Nigeria 2019: Muhammadu Buhari & Mahmood Yakubu; Integrity & Impunity at the Crossroads

Nigerians have been fair and patient with Muhammadu Buhari. However, there is a limit to reasonable fairness, in the midst of continuous provocation. In my extensive interactions with Nigerians over the course of a presidential campaign, from 2018-2019; I find that frequently, many average Nigerian’s actions, reactions, and interactions, are colored through the prism of “region-ethnicity” and “religion”.

However, the prism of “region-ethnicity” and “religion” are fast approaching their limits. In the near future, religion will be further demystified in Nigeria, because widespread hunger will lead practitioners of these two religions (Muslims and Christians), to accept alms from their religious antagonists, or literarily perish.

If your religion does not improve your well-being, then why would you worship in the mode you worship? God or Allah is not in the business of inflicting suffering on children that he created and apparently loves.

Only the moral “right” and the “truth” can stand the test of time. Everything else is like building on quicksand, and is bound to collapse like the school building that just collapsed in Lagos today, trapping 100 of our precious school-aged children.

Why We Must Change our Moral Fiber
Seldom has “social status” factored in the average Nigerian’s judgment, when it comes to electing political leadership; thus enabling the upper class to retain power and act with impunity of the highest order. Consequently, everyone else is treated with sheer disdain, while the political elites plunder the nation’s commonwealth to their hearts content, while abusing power to unprecedented levels.

In recent times, I have written realistic and critical articles about the 2019 elections. However, at this time, the main opposition Party, the PDP, is being unfairly targeted by INEC’s cancellation of elections, in states where the PDP is evidently having an upper hand, and is on the verge of winning those particular elections.

Many Nigerians have stated that the incumbent APC government is conniving with INEC to call these elections as “inconclusive”.

While I do not belong to the PDP, the declarations of elections as “inconclusive” in states like Rivers, Plateau, Benue, and Kano, is morally wrong, and is an outright “abuse of power”!

We as right-thinking Nigerians, should speak-out against these reckless abuse of power, regardless of political persuasion, or be prepared to have such actions meted out against us in the future.

The APC-led federal government must retrace their steps in these matters; because, though the PDP may be an orphan today, we must not encouraging totalitarianism in this democracy, because all power is transient or temporary.
If the incumbent government decides to follow the route of totalitarianism, then let us all be prepared for the direction this could go; because there’s a high degree of probability that this style of oversight of the electoral process, will certainly lead to political catastrophe in the very near future.

Composition of the Elections Tribunal

The PDP’s presidential candidate, Mr. Atiku Abubakar as well as all other aggrieved candidates at the governorship level; are within their rights to challenge elections that maybe obviously seriously flawed, at the Elections Tribunal.

However, a more serious problem is the fact that Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, the President of the Court of Appeal, and the head of the Elections Petitions Tribunal; is the wife of a recently elected Bauchi State APC Senator, Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa!

Justice Bulkachuwa’s potential conflict of interest in the presidential election matter is quite apparent; Justice Bulkachuwa should consider recusing herself as quickly as possible or be prepared to preside over a tainted process.

A word is enough for the wise. The nation and the world are eagerly watching.

By Okey Samuel Mbonu…

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