By Dr. ONAKOYA, Abdulkareem
Reading about the interplays at the corridors of power and the melodramas of our political actors these days is really disgusting.
Edo’s mesmerizing events, Ondo’s political upheavals, Aso rock’s shootings, NASS’s ineptitudeness, 2020 Budget’s epilepsy, APC’s show of shame etc are really appalling and detrimental to our national growth and development if only we know.
Something is obvious. The current political dispensation has failed the nation. Nothing seems working.
The presidency is becoming an ’empty charade’. The ‘kitchen cabinet’ members have taken the mandate from the president. They decide, order, direct and rule. The President’s wife is also showing how powerful she is with all her misdoings. Mr. President seems ‘sleeping’. He won’t just talk. Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina speak and tweet for him. The likes of Mamman Daura and co do all the calculations. Interesting.
Office of the Vice President is factually non-existing. Prof. Yemi Oshinbajo himself is becoming a ‘personal non-grata’. A Legal Luminary and an Erudite Scholar I cherish and respect, his position, if at all ‘it exists’ is sweeping away his academic sagacity. He should not be told to leave before he does. It was really advisable for him to have resigned his appointment immediately after the first term. His honour, glory and name would have forever be written in gold. Rather unfortunate.
The National Assembly has further displayed its weakness and ‘unimportance’ in the political system where no meaningful legislation comes out from except ‘rubber stampings’ and ‘paddlings’.
By default, this is an arm which should be the ‘power house’ of the nation and a symbol of ‘correctedness’. The reverse is the case here. The major concern of the occupiers now is to further deaden the political structure of the nation with their selfish interests.
At the beginning of the C19, they pulled wool over our eyes with their misleading donations. I asked then, why can’t these ‘jobless’ individuals donate their monthly allowances (which runs above ten million naira per person) for the containment instead of their salaries which is less than a million per a Senator or a Representative.
They only fight and lobby for what benefits them as individuals and not as representatives of their constituencies. Real ‘cankerworms’.
Most state governors except A FEW are not really serious about governance. They all celebrated one year of non-performance in their offices. Some are still engaging their workforces on the 30% increase in the salaries as agreed by the labour union since last year. They only pay lip services to the predicaments of their people.
State apparatuses have been turned into private and personal affairs. Their companies run the IGR for the state.
Succession is another war tearing us apart. Who succeeds who. In Edo and Ondo, the game continues. Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu, Akeredolu, Oshiomole etc have all stolen our reading spaces. We don’t have other meaningful news to read other than theirs. Resignations, defections, rejections, disengagements etc are now renting the air.
The INEC which should be the umpire is taking up another duty. Its ‘independence’ is subjective. Its reliability is not attainable. Its judgement is not guaranteed. Our electoral process is very porous and unreliable.
Our state assemblies are turning into theatres and boxing rings. Event at the Kaduna State House of Assembly recently has re-written our political activities. It is a ‘do-or-die’ in Nigeria. Honourable members are no longer ‘honourable’. Most of them were ‘political thugs’ favoured by their leaders.
bout 95% of these guys know next to nothing about legislative business. Some paid heavily for the seat. They quickly forget what they must do as representatives. After much ‘romances’ and political calculations, another term is guaranteed. Doomed.
Local Government Chairmen and Councillors have all lost it. C19 has brought up another job and claim for these individuals most particularly the chairmen. Most of them don’t even have meaningful projects other than ‘COVID-19 containment’. They need to be asked this, what have they done or been doing before the pandemic? Nothing.
Cemeteries filled up and unmaintained. Our markets have been taken over by hoodlums as their havens. Our lives not secured. No good drainage system. Our roads are ‘unmotorable’. No drug in our primary health care facilities.
No event at the third tier except corruption and violence.
This is the closest government to the grassroots. They know what we need. They live with us. We eat together. We see every day. Some are even our friends and family members, yet they fail to understand our plights and fix them.
Nigeria we hail thee. Our government has failed thee.
Dr. ONAKOYA, Abdulkareem is the Director, Political Dynamics, Lagos, Nigeria.
Email: cheikhabdulkareem@yahoo.com
Tel: +2348026621805
Twitter Handle: @DrOnakoya
Telegram: @DrOnakoya
