BusinessDay 21 Jan 2018

4 BD SUNDAY
C002D5556 Sunday 21 January 2018
Cover
Discontent, anger grow on back
of unfulfilled dpromises, crises
…‘Charged polity recipe for anarchy’
ZEBULON AGOMUO, CHUKS OLUIGBO
& MABEL DIMMA
A
good number of prominent
Nigerians have raised the
alarm that the growing
feeling of discontent, anger
and despondency among
the citizenry occasioned by dashed hopes
and unfulfilled expectations is creating a
fertile ground for anarchy.
Many Nigerians have been expressing
disappointment that the El-dorado
promised by the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC) during the electioneering
campaign in 2015 has not and may never
come to be. They are also disillusioned
that instead of making conscious efforts to
unite all Nigerians, President Muhammadu
Buhari has continued to stoke the embers
of primordial sentiments by acting as if he
was elected president of only a section of
Nigeria, leaving the country more divided
than ever.
Angry Nigerians cite President Buhari’s
slow approach to tackling serious issues of
governance, his lopsided appointments,
a matter that has generated controversy
since the president made his first major political
appointments in 2015, the slowness
in handling of the Fulani herdsmen issue,
the too much noise and no action on the
anti-corruption fight, the poor handling of
the economy that led to mass loss of jobs,
among numerous other contentious issues.
An aggregation of these discontents,
prominent Nigerians who spoke with
BDSUNDAY said, has set the polity on edge
and signposts the uncertainties that may
play out in the 2019 elections.
The situation, according to them, appears
so bad that people, even those who
massively voted the government into
power in 2015, now openly speak out and
lambast government without fear of arrest
or intimidation by government agencies.
The touted second term ambition of
President Buhari, it was gathered, may
have also aggravated the anger of many Nigerians
who believe that given his abysmal
performance so far, the president should
have no business seeking re-election.
“It is said that one does not need a mirror
to see one’s wristwatch. The sad condition
of Nigeria is glaring to even the blind, so
to speak. It has never been so bad since
the return of the country to civil rule in
1999. It is not about party, it is about style
of governance chosen by the current
administration, which I think is very unfortunate,”
said Bayo Oriade, a Lagos-based
system analyst.
“The situation is so bad now that people
are no longer afraid to air their views
despite the so-called ban on hate speech.
All over the social media, people post all
manner of things; people compose songs
to abuse the government and even some
make videos calling the leaders all manner
of unprintable names. Today, the way
people verbalise their frustration, it conveys
an attitude of ‘he who is down fears no
fall’. Many Nigerians are down already and
so no longer fear anything government or
its agencies can do to them,” he said.
Emeka Anyaoku, a former secretarygeneral
of the Commonwealth, said recently
that Nigeria is now “more divided than
it had ever been”, regretting that wrong
socio-economic and political choices have
created a cache of internal problems and
impeded Nigeria’s foreign relations, forcing
it to lose influence in blocs like the African
Union (AU) and the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS).
“I believe quite strongly that the current
state of affairs in our country should be a
cause for serious concern, in view of the
security situation in Benue, Taraba and
the rest of the country,” Anyaoku said in
an interview with The Guardian.
“Look at what is happening in the North
East. Look at what is happening in Kaduna
in terms of kidnapping and in virtually
all parts of the country.... Look at the state
of agitations and militancy, whether it’s
the IPOB people wanting Biafra, or the
Oduduwa Republic being mooted, or the
Niger Delta Republic,” he said.
He decried the poor state of the country’s
roads, education, health and power
sectors, and the fact that “many civil
servants have not been paid salaries for
some months”.
Anyaoku, who has consistently supported
the call for restructuring and true
federalism, said that based on emerging
trends, an eight-region structure that includes
the Mid-West (Edo-Delta States) and
the Middle Belt was not only a near-perfect
political solution to ongoing agitations and
cries of ethnic marginalisation but also an
answer to Nigeria’s development questions
of the 21st century.
He blamed “the main cause of these
troubles” on “the governance architecture
we have”.
“We have a federation in name only.
But in reality, it is a unitary government.
And this country, given its multi-ethnic,
multi-religious and multi-cultural character,
cannot survive as a unitary state,”
he said, adding that it was important to
give the sections a sense of ownership and
participation.
Describing the state of the nation as
tense and provoking, Leonard Umunna,
bishop of Bible Life Church, in an interview
with our correspondent, said that “Nigeria
is pushing towards war in different directions”.
Listing instances of ways government is
courting war in the country, Umunna said,
“If you look at the case of Benue killings, it
is enough to lead to war. If you look at the
lopsided appointments and what people
are saying, that it appears that some parts of
the country are totally marginalised; if you
take into cognizance the level of poverty
in the land, deprivation, youth unemploy-
ment and insecurity, you will know that
these can lead to war.
“If you look at what led to the civil
war, it wasn’t as fierce as what we have
now. Again, if you look at the things that
were responsible for military take-over of
government in Nigeria in those days, they
were as serious as what is happening now.
Maybe the military has been cowed, added
to the fact that the military rule is no longer
tolerated anywhere by the international
community.”
Shehu Sani, chairman, Senate Committee
on Local and Foreign Debts, lent his
voice to the growing feeling of disappointment
with government and took a swipe
at the panel investigating the Fulani herdsmen’s
killings across the country.
Sani, senator representing Kaduna
Senatorial District, urged President Buhari’s
administration to stop protecting
Fulani herdsmen, saying their murderous
attacks on farmers in various parts of the
country have eroded the integrity of the
government.
“The mass murder in Southern Kaduna,
Taraba, Benue, Numan and other affected
places are unpardonable and despicable
crime. These killings and bloodletting
threaten the peace, stability and unity of
our country,” Sani said.
He urged political leaders to urgently
confront the herdsmen, adding that repeated
condolences will not end the bloodshed.
“Every attack erodes the credibility and
integrity of the present administration and
every drop of blood stains the conscience