As the 2015 elections approach with great rapidity, my sympathy lies with fellow Nigerian citizens who are politically blind even at this crucial moment in our nation's history. A people who are yet to understand the inherent wickedness of a few political desperados whose confounding beliefs have deluded them into believing that Nigeria belongs to them.
It is through the gullibility of this group of people, for whose sake we need to organise a campaign on enlightenment that a failed and highly incompetent President such as Jonathan may again be installed in our State House for another four terrible years.
I am compelled to write this short article after a myriad of unwarranted attacks on Rose Peter Graham, a lady whose spirit of patriotism led her into uncovering that PDP's show of shame at Chatham House, a confirmation of what SaharaReporters had revealed a few days before the Chatham House event, where Muhammadu Buhari eventually delivered a powerful speech.
In all this, however, it is the obvious loss of morality among some Nigerians that I particularly find disturbing. How does a man or woman, whose senses are intact, step up in public to cast aspersions on a citizen who exposed evil? It is unfathomable!
Whatever trick Jonathan's camp is putting in place to divert attention from that shameful outing and numerous others, will fail. The reality remains that they paid a group of people to embarrass General Buhari in London, during which period they had labelled him a sick man, waiting to die in a few days. This is what the Jonathan administration is currently doing with the state funds at its disposal.
One disturbing trend among Jonathanians and the PDP that is gradually developing roots inside gullible minds is that one cannot write or talk against this failed administration without being paid or being affiliated with the APC. This is why they believe Rose was paid to scupper their mephistophelian scheme. What an intelligent person can deduce from that skewed conception is that Jonathan and his gang do not believe in patriotism.
It must be said that it is dangerous to live in a country where even the President does not appreciate patriotism. This is evident with way Jonathan handled the Ekiti-rigging scandal, in which the President claimed the whistle blower should have come forward to "authenticate" the audiotape he revealed, without considering the enormous danger of doing so. To this day, the President, who was mentioned in the scandal, is yet to commend the army captain for the risk he took while recording the said audio. Clearly the President does not see it as an act of patriotism. Accusers of Rose Peter Graham are yet to tell us whether or not the Army Captain was also paid to do what he did.
I do understand that corruption cannot fight corruption, but rather than creating unnecessary noise by shamelessly making risible utterances against a patriotic citizen whose determination is to see a better Nigeria, the Jonathan's camp might have been better off discussing the crumbled economy and the pervasive corruption in the country. Jonathan and his gang would have been better off explaining why the health sector, educational sector, power sector, etc have remained paralysed even at a time billions of Nigeria's money is being freely doled out as bribe for an undeserved re-election bid. These, along with the devaluation of our Naira are the issues that this terrible administration would have been discussing.
Jonathan and Jonathanians have defecated in our living room, and they think they can distract us from analysing this mess by engaging us with all sorts of bunkum.
It is my belief that a responsible government would have issued an immediate apology for hiring a group of people to embarrass their opponent before the very eyes of the world. Rather than doing this, they have the temerity to attack a citizen who exposed them! Preposterous! There is no sane nation anywhere in the world where things like this happen. Yet, our people fold their arms and watch these so-called leaders and their loyalists exhibit all forms of baloney. This is why I believe that besides having terrible leaders, followership in Nigeria has its own issues. An oppressed, humiliated, robbed group of people who fold their arms while their political 'servants' do whatever they please without attempting to ask the needed questions. This attitude must be expunged if we are willing to grow as a people and as a nation.
Rose Peter Graham presently lives in the United Kingdom and so she is not a direct victim of the woes that Jonathan and his gang have heaped on Nigerians. She should therefore be commended for remaining committed to the well-being of her country, despite living several miles away from home. She has simply exhibited undiluted patriotism for which I have great respect. Not the kind of patriotism that the likes of Femi Fani-Kayode, Doyin Okupe, Reuben Abati et al would preach when addressing the press.
Professor Chinua Achebe, in one of his famous works, made a very apt assertion as to why patriotism in Nigeria is difficult. I will crave the indulgence of my readers to quote a reasonable portion of that passage in order to throw lights on the attacks received by Rose Peter Graham. Here it is:
"Quite clearly patriotism is not going to be easy or comfortable in a country as badly run as Nigeria is. And this is not made any easier by the fact that no matter how badly a country may be run there will always be some people whose personal, selfish interests are, in the short term at least, well served by the mismanagement and the social inequities. Naturally they will be extremely loud in their adulation of the country and its system, and will be anxious to pass themselves off as patriots and to vilify those who disagree with them as trouble-makers or even traitors. But doomed is the nation which permits such people to define patriotism for it."
After reading that apt assertion, you have the simple task of linking it to the situation that birthed this article. My stance on this matter is clear and simple, Rose Peter Graham and her family should be left to enjoy the peace that they deserve. They are not responsible for the many failings of President Jonathan, which ought to have been the major topic of our discussion going into the elections. Just so you know, I would have done same if I were at the scene.
I am not surprised by the utter desperation of Jonathan at a time Muhammadu Buhari poses a major threat to his selfish ambition. But this threat, to be frank, is what Nigerians need at this time – an alternative to a system that is irredeemably decayed.
So, now that I have satisfactorily expressed myself, members of Jonathan's camp, in their usual inane fashion, are free to conclude that I was paid to write this article. But after doing that, we shall return to the major point of the matter: on the shameful manner in which Jonathan and his cohorts hired people to disrupt Muhammadu Buhari's speech at Chatham House. Nigerians are also interested in knowing the source of the money with which the hired protesters were paid. These are the details that Jonathan and his people should provide. Until they do that, they must understand that attacking Rose Peter Graham will only be seen as the action of a frustrated man whose hopes got dashed just when things looked bright.
Concluding remark: without justice, we are like a people walking without a heart. And with corruption, we remain a sick nation waiting for the inevitable to come: death. – Elias Ozikpu