By Bala Ibrahim
In the last one week, and pursuant to the provocation of Twitter, which deleted the account of PMB for promising to respond to the threats of some recalcitrant in their own language, the president seems to have gone into the gear of talking to the people more, and talking in the language of leadership.
Between the twitter ban and the democracy day broadcast of yesterday, PMB had granted more frequent interviews than he had ever done since he assumed office in 2015. All within a period of one week. Thanks to the irrationality of Twitter, for tantalizing the president to talk.
Apart from the twin interviews he granted to Arise TV and the NTA, the President addressed the nation on the Democracy, wherein he reviewed the six years in office of his administration, with the conclusion that much still needed to be done by him for Nigerians, despite the score of achievements recorded so far.
“I will be the first to admit that in spite of our efforts and achievements, which are there for all to see, there is still much more to be done and we are doing our best in the face of scarce resources and galloping population growth rate that consistently outstrips our capacity to provide jobs for our populace.”
Although the president had in the past made several warnings to those engaged in the business of undermining the efforts of his regime, he seems to be more direct this time around, by saying, “When you elected me as your President in 2015, you did so knowing that I will put an end to the growing insecurity, especially the insurgency in the North East, but the unintended consequences of our scattering them in the North East pushed them further in-country, which is what we are now facing and dealing with. We will, by the Grace of God put an end to these challenges too. Unfortunately, like in most conflict situations, some Nigerian criminals are taking undue advantage of a difficult situation and profiteering there from, with the misguided belief that adherence to the democratic norms handicaps this Administration from frontally and decisively tackling them. We are already addressing these obstacles and we will soon bring some of these culprits to justice”.
Thank you Mr. President. The sooner you act in bringing these culprits to justice, the better for the regime in particular and the country in general. For too long the regime has been barking without a corresponding bite. But now that the president has commenced talking, we expect the guilty to start feeling the seriousness of the situation and commence jumping in jitters. Thanks to Twitter, for tantalizing the President to talk.
According to the minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, the management of Twitter has reached out to the Federal Government for discussion over the recent suspension order slammed on it. Minister Lai said Twitter wants a high level discussion with the Federal government, which to me sounds like they want an opportunity to talk to the president directly, if possible. Good, very good.
Also, contrary to the speculations of his critics, that he wants to create a scenario that would facilitate a third term for him, in the NTA interview, PMB equally informed the nation of his intention to keep to the promise of vacating the villa at the end of his tenure. He said he would not stay in office a day longer than expected, with a promise to hand over a more prosperous country to his successor in 2023.
In what sounded like a paradoxical statement, aimed at sending warning to those serving in his government, with fingers pointing at them for alleged acts of corruption, the President said it was high time special courts were established in the country, especially to try several corruption cases currently stuck in conventional courts.
“You have instances of cases lasting for as long as 10 years before they are determined, and in some cases, judges handling the cases may die. But if there are special courts, there will be a time frame to conclude the corruption cases and not dragging on unnecessarily. People who misappropriated funds, a lot of them are elected members either at state or federal level. When they are elected members of House of Representatives or they are given ministries and so on. They have only one house and maybe a wife. But now they have several houses in Abuja and maybe in Lagos. Really, if you try to work out their legitimate salary vis-a-vis their expenditure, they will be embarrassed,”
Undoubtedly the President has opened up, and the country is happy about that, with many calls for him to do so more in the area of, I am for all, I am for none. There are people calling the shots in the regime, whose advises the President use in dealing with the alleged corrupt, but as they point the accusing finger on their victims, three of their fingers are pointing at them.
In addressing what he needs to do more, and if the President really wants to deal with what he called the twin evils of unemployment and poverty, he must not look too far from his cabinet and the immediate surroundings.
The feelers all over are that, there are saboteurs lurking around the President.