A truth told with bad intentions beats all the lies you can invent". ~ Winston Churchill
Mallam el-Rufai sometime in 2009 had attacked the late Yar'adua's administration, Mohammed Haruna responding in May 2009, under the title el-Rufai?s Sour Grapes had this to say after an analysis of el-Rufai?s essay.?"...that El-Rufai?s criticism of Yar?Adua as a disappointment can be considered
?as self-indictment; the mess we are in today is by and large the mess the (then) president inherited as a result of Obasanjo?s so-called economic reform, a reform in which El-Rufai, by his own admission, played a key role".
Unfortunately this time around very little has changed, another long essay by the diminutive character and the subject matter the current Jonathan led administration and its ineffiency.
In the next few lines, I want to highlight some key points and allow my readers form an opinion, some six years ago, I had seen the present unfolding blame game.
The easiest and most attractive national past time now seems to be buck passing especially with the bunch of leaders that we have, that can hardly peel a banana nor wash an already white handkerchief. Not many of us want to take responsibility for anything, from personal, to family or national life.?
The blame is on the system. We do not need to create demons out of our leaders because they are already specimen of demons, so we hang our sins on them appropriately and inappropriately too. And unfortunately their behaviour has made it easy for the critic to descend on them.
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We at most, talk, write and discuss the Nigerian myth with a sense of fatalism. If everyone thought as much as I did about justice and fairness, life would be better. I am critic, but I am also the critics? critic, the unrepentant believer that the best way to keep government on its toes is to keep harping on their flaws so they can improve.?
Often I say I believe the things I write on, are important for our nation as they are for other nations, but when it appears to me Nigerians especially those in authority do not react to these issues as people in other lands do, I repeat them in new essays to remind old readers and recruit new ones to participate in the continuing dialogue.
As a critic, el-Rufai fails, though a friend of mine, however even his bitterest opponents, those Jonathanians and apologists and crooks called politicians would agree with some of the issues he raised but fundamentally with all the allegations hanging on the mallam's neck...except when viewed as a born again critic makes it difficult for many to take him serious.?
However the SSS in its Nigerian style of doing things have made many who ordinarily did not even see the commentary to look for it.
Sadly this is Nigeria where nothing works and no one cares, when it works, it is because someone?s interest is about to be served or being served not the people?s interest. We talk about our institutions despairingly. Our leaders do not watch network news any longer except when their faces would be there on occasion of their sons/daughters? wedding or such. They do not need the newspapers anymore because it is full of their lies, or paid adverts ?apologizing to Boko Haram and the critics? truth, bitter truth.
Government bashing is now a national past time and every drinking joint, and suya spot that is Boko Haram free has a sitting parliament with an expert on every and any issue but we forget that no matter the input if the politicians and actors in our national scene have questionable lives both on personal and domestic level, nothing will change, the best government policy cannot change the individual. It is because the policies are formulated on a bad foundation and by people with warped thinking.?
As part of a lack in confidence of our institutions, we have long replaced PHCN with generators even at the Aso Rock villa they do not trust the improved power supply jargon of the power supply company. NITEL, NIPOST, NPA, NMA, everything and anything that has an 'N' has been run down. Even Nigeria herself or is it himself is on that verge.?
It is such feelings that necessitate the small mallam to speak even when he is part of the problem. Despite the entire recent barrage on the leadership by the likes of el-Rufai, the CPC and ACN crowd and off course myself. I believe we ourselves can do a lot in improving our lot; we do not need a decree or law that would ban urinating in public place because it is wrong. We do not need government to teach us to stop treating ourselves like animals. Do we need government to teach us that we demand responsible leadership and representation? Certainly not, we should know that and act in a fashion that depicts that we demand more than what we are getting.?
There are one thousand and one questions hanging over Nasiru's head as regards his time in government, for a nation that equally thrives on rumour mill as verified source of information, all may not be true but certainly many are correct. The SSS had no business bringing the distraction called arrest of el-Rufai in the light of other pressing national demand for their services.
Government have not also come out to say the el-Rufai lied, however, under Obj, we all saw the frittering of our resources in the name of third term, or that scandalously sale of NITEL to a church property in Switzerland, the list of misdemeanour under a government which el-Rufai was part of is endless.
When will el-Rufai criticize Obasanjo for missed opportunities...?
The critic?s anthem would be my end to this essay, it is one that has always inspired me by H.G. Wells ?we are going to write about it all. We are going to write about business and finance and politic and?pretenses?and pretentiousness, and decorum and indecorum, until a thousand pretences and ten thousand impostor shrivel in the cold, ...we are going to write about wasted opportunities and latent beauties, until a thousand new ways of life open to men and women. We are going to appeal to the young, and the hopeful, and the curious against ----the established, the dignified and the defensive..."?
Let them all talk, even IBB is now a statesman democrat and expert on democratic norms, after all we are told that whether the cat is white or black as long as it kills the rat, why bother. The best answer to a critic is prove him/her wrong, unfortunately that is one area government and those that are part of it are not versed in... Strange people, strange leaders, and yet blessed nation.
Prince Charles Dickson?
Editor, burningpot.com
Nigeria's 1st Online Newspaper
234-08033311301, 08057152301
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