Nepotism is a deadly virus that once it eats into any system it Won't Leave till the system is in jeopardy.
It was for the fact that nepotism is the greatest form of corruption that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) went to elaborate ends to forbid it in the distribution of our public offices and goodies. Section 14(3) says it all: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria, and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic groups or other sectional groups in that Government or any of its agencies.
But our President Muhammad Buhari has defied this and violated the constitution. Upon assumption to power, he met a group of Northerners and made certain statements excerpt of which is "I charge you to join me as we build a new northern Nigeria in a generation … the best investment we can make in the north is not finding oil in the Chad Basin … we will start with one local government in each state until we get to every school in all of northern Nigeria … To achieve this, I have secured a northern rehabilitation fund … to rebuild the north after the devastation of Boko Haram insurgency … Join me my brothers and sisters and let us finish the work our forefather, Ahmadu Bello, started,” he exhorted his audience.
It is quite appalling to think that Buhari didn’t seek the presidency for 12 years to rebuild Nigeria. As Professor Ben Nwabueze observed recently, this speech “portrays the picture of someone driven by something more than the ordinary ambition to become President of Nigeria.
“Buhari was driven by a passion, the passion of religious fanaticism or a religious zealot, to become president of Nigeria in order to carry on and finish the work started by his forebear, Sir Ahmadu Bello, including the Sardauna’s fond idea to extend the rule of the Moslem north throughout the country by means of a jihad.”
More than two weeks after the fatal attacks by a group already labelled by the Global Terrorism Index in 2015 as the fourth deadliest known terrorist group in the world – only Boko Haram, ISIS and Al-Shabab terror groups were deemed deadlier – Buhari, the same president whose regime declared the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), a self-determination group, a terror organisation could not muster the will to declare murderous herdsmen same.
Chief Obasanjo said two days ago as the criticism against President Buhari increases, that although he supported the election that brought Buhari to power, that Buhari has failed and should “dismount from the horse”.
Chief Obasanjo acknowledged his complicity in making a man who “is weak in the knowledge and understanding of the economy.” He thought that Buhari could make “use of good Nigerians in that area.”
Obasanjo insisted that Buhari’s “experience, influence, wisdom and outreach can be deployed on the side line for the good of the country.”
“The lice of poor performance in government – poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed – if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality – are very much with us today,” Obasanjo said in a 13-page statement titled ‘The Way Out: A Clarion Call for Coalition for Nigeria Movement’.
“With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of ‘blood’,” he added.
Obasanjo said Buhari, apart from being bereft of the necessary ideas that could move the country out its current doldrums, has been unduly “nepotic” in his appointments.
“But there are three other areas where President Buhari has come out more glaringly than most of us thought we knew about him,” continued Obasanjo. “One is nepotic deployment bordering on clannishness and inability to bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court. This has grave consequences on performance of his government to the detriment of the nation.
“It would appear that national interest was being sacrificed on the altar of nepotic interest. What does one make of a case like that of (Abdulrasheed) Maina: collusion, condonation, ineptitude, incompetence, dereliction of responsibility or kinship and friendship on the part of those who should have taken visible and deterrent disciplinary action? How many similar cases are buried, ignored or covered up, and not yet in the glare of the media and the public?
“The second is his poor understanding of the dynamics of internal politics. This has led to, wittingly or unwittingly, making the nation more divided, and inequality has widened and become more pronounced. It also has effect on general national security.
“The third is passing the buck. For instance, blaming the governor of the Central Bank for devaluation of the naira by 70% or so and blaming past governments for it, is to say the least, not accepting one’s own responsibility. Let nobody deceive us; economy feeds on politics and because our politics is depressing, our economy is even more depressing today. If things were good, President Buhari would not need to come in. He was voted to fix things that were bad and not engage in the blame game.”
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