28-10-2024.

The sacking of some ministers and the retention of others in the federal cabinet says in bold relief that the long expected reshuffle was nothing but shambolic in its intention.

A lot of the performing members were dropped, while many un performing and controversy-trailed members were retained. Such people, if they were working for the people not for themselves, fought to have resigned from their positions when accusing figures started pointing at them. Concerned Nigerians see nothing extraordinary in the exercise but a self serving manoeuvre by the person who is the head of the country. Indeed, for the exercise to be holistic in the eyes of many compatriots, it should have included the people, who in selfless societies, ought to have left the cabinet a long time ago.

Failure to get rid of some un performing and unproductive people from the cabinet is designed to reward anything but merit. It was a triumph of darkness over brightness, triumph of lies over truth, triumph of opaqueness over clarity, triumph of fakeness over reality. It was indeed a triumph of everything that is evil over everything that is good, in Nigeria.

Some of the dropped aides’s fault was their insistence that things should be done according to the constitution and the rule of law, not according to the wish and whims of the President or of a minority close to Mr. President, which, according to some public affairs commentators, is a great mistake as far as the number one citizen in the country is concerned.

According to them and those who claim to know the mind of the President, he is the type of person who does not tolerate a challenge, no matter how superior the other person’s argument may be. He would rather surround himself with ‘yes you are right Mr. President’ people, than those who would challenge his authority, they further pointed out.

Many of the new members of the cabinet are cronies of the President who would serve only him or whom he wants but not the country, Nigeria. Others were appointed not for what positives they can add to the nation, but because of the past glory of some people. Serving compatriots would appear to be the last thing on the mind of the President who has made the slogan ‘EMILOKAN’ his battle cry. Revenge may seem to be in his mind, from all indications and some deliberate actions and inactions. 

It may perhaps explain why he has placed only his tribe’s people in more positions than was done by any one of his predecessors. Name any position where a kobo can be made, and nobody but Mr. President’s tribe people are sent there. Ditto, all the security outfits, except the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the office of the head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The two offices are very lame as far as the security of the President is concerned. Yes, security of the President, because in the present administration, nobody matters but he who ‘pays the piper’. He is the person who controls the federal purse, of course.

But it may be pertinent to ask, ‘revenge for what’, that he appears to be unleashing his fury on the Northern part of the country, most of which has been without power for ten days and counting. And in his cabinet, not many people representing other ethnic groups are known to strongly hold any opinion of their own. They are people who readily agree with the President whether or not he 

is right.

Meanwhile, the hardship continues to grow for poor Nigerians, who are multiplying by the day as the middle class gets extinct in the country as a result of the countless harsh economic policies of the President Tinubu led administration. In addition to the suffering of the people, the federal government is coming out with more economic policies to compound the severity of the situation for most citizens. Starting from the first day of next month, the new upwardly reviewed cost of driving licence and vehicles particulars will take effect. And the newly introduced compulsory registration Tax Identification Number (TIN) would commence before the year, 2024 runs out.

These are all prescribed by the World Bank, otherwise known as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including the devaluation of the Naira. The devaluation of the Nigerian currency, had started from the Military administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who introduced the World Bank-dictated Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), despite the fact that Nigerians had condemned and expressed their total dislike for it in a referendum conducted by the government earlier.The national currency, the Naira, started depreciating from then on. Before and at the time of the introduction of SAP, one naira was equivalent to 1.9 US dollars.

But under President Tinubu, the official exchange rate of Naira to the US dollar is N1,690 to 1 US dollar, from the exchange rate of N465 to 1 US dollar. And the naira continues with its free fall under the present administration, which allows the market forces to determine everything in the economy of the country. It is of course, the result of the ‘RELIGIOUS’ adherence to the bitter prescription of the IMF.

That is why all the important local media, but the one owned by the President and another owned by one of his ministers, have spoken about the poor state of affairs under the government of Mr. President. The others have either published articles very critical of the government, carried news spelling out the poverty and general hardship in the country or penned editorials that took the administration on severe hardship it has wrought on the country. A devastating development that was never visited on previous administrations.

At no time has the local scene of the social media been so saturated about one topic as NOW. The social media, which is instantaneous in service delivery, is talking in every story, most articles, most pictures, most video and most cartoons about only one thing, the permeating poverty and general hardship across the country, and those in the top positions of government at federal and state levels appear unconcerned because they are in no way affected by the situation. It is business as usual for them.

Where do the President, the First Lady, the First Children, and the Vice President get the millions they ‘donate’ in the country every now and then, since Nigeria was said to have no more money to waste? According to a national daily, Mr. President had the four (4) tyres of one of his many brand new official motor vehicles replaced at the cost of $200,000 (US) or N300 million. This translates to $50,000 (US) or N175 million. And why do the ‘RENT SEEKERS’ in the land and their foreign masters and collaborators appear to never lack anything?

Meanwhile, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries have finally held their long awaited and expected meeting where they came up with a new currency to challenge the world dominance of the US dollar.  Many countries outside the BRICS, who had waited on the line to join the organisation, have done so because they are fed up with the US dollar being the monolithic currency of global trade and other financial transactions. 

The countries include most of the Arab nations in the Middle East, most Asian nations, some Africa nations and some Latin America nations. But Nigeria is of course, nowhere to be found near the alliance, for reasons that may not be unconnected with her leadership’s obsequiousness to the World Bank.

Meanwhile, Northern elites who insist on the ONENESS of Nigeria, not for the development of the region but because of their morbid fear of becoming foreigners in a country that all or most of the investments they made from the money they ‘made’ from the Commonwealth, are located in the southern part of the country. 

The ordinary northerners would have nothing to lose but the bad name, indignity and the bad leadership that has kept them in extreme poverty, helplessness and misery, in a region that is richly endowed with mineral resources. The northern leaders and their local and foreign accomplices would rather have ALL the wealth to themselves, and nothing but begging for the poor northerner.

By the way, it becomes imperative for every patriotic Nigerian to ask themselves where from come the unbelievable results the governors declare when they announce the ‘clean sweep’ or the ‘near clean sweep’ by the ruling party of the local government elections conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) of the respective states? That presupposes that every ruling party is popular and so loved by the people to elect its candidates to pilot the affairs of the local governments in the state.

May God almighty save us, and rid the country of people who only care and think about themselves, not the development of the nation.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.