We live in a very awkward world. So many odd and strange things happen and we relish it. One of such is rumour mongering. We spread rumours from the sublime to the downright wicked. We never mind our business. We insist on knowing what goes on in the household of our neighbour and, if after craning our neck for long we hear nothing, we invent one and put it in the public sphere.
In Nigeria, the dead read their own obituaries. Like President Muhammadu Buhari has been doing of late that he has been reported dead. Reports had it that the President, who had proceeded on vacation, died in London. Unfortunately, his aides are making a mystery of his state of health thereby giving room for all these dangerous speculations. The President is not superhuman; he can be sick. So, what’s the big deal, telling Nigerians what they need to know about their President?
However, it is very gratifying, indeed, to know that President Buhari is not dead after all. At least, for now, much to the disappointment of death mongers. Instinct tells me that the Daura-born General is having a ball. I would not be surprised if the he started the death rumour himself. He wanted to know how much Nigerians hated or loved him. He wanted to know if Nigerians would miss him in death or pop champagne to celebrate his exit. He wanted to have a laugh and a drink at the expense of those who wished him dead.
The corrupt ones among us who feel Buhari’s anti-corruption war was getting too tight had celebrated too early. The old man is not in a hurry to go anywhere yet and so the war goes on. I, for one, and I believe like many other Nigerians, am relieved that he did not die, not so much for love for him but for the fact that the anti-corruption battle needs to be fought to the end despite the imperfections.
Imagine the quantum of money allegedly recovered from the bunker of the ex-MD of the NNPC. That is from one official alone, from just one point of the several others scattered beyond the prying eyes of Ibrahim Magu and his boys at the EFCC. Imagine the CNN expose on a former super minister, who allegedly refunded a whopping $90 billion, which translates to trillions of naira that could make everyone of our bogus, estimated 170 million people a multi-millionaire. Much as I find the CNN report gawky because of its unbelievability, I fall for it because it is all part the Buhari anti-corruption enigma.
The biggest headache of this country is corruption and if Buhari has chosen to confront the monster, I wish him every success. Even if it is only this war that he wins for Nigerians, so be it. I agree he may be making mistakes. I agree he may have spared some sacred cows or whoever. I concede to the corruption even in Buhari’s lost-but-found school certificate. I agree the corruption war is skewed against opponents of the government, especially those in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Well, the PDP have nobody to blame but themselves because they did not utilise their opportunity to clean the Augean stable when they held sway. Truth is that there can be no perfect means to taming the systemic corruption that has crippled this country. Mistakes will be made along the line but the war must be waged and won.
Buhari must not die. In fact, Buhari’s death would amount to corruption, too, for he would have chickened out in the face of daunting challenges. He must live to take us to the yet elusive (illusive) change he promised us.
What I find morbid is people’s lack of conscience. Why would we derive joy in the death of another, especially our President? What do we stand to gain? Will the death of Buhari make any of those spreading the rumour President? Will it bring turnaround to our comatose economy? It does not matter what you and I feel about Mr. President. It does not matter whether you love him or not; not even whether he is doing the right thing or not. What matters is that he is the President of this country and we owe it as a divine duty to keep praying for him and all those in authority. We are hurting the economy when we peddle such rumours, as it can lead to capital flight and cause investors to withdraw their investments for fear of the uncertainty Buhari’s death portends.
Opportunists are cashing in on the confusion occasioned by the President’s absence to enthrone mischief. For instance, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has indicated his loss of faith in Buhari by flying the kite of Igbo presidency in 2019. Even though Owelle Rochas Okorocha’s touted 2023 date for Igbo presidency is rubbish, only gullible Igbo would take the Balogun of Owu seriously. Was he not the gloating conqueror of Biafra? When did he start professing love for the Igbo?
The old fox merely used the Igbo slant to send out a message that Buhari was running out of credit. What is Igbo presidency, by the way? It is a misnomer; we can have a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction but that does not make him Igbo president. If the Igbo must get the presidency, it would not be tokenistic but as a matter of right. Moreover, the Igbo do not need presidency to thrive much less one coming through their former tormentor-in-chief. The Igbo need higher stakes, an expanded corruption war that would remove every obstacle in the advancement of the Igbo man. The Igbo need a corruption war that must remove all monopolistic corruption that killed Nkalagu and Ibeto cement and shunted Igbo business interests to extinction.
Buahri is forbidden to die now. He must finish the war on corruption and take it to the multi-layer foreign exchange rates that benefit a few. It must extend to the aboki hawking dollars at street corners and bastardising the naira. It must get to past leaders, who got to power as paupers but left office as unaccountable multi-billionaires, pontificating, self-righteous and still having the effrontery to dictate who gets what office in the land. It must ransack every nook and cranny of this country and offshore where the Yakubus of this country hide their loot, even if whistle blowers on such sanctuaries get a percentage.
By the way, let us revamp the law books to consider NLC’s call for death for all corrupt politicians. After all, the law prescribes capital punishment for murder. Why then do we treat treasury looters with kid gloves when their evil acts have sent many civil servants and pensioners to untimely death?