WHO HAS TAKEN THE VOICE OF OUR PRESIDENT?
By Yemisi Bamgbose.
I was just wondering, what would have happened to our President that he has not been able to address the nation .
I was thinking the President was making consultations that will enable him come out with a good strategy to pacify the angry populace represented by the #EndSars protesters.
I was expecting a well coordinated, well researched broadcast that would show the empathy of our leader putting himself in the shoes of those parents whose children’s life were cut short without fulfilling their destinies.
I was thinking our President would have given the police hierarchy a marching order to reform police within 3 months in accordance with international best practices that guarantees zero molestation and safety of lives and property of citizens. I was expecting to hear a caveat that failure to do so will invite tsunami into the rank and file of the police.
I was expecting that the President will direct the Minister of Justice to without delay begin the prosecution of those SARS officers who have been indicted as claimed by the police.
I was thinking the Executive would have partnered with the National Assembly to start an all embracing interaction aimed at looking holistically at our constitution with reference to the report of 2014 Constitutional Conference and such conferences whose reports are gathering dust on the shelve of the government.
I was thinking that by now an emergency meeting of the Council of State where all the former (living ) Presidents ,former CJF and others in that class would be in attendance to brainstorm and offer useful suggestions would have taken place.
I was thinking that by now professional bodies like the NMA, NUJ,RATTAWU ,and NBA would be encouraged to converge to begin to discuss the way out .
I was thinking the leadership of the country would by now be engaging the religious leaders in discussions to profer solutions.
I was thinking the youths would have been seriously engaged at the state levels to allow them ventilate their opinions and make useful suggestions on how to move the country forward.
I was thinking the Minister of Information would by now be actively coordinating the media in harvesting the youths agitations while also continuously persuading them to exercise their rights to protest in a decorous and peaceful manner.
I was thinking the IGP, the Minister of Police affairs and the Governors who are chief security officers in their states would be announcing repeatedly that no peaceful protesters should be shot nor manhandled.
Alas, somebody somewhere must have stolen the voice of our President.
Why? why?, why is the President keeping quiet? Who is it that have stolen the voice of our President? Who is responsible and what is the reason?
I know our President is not a talkative, he is not a man of many words but keeping mum in this situation is not only counter-productive, it projects our President as insensitive. Nobody is asking for a marathon speech as these protesting youths are highly educated and can read in between the lines. Shouldn’t the President as the father of the nation be out on all cylinders to pacify his angry children?
I want to believe someone somewhere must have stolen the President’s voice. They can do it in many ways. If they know how to steal billions under the eagle eyes of EFCC , how will they not know how to hijack the voice of Mr President. Yes they can padlock his voice. Many of them are diabolical.
Someone might even be telling the President that those youths will soon be tired. Another person might be telling the President that their leaders can be bought while still another aide might be telling Mr President that the Military will deal with them.
Someone might be telling the President that thugs will disperse the protesters. The President may be receiving advise to play the North against the south and he may be receiving suggestions that Muslims will rise again the Christians. This will not be the first time that such aides and advisers offer such obnoxious advises.
I can only hope that the President has patriotic and loyal aides who will let him know that many of those advisers do not mean well. I just don’t want to say that many are his enemies .
When the drummer is enticing the masquerade to dance carelessly without decorum, elders will remind the masquerade that if things get out hand he will be left alone to bear the brunt. Many of those surrounding Mr President are of no fixed address. Many of them have one leg in Nigeria, another leg in United Arab Emirates, Switzerland or China where they have starched our fund for future that will never come. Let them ask General Sanni Abacha .
History only refers to Shagari’s regime, Obasanjo’s regime, Babangida’s regime and Jonathan’s regime. Similarly, history will only refer to Buhari’s regime and eventually nobody will remember to a minister in the regime or one Ambassador who is urging Mr President to use the Military to kill our future leaders. If the attention seeking Ambassador turned adviser has been killed while he was in the University, I wonder how he will have been appointed an Ambassador. In his grave?.
Many of them are already planning how to disguise like an Imam or Revered Father to sneak out of the country. They have forgotten what President Buhari,when he was a youth in 1984,did to a runaway minister who was captured in UK,crated in London, wrapped like a parcel in diplomatic luggage to be shipped back to the country .
Like the slogan of a popular mobile network in Nigeria, anywhere you go, the youths of today will bring you back.
Those who can help the President to recover his voice should do so without delay. Nigerians want to hear his voice. Nigerians want to hear his reaction. Nigerians want to hear his strategy.
I doubt if the aim of the protesters is to bring his goverment down. If Mr President acts decisively,if he pacifies the youths with good strategies, if he embraces their ideas, if he listens to their opinions, if he engages them in discussions, If he is able to retrieve back his voice and speak with the voice of a Father, perhaps the protesters will give Mr President the opportunity to redefine Nigeria.
Written by Comrade Yemisi Bamgbose, former President, RATTAWU.