be an expert in this, but I imagine that it was because of the culture of lies and deceit and they also took Nigerians for granted. When government functionaries tell blatant lies to a suffering population, such a government does not deserve the trust of the people. When you tell Nigerians that those who do not like your government are behind Boko Haram, do you imagine that that is enough reason not to protect Nigerians and her territory? When Nigerians could see that we were in real trouble, you are hiding behind some excuses of a vague opposition to your government. Nigerians started thinking that something must be seriously wrong with the leadership. We started losing faith in the government when barefaced lies of train services resuming all over the country started making rounds. When the government continued to mouth insulting slogans that our country is the biggest economy in Africa in the face of humiliating poverty, we couldn t trust such leadership. A government that tells us that it has transformed the educational sector simply because they authorized the establishment of new universities is nothing short of fraudulent. This is in the face of the fact that Nigerian children are almost permanently out of school because of strikes and weak education system. A culture of teaching and scholarship that plummeted cannot be called transformation. So when a group of people came along calling themselves Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), many of us Nigerians felt insulted. Their billboards, radio and television advertisements only taught us how foolish they thought we were. Insatiable corrupt individuals invaded the corridors of power such that former President Olusegun Obasanjo observed correctly that corruption has left the corridors of power and entered the living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens of power. That was when Nigerians eventually embraced the Buhari mantra of change. We needed a change not just because All Progressives Congress (APC) used it as their campaign slogan but Nigerians truly need a change of life. We need to change many things, not just in the government but also ourselves. We cannot continue like this and hope to survive as nation. We need a change of attitude. Our driving behaviour on the highways is nothing better than that of urban Gorillas. Once we get on the motor bike or steering wheel of our vehicles we do not remember that there are traffic rules. For this reason many people do not get to their destinations, accounting for the avoidable carnages on our roads. Our page 3 / 5
attitude to government work and public money is so unreligious. We do minimum work and expect maximum pay. When this does not come, we take it by force by way of corruption and outright embezzlement. When it comes to stealing of public funds, religion does not come to mind. We only remember God when we are caught and about to suffer for it, then we remember that there is God. Ethnicity is a card we play to our advantage not because we love the people of our own tribe. We only mouth the love of our ethnic group to justify the hatred we have for other tribes. Nigerians need constant light and water supply. We want petroleum products supplied to the dispensing points and made available to us at reasonable prices. We want our children back to school and remain there to be truly educated and not just to acquire certificates. We want our highways and roads properly built and maintained so that travelling by road in Nigeria will not be a nightmare. We know it is possible and we can do it. We do not want thieves to occupy our corridors of power, steal our common wealth and then employ propagandists to tell us that all is well. We know that all is not well because we can feel it and we are suffering it. We want a change from such system of leadership. We want a change from the common belief that when policemen are sighted in Ikoyi GRA, Victoria Garden City (VGC), Ikeja GRA, Victoria Island, Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse 2 in Abuja, it is to protect a big man there. But when they are sighted in Amukoko or Ajegunle in Lagos, Dutse Alhaji, Mpabe, Lugbe in FCT or any village in Nigeria, it is to arrest a poor man. We have come to realise that we are equal before the law and we should all be protected by the law enforcement agents. Why should big men be protected by soldiers and armed men and the poor people are protected by local vigilante groups? While should our armed men protect the rich and only to harass the poor? We want a change. That was why I stayed in line for four hours to be accredited and another three hours later to vote on the elections day. I wanted another Nigeria and change we must get if not in 2019 we shall summarily change the change. Now Nigerians, the opportunity for another Nigeria has come. The old things have passed away. This is good morning Nigeria! Our President, Mohammodu Buhari, his cabinet and party should know that Nigerians have invested a lot of page 4 / 5
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) hope and trust in them. We know what we went through to get them here today. Nigerians desire a departure from the status quo ante. We yearned, cried and worked for democracy but we did not know how we got into the trap of kleptomaniacs. We thought the military was insensitive until we got into this pit where we are all losing our senses. We are displaced, hungry and harassed and nobody seemed to be in charge of us. This is good morning in Nigeria! We want a government that we can trust. We want a government that will tell us that we are in it together and we shall believe. We want a government that will come out of the room when it hears the people shouting Thief! Thief!! and chase after that thief that has stolen our common wealth. We do not want a government who do protects, celebrates and promotes the thieves and except the 170 Million Nigerians to applaud them. Such a government cannot last. So President Buhari, this is our good morning. We believe and trust that you will deliver and that is why the joy and celebration is electrifying. It is our last hope. If this does not work, Nigerians will be right to take the Arab Spring option. But we hope that we shall not get that option. At your age and by your training and discipline, we believe that you are different and that you can be the change we hold in our hearts. Please be the change we desire and do not disappoint us. Do not turn our good morning into good night. We want to say by 2019 that we truly have a country. By Rev. Fr. Ojaje Idoko page 5 / 5