ONE of the strengths demonstrated one week ago, on October 1, by Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while he addressed the country on its 64th Independence anniversary, according to his media aide, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, was that he stood on his feet for the duration of the speech. I did not watch the broadcast because I was convinced that my early morning could be put to better use including my dawn workout. If what he had to say turned out to be that important, I could find the time to read the text at my convenience.
As it turned out, and as usual, there was no compelling reason to read the text in light of the snippets from the broadcast that were uninspiring, distressing and depressing. Commentaries on the broadcast by independents and partisans showed that it was a rousing speech for regime choristers, and to unbelievers it was yet another underwhelming performance from Abuja.
For those to whom Tinubu has become a god and a saviour as represented by Onanuga, the mere fact that the president made the speech while standing on his feet was an achievement of significant import. It was an unprecedented feat for which Nigerians should fawn over him. Onanuga, presidential assistant on information, was right in demanding applause from famished folks for the president for standing on his feet to deliver an address that lasted for barely 30 minutes.
Corralling citizens to applaud the president demonstrated that Tinubu’s, and his predecessors’ neglect of funding of education has been deliberate. The more ignorant we are the easier it is for our rulers and their enablers such as Onanuga and others to gaslight us. In spite of myself I went back to watch the video of the broadcast. Even for a person who is half blind and hard of hearing, and this is no disrespect for visually impaired and hearing-challenged compatriots, the breaks in the recordings of the video, and the editing should be obvious. You do not have to be a media professional or broadcast guru to see through the cut and join of the tape.
In simple terms what it means is that the recording was not done in a stretch or in one sitting (sorry standing). The different frames also indicated the principal was availed with breaks during the recording to sit down at intervals to catch his breath or to walk around so as to refocus before he returned to the presidential set.
For unbelievers and naysayers who ordinarily should be treated as patriots, they saw a president who has been turned into a liar by his aides and speech writers. Or by his own making and choice. They saw a deterioration in a regime that has transited from deploying propaganda as a governance artform to one that sets up the president to be lying outrightly to Nigerians.
It was so bad, so shameful, and so embarrassing that Nigerians were fact-checking their president real time during a ‘live’ broadcast for what should be a solemn independence anniversary. The many lies in the broadcast including the handling of the Ways and Means federal government debt of N30 trillion, incurred between the former president who was Nigeria’s affliction, Maj.- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and this regime, are in the public domain. The greater tragedy is that the debt which was secretly and illegally procured, and which use has not been accounted for, will be paid for by Nigerians up to the fourth generation, in a manner of speaking. The rapacious operatives of the regime of Buhari must be having fun at the expense of the rest of us, wherever they may be. The Tinubu honchos are not doing badly in the unabating assault on the commonwealth. Even the cases of those who were caught with their hands deep inside the national till have gone cold, and as we say here, ‘entered voicemail’.
We have not set out to agonise over the issues from the broadcast that have been sufficiently litigated in the courts of public opinion. The courts of law are actually out of the reach of the majority of Nigerians by reason of cost for a people who have been deliberately pauperised by their rulers. In any case why go to the courts where the acolytes and stooges of the rulers rule supreme. They are not bothered about your going to court, indeed they encourage you to do so knowing that their kinsmen and kinswomen are in-charge.
One of our primary concerns in this intervention is Tinubu’s proposal for a national jamboree for youths. Not surprising, the only significant detail about the plan was that the jamboree would last for all of 30 days. At the end of the 30 days, according to the president, Nigerian youths would become more united, more articulate in their contributions to enriching government policy formulations, more vigorous in participating in nation building, a sharper voice in shaping their futures, among others.
In addition, the president announced that the ‘National Youth Conference’ will ‘address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting our young people, who constitute more than 60 percent of our population’. The conference and the conversations therefrom would unite young people to collaboratively develop solutions to issues such as education, employment, innovation, security, and social justice.
Our rulers are adjudicated rapists and raiders of the public treasury. But there’s no need to be so brazen and in-our-face as this so-called national youth confab appears to suggest. The majority of Nigerians have been impoverished and castrated by successive regimes, and more so by Tinubu’s. They cannot do anything again in terms of challenging their oppressors. In fact they have since been afflicted by the Stockholm Syndrome where they have fallen in love with, and are in awe of their oppressors. So there’s no wisdom in setting up elaborate schemes to continue the assets stripping of the country. The organisers of the confab could as well, and as usual, dip their hands into the jar of cookies and help themselves and their masters. That would be less painful. In my Igbo nation what the rulers are planning through this bogus conference will be akin to putting the hands of the unsuspecting youngsters inside the jar to enable them steal the cookies. Is it so bad that being immoral and ammoral no longer have limits.
Nigerian youths speak everyday in spite of strident efforts by this regime to constrict the physical and digital spaces for conversations and dialogues. Their positions are often reasoned, succinct and well known. Of course, youthful exuberance manifests here and there once in a while. If allowed to have their way our government will shut down the digital space because for them our youths are irritants. The affliction from Daura once did it for months with Twitter (now X). How much did he succeed? Even before Buhari was able to banish Twitter, many youths had created and migrated to their own virtual personal networks (VPN), leaving the evil regime with the short end of the stick and, a hollow victory. Ask Lai Mohammed, Buhari’s flippant (dis)information minister
If indeed Tinubu is desirous of hearing the voices of young Nigerians why does he stifle peaceful protests? Why does he unleash violence on peaceful protesters by using his security goons including the armed forces, the police, the secret police, the civil defence corps, touts and sundry paid street urchins to disrupt such marches? Since the president was a master protester in his days in opposition, it is inconceivable that he does not realise that protest is dialogue by other means.
If this regime is not determined to steal in the guise of a 30-day youth conference which will cost billions of naira, it should borrow an idea from Kenya. The template is clear, simple, transparent and less costly. Some months ago the youths of Kenya spoke about their frustrations with their leaders through protests. The administration of President William Ruto lost the plot and then resorted to violence. The security agents shot and killed some of the protesters. The situation degenerated and the protests escalated. The regime buckled and pulled back.
When dialogue was agreed between the parties, the president of Kenya engaged the youths on the twitter space. The opportunity for the Kenyan government to pick its ‘own youths’ to participate in the dialogue or conversation was removed. The mechanism to intimidate and exclude vocal youths was denied. The twitter space provided a level playing field. Why won’t Nigeria copy the Kenyan template if genuinely it has not been hearing the voices of the youths on various digital platforms, and indeed on the streets of Nigeria. The same president who Onanuga boasted the other day of standing on his feet to address Nigerians to mark our independence about a week ago must have the stamina and articulation to engage youths for at least two hours on the twitter space. To do this he actually does not need to be on his feet for the duration of the conversation with the youths.
During the rebroadcast of the Independence activities at the national and sub national levels, I was all eyes to see the new national Aso-Ebi or Akwete that was being marketed by Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, wife of the Nigerian president. I, however, did not see the attire on display. Or could it be that I was not sufficiently observant? Could it also be that the contractor, if one had been procured, did not have enough time, and mobilization to deliver the new national uniform? Since our textile industry has virtually collapsed, it’s expected that the materials for the new national uniform will be imported and paid for in hard currency, the same foreign exchange that is said to be in short supply.
Well, paying for the Aso-Ebi or Akwete in dollars will probably not make the Naira exchange rate any worse than it is today. The pleasure of Mrs. Tinubu should also be a priority. Imagine the pride that will be instilled in us, and the courtesies that will be extended to us when we land in foreign airports, decked out in our new national attire. What a shame that none of the previous wives of former presidents ever thought of this game -changing and brilliant idea. We understand that the bug for this caught the president’s wife in a sister African country – Zimbabwe.
The fortunate contractor/merchant who will supply the new national uniform has better hurry up because Christmas, New Year, Easter, Eid Mubarak, Isese, Iri Ji, among others are celebrations fitting for the donning of the new national attire. Naysayers should not spoil our fun by telling us that a youth conference and a national attire are not our priorities at the moment. Pray, when will ordinary folks have their own cruise?
