IN SUPPORT OF TY DANJUMA; A NATIONAL STATESMAN

TY has benefited from Nigeria and he has a duty to keep it one. He said what we all know. The problem with most of his critics is partisan epilepsy which puts them in momentary fit whenever they are confronted with the truth. That is not patriotism. It is patrimolianism. Some of us were very critical of PDP misbehavior even as Members of the House of Representatives. It may have cost us principal officership, but we are alive by the grace of God to continue to speak truth to power. Party membership or affiliation is not a reason to endanger humanity with indecisiveness on security of lives and properties. Some of us have never witnessed what is now going on in this country in our adult lives.

We heard of Tafawa Balewa. We saw Usman Shagari. We worked with Umaru Yaradua. They were northerners and Muslim. They may have had Fulani blood in them but their sense of national duty was exemplary. None of them would have tolerated this menace of some irresponsible heardsmen spreading terror to the ancestral land of others in a jet age. Rather than restrain them with decent and globally tested policies, the Government is overwhelmed with nepotic constraints and thereby preventing the avoidable deaths of thousands of innocent citizens.

More than any government in our republican history, this government has been the slowest to act on matters that require urgent government attention. It cannot continue like this merely because a few privileged people have formed a vanguard of blame-him-not around President Buhari. They are definitely not helping Nigeria but themselves. Let me remind all such persons of the proverb that those who ride on the back of the tiger, end up in its stomach.

Obasanjo wrote his 20 page letter of caution to the President. He was called names by the holier-than thou supporters of the President. Gen. Babaginda issued a press statement on the way forward. He was lampooned by the same band of economic and tribal clappers.

Gen. TY Danjuma, more than these hallelujah brigade, contributed enormous personal resources to the campaign process of President Buhari over the years. He was the chairman of the President’s advisory group when the President assumed office. He mobilized support for the president across the length and breadth of the country. How would a man who made these contributions to the emergence of Buhari as president standby and watch the ship of State sink deeply without qualms? Danjuma is made of sterner stuff. He was a full blooded General in the Army and knows the difference between the Army they belonged to and today’s Army.

Those casting aspersions on the eminent citizen have done nothing to help our country. They do not want anyone to stand up for Nigeria. They like the country as it is. They are fanning the embers of inefficiency, nepotism and insecurity in order to profit from the situation. How many of these champions drive on Nigerian roads form one part of the country to another? How many of them sleep in their houses without surrounding themselves with armed Police guards?

The truth is that we are now more unsafe than we have ever been in Nigeria in Peace time. I give kudos to the Northern Elders who recently called a spade a spade by telling the nation that they would not vote anyone from their region who has not lived up to expectations. They know that all is not well with our country and are themselves worried about the state of affairs. We cannot say that the professional clappers love President Buhari more than Prof Ango Abdulahi, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and their group of northern elders. The same group joined others to mobilize the country to vote against President Jonathan and usher in President Buhari in 2015.

The simple message to Mr. President by all those who have cautioned him is that he is performing far below the expectations of most of our country men and women. Let the President listen to them and ignore the Buhari-does-no-wrong group. They would be the first to jump ship if the President doesn’t make it back to Aso Rock in 2019. I wish the President all the best.

God bless Nigeria.

Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa.