Last week I wrote about what has turned out to be the biggest corruption scandal in African history-the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation $26 billion can of worms. Little did I know when writing that piece that the matter should enter into another absurd stage. Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing (Damaging?) Director of the NNPC caused a response to be made to Ibe Kachikwu which proved that both Kachikwu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo are mere figure heads. Essentially, Mr. Baru’s defense in the saga is that he got approval from President Buhari to bypass the NNPC board and award the contracts at a time that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was supposed to be the acting President.
If what Baru said is true and President Muhammadu Buhari approved contracts from his London sickbed, then what Presidency was Osinbajo acting? A Presidential movie? So this is what President Buhari meant when he cited the Vice President as the ‘coordinator of national affairs’? If nothing happens to Babachir Lawal, Ambassador Oke of the Ikoyi Billions, Rotimi Amaechi and Maikanti Baru, then President Muhammadu Buhari should release Sambo Dasuki and apologize to him! Why? Because the two biggest corruption scandals in Nigerian history (₦2.8 billion in 1978 and $26 billion in 2017) have both been linked to President Buhari. But the funny thing is that under Buhari, if a Peoples Democratic Party member is accused of corruption, he is a thief, but if it is an All Progressive Congress member, he is only guilty of ‘not following due process’. And by now, Kachikwu must have learnt a bitter lesson that you do not report a demon to the devil and expect the demon to be disciplined for his evil ways. In fact, the more wicked the demon is the more influence he wields with the devil. Report him and he gets promoted and you get demoted. Look at Baru’s response. Achebe said if you see a bird dancing in an open pathway, know that its drummer is in the nearby bush. Baru is the bird. President Buhari is the drummer. Kachikwu is the drum. If Kachikwu thinks Baru wrote that insulting response to him without clearance from the C-in-C of the 97% forces, he must be very naive. You see, President Muhammadu Buhari only knows how to rule. He does not know how to lead. In 2019 we need a leader.
Rulers belong in a math set not in Aso Rock. And to prove that he only knows how to rule, notice how he never takes responsibility for any negative thing and never fails to take credit for anything that is even slightly positive. A good example is the State House Clinic. Both the President’s wife and daughter have complained about the shameful state of the clinic under President Buhari. But thanks to BudgitNG, we now know that less money was budgeted for State House Clinic under Dr. Goodluck Jonathan than under President Muhammadu Buhari. In 2015, President Jonathan budgeted only ₦137 million for the facility and ₦862 million in 2014. However, in 2016 President Buhari budgeted ₦2.8 billion (an amount equal to the entire State House Clinic budget throughout the five years that Jonathan led Nigeria), yet it was better staffed and equipped under Jonathan. My own family members were admitted there and received the best treatment. Even Dr. Jonathan was utilized the clinic. So why are we experiencing a case where despite spending more, Nigerians are getting less value for money? If you say you are a leader, you should lead, not blame.
If you say you are an anti corruption crusader, you expose corruption, not cover it! How can you be presiding at Aso Rock and your wife and daughter are complaining about Aso Rock Clinic? Who is in charge if not you? In all my years I have never seen such abysmal failure to take responsibility as a first family complaining to the public about a clinic that they are in charge of! First rat chased you from your office now your family are complaining about Aso Rock clinic. Are you President or a decoration in Aso Rock? And yet, from all indications, this man who cannot even take responsibility for his own failures wants to re contest? God forbid that we should be afflicted with another four years of this Muhammadu Buhari misrule! This is a man whose campaign poster of 2015 said “If anything goes wrong, I will take responsibility, and will fix it. That is what it means to lead”. We never knew that he meant he will take responsibility for knowing whom to blame. And lest I forget, a man who cannot even take responsibility for the State House Clinic wants to borrow more money to fund the budget? Why does President Buhari want to borrow an additional $5.5 billion? Why should we borrow $5.5 billion when NNPC has $26 billion to spend illegally? Rather than borrowing $5.5 billion from foreign nations and putting unborn generations of Nigerians into debt, I appeal to President Buhari to go and borrow the money from Maikanti Baru!
