Fides Media Living the Faith
By Jude Atupulazi
In life, things do not always go the way they are expected to go. As in murder cases, for those who are addicted to crime fiction, the murderer goes to great lengths to plan a fool proof way of taking out his victim. He thinks and thinks, plans and plans, develops what he feels will be a good alibi in case suspicions fall on him after committing the crime. When he is sure everything has been taken care of, he then strikes. However, as is almost always the case, there’s always that little thing that is overlooked, a little thing that ultimately spells disaster for the murderer. This little thing or factor is what the present occupiers of Aso Rock have failed to take care of in their bid to force their way back to the seat of power come next year’s general elections.
So last Tuesday after they had perfected plans to overthrow the leadership of the senate, the plans came crashing down on them as what they didn’t plan for happened.
While they had sent their lapdogs (police) to cordon off the home of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, so that he would not go to the Senate to preside over the sitting the next day, Saraki outfoxed them by sneaking out in disguise, while having an impersonator sitting in his side of his car as his convoy drove in. Thus the police, apparently doing the bidding of their master, kept vigil at Saraki’s home.
Unbeknownst to them, however, the man they were watching out for was waiting for his colleagues inside the Red Chambers after reportedly spending the night there. Thus on the appointed day, Saraki was in hand to supervise proceedings in the Senate where the leader became the led at the end of the day.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, which before then had the majority membership fell to 48, with the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, shooting up to 56. On top of that, the Senate adjourned sitting to September. No doubt, a new sheriff had come to town, or better still, a new landlord had taken over the house.
In the lower house, though the APC still maintained the lead, they still lost 37 members, with 32 defecting to PDP, while 5 went to other parties.
The events at the national assembly that day were no doubt a big shocker to the ruling but ailing APC, despite what was obviously a false bravado put up by their new national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, who said that he was not losing any sleep over the defections. LIE!
Every Nigerian knew that in his heart of hearts, Oshiomhole was feeling as jittery as an employee whose misdemeanour has been discovered by his boss.
While Oshiomhole went about with his false bravado, Nigerians remembered how just a few days previously he had pleaded with Saraki and some other disenchanted members of APC not to leave. So, they wondered, if he did not lose any sleep over their defection, why was he begging them before then?
If there is one thing the APC has become famed for these past three years, it is their hypocrisy. While harbouring in their midst, some people whose past leaves more than is desired, they have been going after those not in their party or in their good books, most times slapping spurious charges on them.
It is well known that the vast majority of those being tried for corruption today are those of PDP stock. They are the devils while the devils in APC have turned to angels over night. Can you beat that?
What the APC does is that if you are approached to play ball and you refuse, you find yourself the next day defending yourself from one charge or the other. That was how they have been treating Saraki. Initially it was the issue of false declaration of assets. Then it went on to involvement in the celebrated Offa robbery saga. When it seemed that Saraki would play ball, the charge was suspended.
However, now that Saraki has dumped APC, the party has not wasted time in inviting him again to come defend himself about his suspected involvement in the said robbery saga. The invitation, coming barely one day after Saraki had dumped APC, was as infantile as it was ridiculous.
This is so because before then, the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, had virtually exonerated Saraki from the said robbery, on grounds of lack of evidence by the police. This was contained in a June 22 letter addressed to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, by Mr Abubakar Malami, the AGF. The letter had advised the police to ramp up their investigation and painstakingly explore all critical areas before identifying Saraki as a suspect, much less pressing charges against him.
Thus when the latest invitation came to Saraki to appear yet again before the police, he referred to that earlier letter, and thus described the invitation as unnecessary since the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, had already informed the police that there were no sufficient bases to keep dragging him into the robbery investigation.
This is just a sample of the moronic disposition of Buhari’s security apparatus. Was it then any surprise that they were outfoxed by Saraki, a mere bloody civilian? But that is by the way.
Buhari’s Administration has been running the country like a fiefdom. He pays no heed to the dictates of the constitution. He decides which law to obey and which one to flout. His government pays scant regard to human life. It disobeys court orders and yet expects others to obey same when they are summoned by the courts in matters that concern the Federal Government. Buhari’s Government has so ridiculed the country by its high handedness and stupidity that the country is but an object of caricature before the comity of states.
The height of their stupidity was the charging of Dino Melaye with attempted suicide as if they cared for his life. God! How other countries must be laughing at us!
What happens in the country today is far from what anyone expects in a democratic setting. The country has simply become a police state. Opponents are cowed into silence and even stopped from complaining. They simply beat us and stop us from crying.
Herdsmen kill, rape, maim and take over territories and towns and get away with it. As I write this, herdsmen are still occupying some villages in Plateau State after killing and sacking the indigenes. The police are feigning ignorance and the killers remain there. That is the kind of Nigeria we live in today.
To say that Buhari is the greatest threat to the unity of the country since after the Nigeria Civil War is to state the obvious. Not even under the draconian regime of the late Sani Abacha was the country this divided against ethnic and religious lines. And while Buhari supervises over the disintegration of the country, he still stops those who want to leave this contraption from doing so.
It got to a stage where no one knew what to do to oust this confused, horrible government. The perplexity was all the more increased after the Ekiti State guber poll in which the APC was believed to have rigged the election. Many saw it as a foretaste of the scenario in 2019. It was that bad.
While this happened, the APC must have thought nothing would stop them from continuing to lord it over Nigerians. Not even the growing resentment of the regime by the likes of Obasanjo, Danjuma and other strong men in the country.
Then, like a bolt out of the blue, came the earth shaking moment in the Senate last Tuesday when the leader became the led through massive defections. It did not stop there as news came days later of the Sokoto State governor Aminu Tambuwal, and his legislators decamping from APC to PDP.
That was one among many that is expected to follow in the days ahead. It has indeed suddenly become as if everyone is anxious not to have anything to do with APC and Buhari. Suddenly too, Buhari, once on stable, hard ground, has now found himself gasping for breath in a fast moving current. While he gasps for breath and looks to grasp any available straw, those who should save him continue to abandon ship and look elsewhere.
When former President Goodluck Jonathan was faced with the option of contesting his defeat in court, he said that his ambition was not worth the blood of Nigerians. Thus he quit without a fight, the first time it was done in the country.
But that blood which Jonathan tried not to have spilled is being spilled with reckless abandon today under the watch of Buhari. And now, his former allies are becoming his enemies. The clock is suddenly starting to tick against the man who thought that pieces were beginning to fall into place for him.
Seems much like Nemesis is closing in on him as he refuses to quit or atone for the bloodshed everywhere. Will I cry for him? Not likely.