What Soyinka must have told Buhari

By Joseph Edgar… I have seen the pictures of the sage, Wole Soyinka. His grey flowing mane, glistening in the bright lights of the President’s office. The smile hiding the harsh words he must have told the President. I am almost certain that this picture was taken at the point of entry and certainly not at the end of the meeting.

Judging by the pedigree of the learned Professor, I am sure he would have not minced words in telling the President his mind regarding the unusual suffering of Nigerians under his reign. Things have never been this bad, the only comparable time was during the President’s first incarnation in 1983 when we used to go and queue for ‘essential commodities’ like a country of war refugees. If we continue this downward slide we just might end up there with the surge of inflation, interest rates hanging in the ceiling and the government doing nothing but praying and hoping that the oil price will climb back up.

The Professor would have told the ex-General in no uncertain terms that he was not voted in to sit and pray and watch the oil price before delivering the dividends of democracy. He would have told him that pure water, the main stay for the masses is now almost out of reach of the population, that unemployment is now massive and that his ‘joke’ of a Labour Minister is going around trying to clownishly enforce a ‘no sack’ rule for private sector operators.

Nothing can be more idiotic than for a government to insist on a no sack when it’s very policies are the ones that continue to make running a business hellish, or do they think employers just enjoy sacking people for the fun of it.

The Professor would have also touched on the lopsided nature of appointments. He must have been live with the crass arrogance surrounding these appointments. The other day the appointment of the Head of ‘dead’ NIPOST was so celebrated that one was tempted to think that he would command troops. This is the real issue, we may have lost all we had gained in the last 20 years in terms of national cohesion and integration. The Fulani hegemonic tendencies are becoming very glaring but this time it is being met by nationalistic resistance as evidenced with the continued tribal insurgency we are seeing in the south east and south south with the religious extremist joking in the mix.

By the time lunch was served, the good professor had lost his appetite and by this time was shaking with fury as he was not getting any credible answers. His questions here being met with the blank stare of the ‘imperial majesty’. Why is the Naira in a free fall? Why is infrastructure dead? Why is the economy in a state of coma? Why are the industries in a stalemate? All these questions went and flew out of the window into the dry abuja afternoon.

The professor must now have realized that he would have spent a better time in his intellectual jungle hunting for rodents than on this trip which has more than confirmed his fears. He must have confirmed his suspicions that this was the same person who in 1983 drove us into a state of anomie and there was no real change here. The change that was needed to redeem this country was beyond the capacity of this soldier who although the meant well, did not seem to have the capacity to deliver.

As his car drove him towards the airport, he must have looked at the faces of ordinary Nigerians looking so desolate and hopeless, a grim picture that serves as a didactic emblem of hope dashed once again.

 

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