Nigeria Will NOT Emerge Stronger – A Rejoinder To An Address By Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola

Dear Prince Olagunsoye
Oyinlola: I feel constrained to
join issues with you on the
fallacies contained in your
address to the 38th Annual
Conference of the United
States National Conference of
Black Mayors in June 2012 in
the United States.
It is share fallacy and
hypocrisy for you to stand
before such an auspicious
body and eulogise falsehood
as the basis of your
unfounded optimism on the
future of our ill-fated
federation. The basis of this
erroneous optimism as
contained in your address
was the so-called
transformation agenda of the
present federal government.
A transformation agenda that
is littered with non-
performance, deceit,
corruption and a disturbing
catch-phrase termed
“irreversible”. If you had not
been noticing, Jonathan’s
government has assumed a
pseudo-military toga where
decisions made, no matter
how unpopular or
unacceptable it is to the
citizenry, are often
“irreversible”. Hike in pump
price of fuel was
“irreversible”, likewise the
unceremonious re-christening
of the University of Lagos.
Alas, this is the
transformation agenda that
inspired so much confidence
in you.
Dear Prince Oyinlola, whilst it
is clear that you have no
other option but to blow the
trumpet of those who have
provided succour and
enrichment to your life,
having actively sustained you
throughout your years in
military service and even
through your deceitful
participation in democratic
experiments in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, considering
your age and the present
facts in Nigeria which stares
at all and sundry daily, it is
unpardonable for you to
continue to eulogise
falsehood. In some
circumstances, silence has
been remarkably noted to be
golden.
All through your years in the
government house in Osun
State, I had reasons to
wonder at the type of
leadership you provided for
the ill-fated state. My
concerns also stemmed from
the experience of your
lacklustre performance in
Lagos State. No doubt you
have been more than
priviledged in life, the basis
of which remains innocuous
and very doubtful. The
abundance priviledge
conferred on personalities
like your dear self can only
be possible in an endemically
infested country like Nigeria
where corruption is the
reigning king and truth has
taken flight. All through the
years, you have persistently
failed to learn from history
and endeavour to turn the
stones in cognisance of
posterity. By this I mean that
you appreciated the
aberration in your selection
for priviledge by an abysmal
system but rather chose to
roll along rather than make
amends for posterity. Despite
attaining a very senior
position in a military
command, you lack bravery
and valour in detaching
yourself from the
appendages of a heinous and
condemnable political order,
one whose tenure in history
is very ephemeral.
Your address to the assembly
of black mayors reeked of
unbridled sentiments, a
sentiment that would have
been otherwise normal but
for the jungle called Nigeria.
You fantasised on the soon to
occur emergence of Nigeria
as an industrialised nation.
You premised this forlorn
fantasy on the “non-
negotiable values of
commitment, dedication and
patriotism on the part of our
leaders” It is either that you
are living a complete lie,
completely disconnected in
the richness of your cloak of
deceit or totally dishonest
even in the face of reality. We
as Nigerians are yet to be
able to point to a leader with
such captivating devotional
qualities to nationhood (as
you falsely informed the
mayors) amongst the present
crop of vagabonds and
upstarts in power. You
stressed on the fact that
Nigerians “have not lost hope
for a better tomorrow”
Nothing can be further from
the truth.
It is very sad that it would
take eons for average
Nigerians to impress on their
leaders the extent of their
agonies as a people and the
forlornness of what
tomorrow has in stock. It is a
sign of the seriousness of the
situation when after almost
five decades of
maladministration, mounting
and embarrassing corruption
and extreme socio-economic
decadence and neglect, a
member of our eternal ruling
class like your self can go on
a global stage to mount
obscenities in the name of
hope. As it seems not to
have really sunk in for your
ilk, we need to repeat that
hope is a strange bed fellow
to the average Nigerian.
It is a word which connotes
precious little to us. Hope
was murdered when the
basis of our federation was
entrenched in falsehood and
deceit. Hope was murdered
when Nigerians with vision
and grace were persistently
denied the mantle of
leadership. Dear Olagunsoye,
hope was murdered, for
example, when the winner of
a popular and clean election
was denied his mandate,
clamped into prison and
murdered even as a prisoner.
Indeed, hope was murdered
on many platforms in our
unfortunate federation. It
was murdered when Dele
Giwa received a fatal present
of a parcel bomb, it was
murdered when Bola Ige (a
serving Attorney General) was
killed and his assassins still
walk freely amongst us. Hope
was killed when Goodluck
Jonathan assumed the
presidency and unleashed
untold hardship on the
citizenry. Hope was finally
buried when the institution of
the presidency was dragged
in the mud on the
questionable involvement of
the Nigerian President in
incidents of graft.
The Nigerian situation is akin
to a cataclysm and hovers
between insanity and
depravity. It exhibits severe
traits of throw-back on
human civilisation by the
sheer ingenuity of greed and
corruption on the part of our
leaders, immature and
barbaric qualities that are
probably found only amongst
our ape cousins. One remains
in awe at the capacity of
human beings, nay Nigerian
leaders, for greed and
material acquisition.
We pay the price daily for
their unalloyed disloyalty and
profound lack of patriotism.
Nigerian leaders have made a
mockery of everything
honourable and good. The
consequence is that we now
stand the risk of bequeathing
rubbish and depravity to
generations yet unborn. We
are actively laying the
foundation of poverty and
physical, mental and
psychological retardation for
millions of unborn Nigerian
children.
Not too long ago, our
national embarrassment was
taken to other low heights
when Reuben Abati redefined
the concept of corporate
social responsibility in the
light of an act of presidential
graft. I need to hasten to
make clear, taking cognisance
of your eternal rivalry and
enmity with the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
that I write as an average
Nigerian with absolutely no
political affinity or loyalty. I
am not a cliff-hanger and
neither do I hang on the
fringes of political loyalty.
Like millions of poor and
struggling Nigerians whose
hope has been compromised
by the evil acts of leaders like
your dear self, I will continue
to condemn and castigate our
obnoxious and odious brand
of leadership which cuts
across all political parties.
The present Nigerian
president has encapsulated
all the nefarious qualities of
his predecessor. Why this
became possible would be
left to students of history but
the fact remains that in
Goodluck Jonathan, imbecility
has triumphed and docility
has bred stagnation, massive
corruption and other
unpardonable shenanigans.
Jonathan would go down in
history as the most
unprepared president Nigeria
ever had, an unmitigated
disaster. I await the ferocity
of his legion of paid foot
soldiers on this.
Perhaps it is an act of
providence that Goodluck
Jonathan deemed it fit to
make an unforced and
spontaneous confession of an
impeachable act of graft.
He has never denied openly
soliciting from a contracting
firm “a befitting church” for
his sleepy rural village of
Otuoke. The company
willingly obliged and
constructed a gargantuan
edifice for a village whose
population is in hundreds.
Reuben Abati with his
doctoral knowledge
interpreted this as “corporate
social responsibility”. This was
just one in what is becoming
a tradition of the Jonathan
administration.
Another was even more
scandalous and we still await
Reuben’s analysis of this. In
April 2011, executive
pressure forced two oil
companies (Agip and Shell) to
pay the federal government
$1.1 billion in settlement fee
over what is now known as
the Malabu oil block OPL 245
case. Four months later,
Goodluck Joanthan ordered
Yerima Ngama and a visibly
corrupt Mohammed Adoke
(the Attorney General) to
make an immediate transfer
of the paid sum to the
account of Mr Dan Etete, a
former oil minister and a
convicted fraudster.
Thereafter, the slush fund
was variously distributed with
hundreds of millions of
dollars going to the
president’s business
associates, his cronies, and
ministers.
$523 million went to one
Abubakar Aliyu, a
businessman introduced to
President Jonathan by the
convicted former Governor of
Bayelsa state, Diepreiye
Alamiesegha. Both Dan Etete
and Abubakar Aliyu are fronts
for Mr Jonathan. Abubakar
Aliyu in particular was the
same man who bought NITEL
property in Abuja for less
than N1billion and sold it for
over N20 billion to the
Central Bank of Nigeria in a
deal that saw the palms of
several government officials
greased.
Dear Olagunsoye, these are
merely few in the long list of
the many sins of Goodluck
Jonathan against Nigeria and
Nigerians and against
posterity. They demonstrate
the filtering of hope and the
enthronement of eternal
despair. It is unpardonable
that one that should have
shown more understanding
and sympathy, having been
once “shoeless” now stands
at the peak of national
despoliation and shame. I am
not reporting Goodluck
Jonathan to you; as such an
exercise is fruitless since you
equally left many skeletons in
the cupboard of the
government house at Ilesha.
It is thus baffling that you
could still stand and speak
about hope at the
international conference. It is
even more mystifying when
you couched Jonathan’s
government is such
superlative terms as a
government that strives to
“maximise the benefits
derivable by the citizenry
from governance through
more effective and efficient
use of public resources,
proper financial management
and fiscal prudence”. Come
on, Olagunsoye!
It is practically impossible for
Nigeria to emerge stronger in
the midst of this avalanche of
attacks on its foundation,
integrity and progress by
those entrusted with the
responsibilities for its well
being. It is difficult to see
Nigeria emerge stronger with
its persistent violation by day
light robbers camouflaging as
rulers. Nigeria cannot survive
when imbeciles and
sycophants dictate the tune
of governance and above all,
make economic decisions for
millions of citizens. Dear
Olagunsoye, your honest
message to the assembly of
black mayors should have
been an expression of
despair and a call for urgent
help. We are tired of the
eternal pauperization of our
land. In your callousness,
you only succeeded in
glorifying mismanagement,
irresponsible governance,
poverty, despair and
suffering with your
unfortunate address.
While I may go on for days
on the grievous sins of
Nigerian leaders of which you
are an inseparable part, yet
wisdom dictate that I end
this discourse. It is now
apparent that we the
enslaved Nigerians have to
use every opportunity to
drum it into the deaf ears of
our imperious leaders our
rejection of their brand of
leadership. We are
committed to use every
opportunity and forum to
make our voice heard. In the
light of this, we hasten to
dissociate ourselves from
your deceitful stand that
Nigeria will emerge stronger.
A nation that breeds disgust
and treachery on a
permanent basis will always
put hope asunder. It is very
difficult for Nigeria to emerge
stronger from all this mess
unless there is a change of
heart and change of
leadership.
Dear Olagunsoye Oyinlola, I
will leave you with the
immortal words of Othman
Dan Fodio. Truth is an open
wound, only conscience can
heal it. May the good lord
save Nigeria.
Thank you
Olusegun Fakoya

#CONSENSUS 2015