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By LANRE ADEWOLE
A day from today makes it exactly 47 years that a band of khaki boys led by a certain Lieutenant-Colonel Bukar Suka Dimka sullied the nation, terminating the charismatic but highly-dictatorial Nigerian leader, General Murtala Ramat Muhammad. It was the eve of that year’s Valentine, now popularly considered as Love or Lovers’ Day. In mid-70s Nigeria, the “red” Day, wasn’t too popular among folks because the combination of the media and information technology, particularly internet services, which the Western world has used to devastating effect in the re-socialisation and re-culturalisation of Africans, was yet to be as widespread as is today. If the assassination had taken place at a time like this, on the eve of another Valentine Day, Nigerians would likely toast to it the next day with wine in their glasses, lovers by their side, watching Arsenal versus Man City for those who can still afford the luxury. And it won’t be because the people have lost their humanity. It would be because government now riles.
But the nation mourned Murtala, from North to South. The widespread empathy is mainly responsible for how history sees him, despite his dark sides and ways. Posterity may be kind to him, but how he ended (being assassinated) is a confirmation of Jesus pronouncement in Matthew 26:52, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” You kill without remorse, prepare to be killed.
The 2015 presidential election won by then opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, was initially fixed for February 14 by Professor Attahiru Jega-led INEC. Why fix an election with every trace of combustion on Lovers’ Day? Was Jega being plainly mischievous, knowing that there was no love lost between the two main parties in the election or just trying to indirectly preach peace and douse tension, by packing a tension-soaked election into a day humanity was expected to be serenaded, though immorality has now taken the front-row in celebrating the day? Well, only Jega can tell whether he was being symbolic or mischievous. But the irony that would have defined the day went with the shift of the poll to March 28.
Two days from today, it would be Val again. This time, the nation is mourning itself and a disappearing presidency. Military men with deserving professional ranks are supposed to be strategists. Why is the Major General ruling Nigeria not one? Maybe, he had never been. Or did he possibly lose the capacity for the art of critical thinking, along the line? To what or who? Old age? Ill-health? Politics? Even politicians are strategic in plotting their trade. Despite the deviousness that defines it, politics as an art of taking power requires being strategic. Not to talk of governance, which is essentially about managing people and resources. How can that not require adroitness and ability to think on one’s feet? Above all, how can that not require divine wisdom, without hypocrisy, which James 3:17, recommends.
A ton has been written about President Buhari not being particularly brilliant in learning. He doesn’t also inspire when he speaks. In fact, he seems to have deliberately developed his near-permanent glare to cover his obvious brevity in intellectual matters, though for some yet-to-be-unraveled reason(s), these days, he glows at every photo-op, including days back during his meeting with the CBN and two state governors, as the nation was about dissolving into anarchy.
In fairness to the president, he had publicly disclosed July 12, last year, that he missed home; Daura, and his classmates. He was practically tired of being president, which in itself, is not a crime. But it becomes a crime, holding on to a job, for which you are dispirited and on which, you have never been spectacular.
How can a supposed General go into a war without thinking out enemies’ response? Without prompting from Nigerians, you chose to engage the political class as a way of enhancing election integrity. Good idea, great move. But the best of intentions has never been enough. Jesus admonished that a wise fellow would count cost before embarking on building a tower (Luke 14:28). Politicians playing ostrich have tried to make the currency swap all about Godwin Emefiele, who was just a starry-eyed 23-year-old Banking and Finance graduate of University of Nigeria Nsukka, when Buhari as Head of State, implemented similar policy in 1984.
Let’s even accept that Meffy orchestrated the policy to hit back over his truncated presidential run. The question is, did he run it by the president or not? Did the presidential economic team sign on or not? Then, was there a presidential approval or not? All these are mere rhetorical questions. The cashless crisis is on the president and the president alone. So, how can the president go into this major rebuild of the economic and political towers without counting costs? Does he still receive intelligence briefings and does he still debrief the intelligence community heads? Is there something going on in Aso Rock that Nigerians ought to know about before it is too late? Is there still a legitimate, even if not functional, federal government in Nigeria? Until the military was drafted in to save Meffy from arrest, even the president couldn’t stop the DSS that supposedly answers to him. Why would two agencies of the same government always have to clash publicly, just like the shooting incident in Aso Rock, the clash between EFCC and NIA goons, when the commission under Magu tried arresting Ayo Oke, the disgraced NIA boss, as well as the recent soldiers, DSS confrontation over Emefiele, if there is truly a Commander-in-Chief still respected as a constituted authority by these agencies. Something is amiss in Nigeria’s seat of power and I have a hunch that a part of that mystery died with late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.
Elementary intelligence will suggest that Aso Rock would have readied the sticks for the sabotage that must certainly come with the implementation of the currency swap policy. Instead of throwing hoarding accusations, the careers of the CEOs of the first two banks caught manipulating the distribution of the new notes should have been history by now. That should be the verbal warning that it won’t be business as usual. How can you employ empty threats in dealing with a group that feeds on chaos? Maybe because Emefiele is part of the banking rot, which has seen new notes not available in Nigeria being sold at Seme border and Cotonou. But it is Buhari legacy we are talking about here, if indeed the man in Aso Rock, is still the same famed no-nonsense soldier. Now, the same voters you claimed you were trying to shield from the influence of corrupt political class, so they can vote their convictions and desires, have now been laid bare for easy-buy by the same politicians who cornered the new notes. The sadder part of the saga is that the President’s incompetence in marshaling the implementation, has now devalued the voters with the currency-scarcity hunger, ravaging the land. Instead of allowing them to collect the usual N5,000 with some dignity, now that the voters have been completely stripped of money and truly hungry, politicians, the devils they are, may start baiting them with new N1,000 notes, which the hungry man would prefer to keep begging neighbors for food; a sad reality now, even in cosmopolitan Lagos.
For Nasir el-Rufai to openly dare the Nigerian State by asking his people in Kaduna to keep spending old notes beyond when the Nigerian authorities say they are no longer legal tender, shows that what we have seen so far is just a symptom of what is likely coming. And maybe we are just close to the solution. Night is always darkest before the dawn.
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