TheCable

When President Buhari leaves power for Daura, like Segun Adeniyi did in those days, another eyewitness would treat us to the hot-tea of another book about some funny happenings on the inside of Aso Rock on the watch of PMB. A few days ago, a video went viral and it was one of the daughters of Daura who recorded it with her phone—while Aisha Buhari’s security men looked on. I actually wanted to ignore the video because the brawl between Aisha and Fatima did occur in 2017, but when Aisha said, “It continues up till today,” I was compelled to give more attention to it. In other words, till this moment, comical things are happening under baba’s roof.

What is happening in Aso Rock is a mock-up of what is happening in Nigeria. When it involves the common man, security men would swoop on him like bees, but when it involves the rich man, they would look on. Can a daughter of nobody use her phone to do what Fatima did and not be given Sowore’s treatment? When it involves rich folks, our security men usually do become powerless and helpless. This is the kind of hypocrisy that is daily killing and ruining us in Nigeria. Until sons and daughter of rich folks and poor folks are treated same way before the law, we can never have a true country!

In Nigeria, younger ones are not allowed to advice older ones, but I am shattering and crushing that box—advising baba to put his house in order. Nigeria is where she is today, because it is a taboo for younger folks to counsel older folks. In this part of the world, older folks are usually right, even when they are wrong and those who are younger aren’t allowed to say anything.

On the condition that Baba cannot protect his wife, what hope does the common man have? No matter what is happening between Baba and Aisha, the onus still rests on his shoulder to protect her from being ridiculed and abused by non-elective occupiers of Aso Rock! When Fatima and others find their way in 2023, only Aisha would remain with Baba. On behalf of the good people of Nigeria, I ask President Buhari to please protect his wife.

I have taken my time to study budget 2020 and all I can say is that we are yet to depart from our uninviting-past. I thought Buhari would think differently, but I have come to excruciatingly conclude and admit that he is not the one who would take us beyond where we have always been as a nation. Looking at what we have budgeted for education, it is very easy to know that we are not serious as a nation. And the major reason those in the corridors of power do that is because their children aren’t schooling in Nigeria.

As long as we are toying with our education, we can never have a great future as a nation. You daily see the effect of lack of solid education everywhere in Nigeria. Most of our graduates hardly can read and write, but one thing is clearly and completely lacking, they lack what is called an educated mind. The truth is; what shift can 48billion naira birth in our education system—in a nation as big as ours? The status-quo will be maintained till we are ready to pay same price that other serious nations are paying for a great future.

In 2020, we are going to use 2.45 trillion naira to service debt out of a budget of 10trillion naira! Does this make any sense? Those in government will say yes, but the truth is; it does not make any sense. How many of those who are running Nigeria anyhow will run their businesses same way? Do they borrow money, spending it or investing it? The money that was borrowed, where did it go into it? And if it was invested, when is it going to start paying our varied debts back without taxing life out of Nigerians? Every loan should be able to pay back itself—without putting an unnecessary burden on those who know nothing about it.

About 48billion naira will be spent on education while 58billion will be spent in the presidency and 125billion naira for the National Assembly in 2020! This is a very clear picture of a flippant nation. Those in the corridors of power can escape with this level of impiety, because we do have an army of distracted-young folks. They are not passionate about their future. They are only passionate about nudity and vanity. If this were to happen in a sane nation, their young folks would have stood to ask intelligent questions. I am not talking about empty rants on social media; I am talking about consistently engaging offline those in the corridors of power.

Lastly, one, I really do not know what they are doing in Aso Rock. Two, constitutionally, how many folks are supposed to be living in Aso Rock? I asked those two questions, because 18.5million naira has been budgeted for cooking gas in 2020! And refreshment, meals and welfare package will cost 376million naira! They consistently tell us that Nigeria is broke, but they are daily living large. It is impossible to live in Aso Rock and believe that the common man is suffering. This is why they say that there is no hunger in the land. How can 18.5million naira be budgeted for cooking gas and you would believe that there is hunger in the land?