FEMI ADEOTI COLUMN
He dared to bell the “stubborn” cat. And he did it like no other. He damned the consequences. He bothered not a hoot. He meticulously picked his innocuous words. At the same time, he was audacious and dashing. He displayed outstanding clarity. He never mixed, minced or missed words. They were
apt and direct. He was in good form. Olusegun Oni was governor, Ekiti State, May 29, 2007, to October 14, 2010.The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) obliged him its platform. He attempted a comeback on June 19, 2022. That bid ended in failure. He flew the Social Democratic Party’s flag.
He lost to Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Presently, Oni is having a serious re-think. He wants to make a move. He has three viable choices: APC, PDP and Labour Party (LP), to pick from. But this particular day his mood was high. He was in his best element. It was no holds barred. He boldly dragged President Muhammadu Buhari out of his cell.
He told us emphatically: “We will miss two things after Buhari leaves.” True. We must miss him. We just have to. We have no luxury of an attainable alternative. It’s expedient he walks out of our lives on May 29, 2023.
We are eagerly looking towards it. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime. In fact, the right time is here with us. No other time is more appropriate. Oni holds on tenaciously to his conviction. He won’t let go.
Out of a legion of grave misses, he picks on two. He focuses on insecurity and economy. He has his indisputable reasons. And he stands by them. He sets the ball rolling unperturbed: “We will miss insecurity. We want to miss it.” He refuses to stop there. He summons courage and does the needful.
He throws a big challenge at President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu: “The next person must take our security more seriously.” Yes most seriously. He will have to be truthful and seen to be so. Old things must pass away. There must be a new dawn. We can no longer risk the odd ways of doing things. Insecurity must be tackled wholeheartedly. Not half-heartedly.
That is what Buhari did to us in his eight dark years. He was dastardly subjective. His handling of insecurity was nauseating. Real reason for the negative results.
No seriousness was brought to bear on insecurity. Fulani herdsmen, his
kinsmen, became our killers. And they did it almost unchallenged.
Buhari never for once cautioned them. We are grieved he ignored us. He allowed them to have their say and their way. All at the same time. They exploited that uncommon solidarity to the maximum. They raved, ravaged, raped, maimed, killed, ruined, wrecked and plundered all the way. They are still at war with us. They remain largely unchecked. They would not even allow us to lick our deep wounds. We were left in
perpetual agony and excruciating pains. So? We wept, moaned and mourned endlessly.
Buhari never took genuine steps. He didn’t care to console us in our days of anguish. He laughed us to scorn. He was neither sincere nor honest with us. That is not contestable. The best he could offer were condolences. Even at that. He rarely visited scenes of incident. In fact, we can’t recollect if he made any to the South.
He was intentionally difficult. He wilfully confined such sparing sympathy tours to his North. He didn’t hide it. He flaunted it to our chagrin. He wickedly turned the tide against us. We were amazed. He remained obstinate while his regime lasted.
What cruelty! We wailed against it. They labelled us wailers. They hailed it. They tagged themselves hailers. Such is life. Different strokes!
But Oni is not done yet. He revealed insecurity’s twin brother: “We want to miss the (bad) economy that makes us second or third class in Africa.” How did we come to this deep low? This is how: “A lot of unauthorised people are selling our crude oil. They are milking Nigeria for illicit funds.”
To get out of the woods, the only window: “With sincerity of purpose, we will identify them, block the loopholes and apply the laws. People know that these things are happening, but they still continue.”
He went emotional: “We want to miss the lack of sincerity. We will miss the idea that some people know nothing can happen to them.”
Oni fell back on Tinubu. He became excited. And he promptly brought him into the picture. He spoke to the issues. If Tinubu is desirous: “First is sincerity of purpose.
“If he wants to solve these problems, he can, but he must be sincere. He should not allow people whose conduct or actions will contradict the direction he wants to take to disturb him.”
He should not permit distractions to bury him. There should be a clean break from the sordid past. Then prioritise: “A lot of things are bad; he (Tinubu) knows and all of us know. If he carries out reforms with sincerity of purpose, not by allowing A to get away because they are his kinsman or B to get away because they are untouchable.”
He was resolute. He insisted: “Reforms are necessary everywhere. The reforms should start with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).” Why? He responded: “The whole challenge will be economic.
“We must look into the calibre of people to run the system. The reforms at the CBN must be total. I am sure that the president-elect knows many Nigerians that can make it happen.”
This is where Buhari missed it big time. He fumbled and stumbled all along. Nepotism took the best part of his junta. He made it his potent instrument of mass destruction.
It became the order of the day. He turned his unkind focus on the strong fabrics that hold our society. He destroyed some. He rendered some useless. And weakened others. Nepotism was his state policy of some sort. He was passionate about it. He implemented it with all the strength in him and all the
determination he could muster. It was actually the other name of his exclusive regime. The larger
society was the worse for it.
The reason Oni pulled him to the fore last week. He situated his reckless years in fitting perspective. He practically took Buhari to the laboratory. He dissected him. He applied all manner of chemicals.
And the results: Very appalling and awful. Perhaps, unknown to Oni, he was doing our bidding. He did speak our sincere mind, unsolicited. We’re happy he did what he did.
We certainly couldn’t have bargained for how Buhari did us in. His was everything a betrayal. A mandate of eight years! And he used it to put his tribe in firm control. They are visibly in command in every sector.
He displayed no regard for fairness, equity and justice. He operated in complete opposite of those values and virtues. And he did it with deep hatred for the rest of us.
He’s ignorant, nothing lasts forever. We desire good riddance to Buhari’s bad rubbish. An end must come. And it has come even now. May 29, 2023, so shall it be!