Nigeria: Darkness Visible By Banji Ayiloge

If the Buhari administration ends today, history will condemn it as the worst administration since independence.

I know that many would come up with all sorts of tricks and attacks to defend an administration that has presided over the worst form of corruption in the nation so far. There is, however, one thing in common among those who would disagree.

They are benefiting from the rotten system that Buhari has imposed on the nation. With the current brazen corruption, nepotism, and sectionalism rocking the country, Buhari may be the last president of Nigeria.

This is not my wish, but it is not far – fetched to discern this by forward – looking people. As a result of Buhari’s complicity, things have gotten worse than what they were during the Jonathan administration. What Buhari has done primarily, is to replace those few from the Niger Delta and the East, with Fulani people of the North in cornering our nation’s wealth. We now confirm that the plan all along has been to aid his clan and ethnic group to the wealth of the country. There are signs of this scheme before Buhari assumed office.

Shortly after the 2015 election, Buhari met some Northerners in the Maritime sector whose complaint was that they were being marginalized. Buhari told them not to worry as they would take over the place very soon. They have. Buhari has done more than that. He has replaced all Southerners and others with Fulani in all the critical sectors of the nation’s public service. The semi-official language at the Lagos port these days is the Fulani language. Duties have been marked up more than 600 percent, with the Government receiving only a third of the funds. For an example, this writer cleared a vehicle through the Lagos port recently, the official government receipt read N1.8 million. What was collected from me was N3.8 million? The rest went into the pockets of the Fulani cabals at the port. The oil sector is in the hands of the Fulani. From the substantive Minister to the top 20 executives of the NNPC, they are more likely to be Northerners. To crown it all, the agencies of coercion and intimidations are in the firm grips of Northerners. In Buhari’s Nigeria, a southerner is more likely to go to jail for corruption than a Northerner.

All these would not have mattered if these appointees were putting up stellar performances. They are running the places down while helping themselves to our nation’s wealth. Something tells me that Buhari and a clique of Northern benefactors may have concluded the plan to take the North out of Nigeria and they are thereby racing the clock to enrich themselves and steer development to the north as quickly as possible.

There is no way a fair-minded observer can take a look at the number of strategic military projects taken to the north and will fail to see the handwriting on the wall. As if military formations, including the airforce, are not enough, Buhari has committed trillions of Nigeria’s resources to Daura to make the place the future center of the North. Many have speculated that Daura being close to the border is being developed to be the New center of the new Fulani enclave to be carved out of Nigeria and merged with the current Niger Republic. By the time this is done, Buhari and his clan would be at the apex of a new Fulani country close to the Sahara. This new enclave would have been completed with Nigeria’s resources financed with our indebtedness to China.

It is the only way we can explain the bracing indebtedness to China without any regard for how we are going to pay for it. Our sovereignty is said to be the only collateral offered to China to secure billions of US dollars in the loan Why are we taking loans in US dollars with China anyway? Did the Buhari administrator not inform us two years ago that our foreign trade would from then be in Chinese currency and that such an arrangement was designed to make trade and commerce between the two countries beneficial to Nigeria? If this is so, why are we owing them billions in US dollars? To crown it all, we have been told the ports in Lagos and other economic infrastructures around the southern part of the country were offered as collaterals for the loans. Therefore, when China comes calling for its money in USD, Nigeria cannot hide under the guise of being a sovereign state to shield it from China. China would have the legal rights to the Ports and other areas of economic interests that have been used as collaterals. The Port is in Lagos and not Daura or anywhere in the North.

China may well be careful if it truly wants to get paid. It should be mindful of where those projects are sited. Nigeria may well be five to six countries by the time payments are due. There is no way an Odua or Biafra Nation is going to be indebted to China based on a railroad construction from Daura to the Niger Republic.

As the country moves toward 2023, we have heard from those who are direct beneficiaries of the rogue system in Nigeria talking about retaining power after that year. Let us all tell them loud and clear that 8 years of this rot is enough. There is more corruption in the polity now than when Jonathan was at the saddle. All Nigerians need to ask themselves is whether they are better off now under Buhari than with Jonathan. Nigerian should not allow the rhetorics of fighting corruption to deceive them. Uthman Dan Fodio used the same old but now discredited tactics to his advantage in his incursion into northern Nigeria years ago. We must remain vigilant.

Banji Ayiloge is a commentator on Nigerian affairs.