Hyenas and jackals have taken over the pride land

BY ISRAEL EBIJE

Let me borrow from late Dr, Bala Mohammed who said: “if you are emotionally attached to your tribe or political leaning to the point that truth and justice become secondary considerations, your education is useless. Your exposure is useless. If you cannot reason beyond petty sentiments, you are a liability”. Buhari has allowed the Jackals, Hyenas take over his pride land. His exposure, integrity, which endeared Nigerians to him has become a liability, a burden many cannot wait to unbundle in 2019.

The All Progressive Congress has unsatisfactorily completed its four years, reeking from odour of clannish leadership, chauvinistic development approach, nepotism, tribalism, blame game and groping in the dark on leadership mettle. Already the steam has started to grow hotter as the year 2018 speed closer with attendant electioneering antics from
all manner of political gorgons. Sadly the lion king has been demystified, only the blind or the unrepentant loyalists with his kind of mindset will continue to hoot after him. Already the northern presidential candidates must reboot, present a better alternative to save our democracy, our nation.

When Aisha Buhari declared that the Hyenas and Jackals would flee once the lion king returns, most insightful Nigerians were hopeful, thinking the direction of this administration will be programmed towards a more patriotic, people-oriented leadership chores. Sadly, the jackals and hyenas have finally taken over the pride land. It is indeed with incredulous stare most Nigerians watch the scenery of the Buhari led administration flip into grotesque images. His comment against military action on Boko Haram before 2015, his after election declaration to appoint based on vote cast, his infamous Hausa broadcast after the Ramadan fast – regardless of other Muslims who are non Hausa speaking, declaration of IPOB as a terrorist organization among many more unsavory positions has placed him in the shadow of his rating before 2015.

It is therefore with the greater uncertainty that Nigerians move towards 2019, with waned hope for a leader to look up to, expectations for a greater Nigeria continues to shrink. It is even worse for the North, as other parts of the country are already sensing an agenda. Many express concern over our continued existence as a country under Buhari or any
other northerner. For me, I feel Buhari had a mindset only echoed by the Hyenas and Jackals. If he is under the strings of puppeteers, it’s even worse. The North has an army of patriotic leaders who can sail the country away from the waterfall the Buhari administration has moved the nation towards. May Buhari not contest 2019 election is the best prayers any well-meaning Nigerian should be fervent about. Let the north be protected from stereotype based on these sad leadership experiences in the past three years.

It is instructive to intimate that Hyenas and Jackals have become so powerful, they receive handshakes instead of handcuffs like looters in the immediate past administration despite engaging in the worse act of corruption. We must realize that the invaders will never allow a free and fair election in 2019. They know what it means for the bubble to burst under them once another administration takes over government. It is indeed sad that Nigerians have a president with a clannish mindset and platoon of people around filled to the brim with unpatriotic agenda to
carve a niche out of the Nigerian state. Sadly, these clowns are intolerant of agitations. It is indeed certain, 2019 may be the year Nigerians must watch against prophecies of doom.

Buhari may not realize what he has allowed the invading hyenas and jackals do to his image until he decides to run a check on his skewed appointments, sectional utterances, blame based administrative approach which has made him a leader only for the north. As a Nigerian from the north-central, I am deeply saddened that an ugly precedence is already about.  The north was known for its leadership prowess and not for sectional, parochial agenda.

It is not yet Uhuru for Nigerians. I can only sum our present predicaments through the views of Chinua Achebe, who insisted that ”the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the land or climate or water or air or anything else.
The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders t rise to the responsibility; to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of the leadership.”

The Buhari administration has taken cronyism, unbridled patronage, capitalism, elitism and clandestine graft to a whole new height. With a policy of handshake for friends and handcuffs for perceived, imaginary and real political enemies, the system is on high octane ready to explode. We have seen that animals are equal but some are equal than the others. Already leaders from the south are calling on their people to shun treatment from soldiers on account of fear they may be infested with diseases. On the wake of crocodile smile in south-south, python dance in south-east and lion share in the north, this administration has in no small way exhibited hate, intolerance which the
hyenas and the jackals have helped our dear president to endorse.

Ebije lives in Abuja. He can be reached via: [email protected] or @ebijeisrael