Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo

The emergence of tyrants, all through history, has always been sign-posted by deep-seated disenchantment from the people. Under such climate of despair and seeming frustration, a monster, in the mould of a deliverer emerges with a promise to turn the tide. This was the scenario that birthed “sieg heil” the German phrase of salutation to Hitler through which the people deified him and treated him as a god. It was also the same mental climate of despair that threw up likes of Idi-Amin Dada of Uganda, Nansa Nimery of Sudan, Emperor Jean Bedel Bokasa of C.A.R and late Gen. Sani Abacha in Nigeria. One common thing among these despots is that they came to power at a point when their various societies were at cross roads. In these instances, the usurper, usually under the rallying cry of redeeming society from the vice-grip of a pre-dominant ruling class, went ahead to create cults, organize secret hit-squad and initiated a regime of isolation and destruction. In Germany, this demon of isolation and destruction would drive Hitler into eliminating over 6 million Jews- with Answitz and Dachan emerging as the largest centre of human extermination. In Uganda, Idi-Amin Dada fed crocodiles in Lake Victoria with the corpse of his victims while in C.A.R, Bokassa turned the streets of Bangui red with the blood of innocent school children.

The same scenario is playing out today in Nigeria. Despaired, perhaps, of the PDP’s dominance of the political landscape for the past 16yrs, the APC (a coalition of strange bed-follows), hit on the expedience of change. The change slogan caught like wild fire basically because the PDP led Federal Govt. had derailed and corruption was becoming an acceptable pattern of governance. This strange coalition called APC (made up mainly of renegade PDP members who felt abandoned in the PDP fold) sold the change ideology to Nigerians and Nigerians swallowed the bait.

But I have very often said that the APC and indeed Buhari does not possess the requisite capacity to drive a change agenda in Nigeria. The reason is simple. If you get rid of rats in your house and replace them with lizards you have not done anything meaningful. This amounts to selling a monkey to buy a dog. Whether you like it or not, there is basically no difference between APC and PDP. If there is any difference, it is that between six and half a dozen.
Just as the Buhari war on corruption is on-going, you can observe so easily in the day, a disturbing trend of selective arrests and selective treatments of suspects. Since the explosion of Dasukigate, we have been assailed with mind-boggling amounts being bandied around as going to individuals. Buhari himself was said to have benefitted from SUVs and $300,000. The denial from the presidency was lame and lacked substance. But it is interesting to note also that even with the invasion of his house by a battalion of security operatives, Sambo Dasuki was never hand-cuffed.

Compare the treatment of Dasuki with that meted out to Olisa Metuh. Metuh is currently facing trial for laundering part of the money stolen by Dasuki. As the mouth piece of the PDP, Metuh has been strident in his dismissal of the APC. So the allegation of money laundering against him provided Buhari the perfect setting to unleash the EFCC on him. The officials of the EFCC would not want to disappoint their master and so Olisa Metu must be publicly humiliated. This was essentially the reason why Metu came to court a few days ago in handcuffs; whereas Sambo Dasuki, the alleged mastermind of the misappropriated fund has never been handcuffed. You can call that different stroke for different folks.

Beyond this is the fact that Nigeria under Buhari is fast slipping into anarchy. His method of addressing urgent national issues is rather curious and indicates a man that is running against time. His response to the Biafran agitation has been the unleashing of the military to slaughter innocent and defenceless Igbo protesters. His response to the renewed youth militancy in the Niger-Delta is the creation of a division of the Nigerian Army to wage war against the people of the region. Renewed Boko Haram insurgency in the North has also exposed the barefaced lie of Buhari that insurgency has been wiped out in the North-East. His response to the renewed Boko Haram onslaught is also the establishment of another military division in the region.

Can somebody please call Buhari to order? This is not 1983. In 1983, Buhari could have churned out decrees and behaved as he liked. This is a democracy. Nobody, not even Buhari can hold the people down by force and his determination to institute a regime of democratic tyranny in Nigeria is only indicative of one thing- Buhari does not possess the magic wand people thought he had; he lacks the intellectual capacity to deal with the Nigerian problem. That he could conceive of military response to ethnic agitations in Nigeria exposes his govt’s ineptitude and lack of vision for a better Nigeria. Nigeria’s problem is beyond jackboot democracy. It is beyond rhetorics. It is beyond wishful thinking. The dangers confronting this country are real. Make no mistakes about that. We must endeavour to seek out the black goat in the day before nightfall. The tracks to finding this black goat have been charted. What is required is for those searching for the goat to follow the prescribed paths. Any other path will lead to catastrophe.