Nigeria And The Quest To Take Back The Country From The Anarchists -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

Nigeria is in a very deplorable state. The state institutions are in a state of decay. The judiciary is compromised, the National Assembly is an extension of the Presidency. The executive operates with reckless abandon. Security agencies rather go after criminal elements attack hapless citizens with impunity. A huge swathe of our national territory is in the control of terrorist who operates with the active connivance of known and influential individuals. Nigeria is the most terrorized country and one of the most dangerous places to live on earth. Human life is worth nothing in Nigeria as communities as sacked and razed and citizens are butchered on daily basis with while the government do nothing to protect its citizens. The highways are death traps where bandits operate without let or hindrance. Nigeria is a Hobbesian state of nature where life is short, brutish and nasty. Nigeria is not just a pariah state in the rank of Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan; it is a failed state in every sense of it.

What Nigeria is facing is state capture. The government and its agencies are firmly in the hands of self-seeking elements who care nothing about governance. They are not interested in promoting democracy of mass participation. They want to kill democratic governance. The only thing they care is to silence civil advocacy and stifle opposition. Members of the opposition who refused to defect to the ruling party are harassed and intimidated with so-called anti-graft agency. And that explains the gale of induced defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). They want to turn the country into a one-party state in order to make the 2027 Presidential election a formality. Every move, every policy and every program of the APC-led regime is targeted at how to hold on to power at all costs. The signs are there for all to see.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu maintains a jumbo cabinet of political acolytes with tax-payers’ money. He runs an exclusionist regime that is wasteful and vengeful. His vengeful and Apartheid policies have polarized the nation and accentuated our fault lines. Under this regime, our national unity is endangered. And many have expressed surprise at the nepotistic and anti-democratic posturing of the Jagaban. But I am not. Tinubu has never pretended to be patriotic ab initio. He was quoted in the media in the 90s to have said that he never believe in one Nigeria. And while he was campaigning prior to the 2023 election, he said it was his turn to rule. He had no clear manifesto; his manifesto was the pirated copy of the M.K.O Abiola’s Hope Manifesto of 1993. He instructed his political thugs to grab, snatch and run away with votes. He believed he bought the votes and so has no obligation to anyone. He has come to serve himself and not the people who didn’t vote for him. He runs the affairs of the country from a safe distance in France and makes occasional visit to Nigeria while the rest of us dwell in misery.

Those who express surprise at the Tinubu’s failures did so because they had no knowledge of his antecedents. It is foolish and delusional to expect much from a character like Tinubu whose past is shrouded in mystery. They were actually relying on the hyped Lagos media report about his performances while he held sway as the governor of Lagos State. Today, we can still see the same press report phantom reforms from the man that has failed the nation in all ramifications.

I am not a doomsday prophetess but I must state that at the rate at which this nation is declining if nothing drastic is done to stop it, the country called Nigeria may not survive beyond 2027. The survival of this country depends entirely on removing this evil regime and restoring true democracy. In my earlier essays, I have advocated that the opposition should come together and form a more formidable force to match the APC. I have also recommended that Nigerians forget their differences (religion and tribe) and come together and take back their country from the hands of anarchists and kleptocrats that have hijacked the nation.

Yes, come 2027, Nigerians have to make a choice between freedom and bondage, security and insecurity, poverty or economic prosperity, good governance or continued oppression. Nigerians have choose between religion and economic progress, tribe or peaceful co-existence. Nigerians have to throw away the toga of ignorance and embrace truth. And to do this effectively, there must be a leader otherwise it would be a wasteful effort. Nigeria needs a rallying point, a statesman, a detribalized statesman with the clout to champion national rebirth. Nigerians have to call it bluff with the government propaganda and false narratives from the Lagos Press. And on this note, I still recommend His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, GCON, the Wazirin Adamawa, the former vice-president (1999-2007). He was part of the team that ushered in the golden era of Nigerian Democracy. He has done it before; he will do it again. Long live Nigeria!

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed 

hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com

An actress, social activist, politician

London, UK