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Evolution Of Pinochet State In Nigeria Under Buhari And APC By Bob Eguma

July 16, 2021

Their focus is to take over the entire country in furtherance of President Buhari's Islamization agenda.

I have not ceased to wonder about what type of fate has befallen the Nigerian State lately. The current sorry and sordid state of affairs in the country virtually on all fronts makes me to have a rethink; whether if it would not have been better for the country to continue under military dictatorship than what Nigeria and Nigerians are currently undergoing under President Muhammed Buhari and his APC party. In 2015, when the retired and his APC contraption that was hurriedly assembled through the help of some kleptomanic and power obsessed individuals from Nigeria's South West geo-political zone were contesting elections, they railed endlessly against what they saw as debilitating corruption in former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his PDP led government.

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They whined and sang like canary birds to high heavens about the mismanagement of Nigeria's economy under PDP. Riding on the gentle and effeminate nature of the former President, who looked on rather intrepidly while the APC propaganda machine led by a lying Mohammed raged on, the new party's rogues comprising mainly disgruntled elements of PDP made many Nigerians to loathe the ruling party like a leprous body. 

 

The APC promised Nigerians redemption from the political and social-economic siege of the PDP. They said they will fix what seemed like Nigeria's intractable power palava. Nigeria's roads they claimed will rival those of United States of America (USA), China and Germany in no time if Nigerians threw away Jonathan and the PDP and voted them into power. Gen Buhari and APC vowed to end corruption in government and entrench rule of law with due process in governance. As a retired Armoured Corps General, the APC's Presidential hopeful derided former President Jonathan's 'bloody civilian' approach in tackling mounting insecurity in the country; promising to crush Boko Haram in record time. Promises, promises, promises and plenty of it they gave Nigerians. 

 

The crafty rogues from South West who saw an opportunity to infiltrate Nigeria's mainstream after years of hackneyed opposition politics, employed the services of local and international PR firms to embellish their Presidential candidate in garbs of virtually all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria in order to sell his patently parochial and primordially vindictive personage. They also hid his ethno-religious bigotry and open reputation for brutality in not too solemn appearances in some Christian Church activities. Nigerians were duped in a more grandiose manner this time around and so they voted Muhammad Buhari and his APC party into power against the wise counsel of those that knew him closely. 

 

Today, the center can no longer hold in Nigeria. Like a rudderless ship on a high sea, Nigeria is drifting aimlessly towards a malevolent iceberg. It is a question of time before it sinks if the country continues on current trajectory and in the manner in which it is being hopelessly governed. Pity is, all of us are dangerously and helplessly trapped in the belly of this ill fated ship of State; including the dubious promoters of Buhari and APC. Today, Nigeria under President Muhammad Buhari and his APC government has become world's poverty capital. The country's economy is in shambles and in a pallous state; tethering precipitously towards sovereign bankruptcy. A friend of mine that once owned a flourishing local factory that produces aluminum products and by-products called to tell me last week that he has closed down his business due to high FOREX rate in the country. According to him, the Naira was in a free fall not necessarily because of productive pressures on FOREX, but because the dollar and other hard currencies of the world have become preferred media of storing proceeds of corruption in the country. The anti-graft and financial crime agencies are lurking in Nigeria's bank vaults. There in also no respite from International Financial Intelligence Organisations around the world for corrupt Nigerians to wheel their spoils abroad as they did previously. 

 

Currently, official corruption has a new face in Nigeria and it now wears a floating 'Agbada' that is bigger than those worn by Nigeria's prurient politicians in their unhallowed chambers and offices. Rather, than fighting corruption as promised, the scourge has become a juicy carrot in the hands of President Muhammad Buhari and his APC conspirators. It is has reached an extent that even if a public official steals or embezzles billions of Naira of public funds in Nigeria under President Muhammad Buhari's government, the corrupt official is free as long as he or she belongs in Buhari's APC. And if such is fortunate, or should I say unfortunate, to have attained the political or public office from where he or she stole through a political platform other than APC, there will still be a comfort spot reserved for the person as long as the thief decamps to APC. This is the lot of Nigerian politicians that are jumping ships currently in order to avoid accountability. The anti-graft and financial crime agencies so-called that ought to hold corrupt Nigerians especially those occupying public spaces accountable in unbiased manners, have regrettably become willing instruments of coercion and political victimization in the hands of President Buhari and his party. Mr President has effectively used them to hound opposition politicians underground. He is also using them currently to whip remnants of opposition politicians into the ranks of APC willy nilly. I have no doubt from what I have heard and seen under this APC government that there is a hidden plot by President Buhari and his northern political hegemony to transform Nigeria into a one party State where non-Hausa-Fulanis and indeed Non-Muslims would be excluded from State affairs progressively. Soon, our President will become Africa's equivalence of Chile's erstwhile and late dictator, General Augustino Pinochet. 

 

They promised to fix power supply in order to catalyze the country's industrialization process. But till date, power supply remains a painful sore in the anus of Nigeria. President Buhari and APC promised to fix Nigerian roads but currently, majority of the roads have not only become totally impassable, but also have become Headquarters of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, ritualists, assassins and other lesser devils. Similarly, insurgency in the country especially in North East geo-political zone has become our nation's Armageddon under President Buhari and his APC. Renegades of the largely defeated ISIS have procured a new global franchise in Nigeria's backyard. They have began to disperse their deadly tentacles across Northern Nigeria. Their focus is to take over the entire country in furtherance of President Buhari's Islamization agenda. This conforms to the stoic opposition by majority northern politicians to necessary and needed amendments to Nigeria's electoral laws that we witnessed on July 15th, 2021. Nigerians watched in bewilderment how some

Northern politicians tried to scuttle a section of the amendments dealing on electronic transmission of election results. Even when some members tried to stir a mid-course by which Nigeria's INEC would be left with a choice between transmitting election results either electronically or manually; depending on the peculiar circumstances of an election area, the amendment was shot down through a dubious voice vote. The villains were acting a group script and despite the face mending action of the House Speaker subsequently, northern politicians have acted out their script fully. 

 

As I have noted and canvassed severally, Nigerians should never allow President Buhari and APC or their reincarnates to have any political space come 2023. We should reject them roundly at the polls the way we did to PDP in 2015. Buhari's one-party State must never be allowed to materialize under any guise. Enough of these nonsense and political shenanigans of APC under President Buhari that have reversed Nigeria's fortunes for upward of a decade. We must not allow Nigeria to die in the hands of President Muhammad Buhari who seem to have thrown caution to the winds at this point over a bruised ego arising from the cold shoulder being given to his corrupt and inept government by Western democracies. The electoral laws amendments must be sustained to enable us pay President Muhammad Buhari and his APC party back in their coin of impunity and insensitivity come 2023.