[OPINION] Lazy Nigerian Youth: This President Of Ours – By Andrew Emwanta
We Must Say “Not Again” To this Ancestral Curse
A.A. U Emwanta
From the trenches of the solitary path of truth, I write to totally disagree with the false narrative of a man we call our President. The epicentre of this false narrative that has globally gone viral is, regrettably, the Nigerian youths. Before a foreign audience of comprising of an ailing nonangenarian Head of the British Commonwealth and a Brexit-appointed Septuagenarian British Prime Minister, PMB took the Nigerian youths to the cleaners.
I guess he was trying to impress his audience that his mental acuity and senility was still in tact. Or perhaps he wanted to prove that he loved the youths of “Great Britain” more than the youths of his home country. He was on a vengeance mission.
His petition to the Queen and Prime Minister of “Great Britain” was indirectly against the patriotic band of Nigerian youths residing in London, who pursued him home out of London during his last “medical holiday” in England. They were back again to boo and jeer at him during this year’s Commonwealth Heads of State and Governments meeting, which took place in London.
In less than 48 hours, their political counterparts back home, under the supervision of an APC serving Senator, forcefully stole the mace of the Nigerian Senate during plenary. PMB was right, if his London audience watched the drama display of shame performed by those APC-trained youths (in thug(s) clothing) in the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. This is the new narrative the PMB’s APC government has inflicted on the average Nigerian youth in the eyes of his global audience.
This President of ours became a State Governor, Minister and Head of State in his youthful days in this same country Nigeria. Then he wasn’t lazy. Then he knew there was a country called “West Germany” and another called “The United Kingdom”. His brain was still active then. He was not a corrupt man. Then if he fell ill, he was treated in Nigeria and not in England. This was our President when he was a Nigerian Youth.
Surprisingly, this same President of ours has been in the corridors of power in the last 50 years, either as military Governor, Minister, Head of State, coup plotter, Chairman Petroleum Trust Fund, leader of an Opposition Party, statutory member of the National Council of State and currently Nigerian President. As a youth on December 31st 1983, he forcefully overthrew the democratically elected government of Shehu Shagari. Was his action in December 1983, about 35 years ago, different from the present show of brigandage of the youths of his party, who forcefully stole the mace of the Nigerian Senate? Was the North and South amalgamated in 1914 for a man like PMB, (if you like call him Private Mail Bag, he has become so for letters of many Nigerians or “GMB” Generals Mail Bag, for letters from the likes of OBJ, IBB and Theophilus Danjuma), to hold or keep us in mental captivity?
Between May 29th 2015 and now what changes has the “CHANGE” mantra of PMB’s APC done to the status quo? In his so-called fight against corruption, how many corrupt politicians in the APC has been brought to justice? What about the North-South ratio in political and other appointments? Has any Fulani herdsman responsible for the Genocide taking place in the middle belt and elsewhere in the South been apprehended or brought to justice? Is the Nigerian naira not worse off now than as it was in April 2015? What about the current skyrocketing price of petroleum products vis a vis the issue of subsidy removal? I could go on and on, but I don’t think that would be necessary.
This President of ours is indeed an ancestral curse that has inflicted selective amnesia and mental slavery on every Nigerian youth still supporting him for a second term in office, come February next year.
The Commonwealth Head of State and Governments meeting in London is over. The Queen has retired to her seat in the Buckingham Palace and other Commonwealth leaders have gone back to their various home countries to resume their duties as Heads of State and Governments. When is PMB coming back to Nigeria from London? In fact, this Andrew will soon check out.
To be continued…
A. A. U Emwanta is a Civil Rights Crusader and he writes from Calabar
Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the opinion and editorial policy of naijacenter.com
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