A TRUE STORY , THEN SOME PRESENT DAY REALITIES

By Guest Blogger Lord Victor Olusegun Oluwole

One day in 1991, I was at home in our 32 Bisi Ogabi residence, just a few blocks from where Fela Anikulapo lived before the great man passed on alongside my younger brother Abayomi Oluwole (aka Dudu Of London). We were getting ready for school and I had gone into the bathroom which was next to our bedroom on the right and the toilet on the left followed by our now late grandma, Sicoras’ (that was her nick name because she was quite tough and a no nonsense woman) room. She was a matron at the Ikeja General Hospital then.

Apparently, Sicoras had a visitor the previous night who had brought some thank you gifts, it was a huge hamper and it had all sorts of goodies including a pack of TUC biscuit. Unbeknown to me, Abayomi had concluded plans to nick the TUC biscuit pack and take same to school that morning. Whilst in the bathroom, I could tell that someone had surreptitiously entered Sico’s bedroom (you know how you can tell the sound of a particular door being opened or shut).

Then, whilst still in the bath, I realised that whoever was just in Sico’s bedroom came right out and the steps went straight into our bedroom. OmG! I thought, Abayomi had done the “biscuit heist”. I quickly jumped out and rushed into our bedroom and then realised my aburo had kept the Biscuit in his wardrobe, after stating categorically to him that the “treachery” would indeed be reported, my beloved aburo decided to do a quick one on me.

Abayomi quickly snatched the TUC Biscuit from my innocent grip, ran out to Sicoras screaming, “mummy, mummy, ewo biscuit yin ti Segun lo ji”
In other words, “mummy, mummy, here’s your biscuit that Segun Stole”.
From that day, we both were seen as thieves as accusations and counter accusations ensued. Well, don’t ask me what happened to him after we both returned from our different schools and Sicoras hadn’t got back from work, trust me, he got the beating of his life. Apparently, his daughter; my beautiful little niece loves that story so much.

Now, back to the present day, so Sambo Dasuki took delivery of several suitcases of billions of dollars and other currencies from the CBN as allegedly instructed/directed/authorised/authenticated by president Goodluck Jonathan after Aunty Ngozi’s sign off. So, these monies were authenticated or whatever, for the benefit of our armed forces most of whom at the time were being killed like dogs on the battlefield by Bokoharam. Some of our men eventually were accused of mutiny and thereafter sentenced.

Little did we know that monies for their equipments and all other requirements to execute the war against Bokoharam were being disbursed to various PDP political interests and other individuals of hetherto notable standing in our nation. At this stage, we should just begin to wonder whose name hasn’t been mentioned and not whose name would be.

Suddenly, deliberately, and mischievously so, President Buhari’s name became the sing song of those I’m calling out today as our nation’s “unpatriotic patriots”, certainly, when you fight corruption in our nation, corruption fights you back and it does so through those who ought to know better. For ages in our nation, we’ve been screaming about the stranglehold of corruption, our nation was on its knees, gasping for breath, vested interests of those who ran our nation’s affairs had almost ran us aground; we were a nation on the verge.

The emergence of President Buhari to many of us at the time, was only an option between two Devils but for me, the president was always a better choice and that notion of this president just being another devil has since changed; I have come to have some cautious faith in the man. Yes, I said it! We were always not going to have a sudden change to the better or best from where we were and where we were headed, a semblance of change was always what was realistic.

Our situation as a nation was so desperate, we needed the “Robin Hoods of the southwest” to deliver us from the wild and brutal rape of our nation’s resources at the centre. Professor Wole Soyinka, in an interview with a Channels television Journalist, stated categorically that our nation would not have survived under another four years of President Jonathan’s leadership; he was right!.

The humongous magnitude of the financial recklessness that went on under the former president was simply monumental, sickening and disturbing, we are only currently witnessing the unraveling of one man alone and our nation’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is already almost at a standstill. Meanwhile, a British judge has just accused our former president of suspicious intentions while passing judgment in relation to a $1.1billion fraud case whereby the Jonathan administration controversially approved the transfer of $1.092 billion from Nigeria’s JP Morgan account in London to Nigerian accounts controlled by Malabu between 2011-2015. Justice Edis of the Southwark Crown Court declared that he was not sure the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan acted in Nigeria’s interest when it approved the transfer of the money to Malabu. So this corruption our president is fighting, runs so deep.

My story above illustrates what Sambo Dasuki is attempting to do today, and he must not be encouraged, there are so many who today have become worse than the terrorists who have decided to plague our nation even though they do not wield AK47s or rocket launchers; they glorify the negative and openly applaud any grandstanding against the people and government of our nation.

We can see your treachery and we are taking note of it all, just because your friends have been kicked out of government does not mean Nigeria should fail, our nation will survive in spite of you; yes, I said it!. “Ibaje eniyan ko da ise Olorun Oba duro” “ote o pe ki oyin ma dun mo, igi a r’uwe saa ni”
In other words, “the wickedness of human beings will not stop the work of the almighty” and “never has the evil machinations of anyone stopped honey from producing its natural sweetness and a tree will always sprout new leaves no matter what”. It would have been to the advantage of a few selfish and wicked Nigerians had the status quo continued and expectedly they aren’t happy, just a few months into a four year term, the voices of their hypocratic criticisms have been unprecedented, why they allowed such monumental thievery to go on under the watch of their hero without blowing a whistle is the question all Nigerians must keep asking them.

The ignorance in our nation is rife, even those who should know better are so deeply buried in the quick sand of the unfortunate lack of knowledge about how our nation’s system works. should it be surprising for you to know that the protection of all ex president’s of our nation fall under the purview of the NSA via the DSS? All security personal and the equipments used in keeping them safe are provided by the NSA ie the jeeps in question, the personnel and the arms they carry.

It might interest you to also know that this same system applies in the USA, in fact, the CIA still goes everywhere with president Clinton and The Bushes including the ageing President Jimmy Carter and of course the same treatment will apply when president Obama leaves office; even President Goodluck Jonathan falls under the protection of the state and so does all the past leaders before him. Now, how the state chooses to provide those facilities lies in the hands of the government of the day.

It is preposterous for anyone to assume that our president is complicit here, Dasuki is a sinking man and as he struggles, gasping for breath in the straits of his atrocities, he begins to lose his grip on reality. The fight against him and his accomplices and all those who ravaged our nation’s wealth has only just commenced and by God, it will be brought to a justifiable end. Suddenly, we have a man at the helm of our nation’s leadership who’s ready to take on the monster and some have began to develop cold feet, if you never benefited wrongly from the misfortune of our people then you should have nothing to fear.

Enough of the games being played on these matters, we all know the deal, accuse the accuser, make him look dirty too, let the people lose faith in him, turn the table on your persecutor hmmmmm! Sorry, that attempt will hold no water this time, this battle against the enemies of our nation will be pursued and executed to the letter under the leadership of President Buhari and nothing will truncate that process.

My note of caution to all those hypocritical minions and nay sayers who have only just discovered their critical minds after the departure of their “hero” from office, is to get a grip and give our nation a chance of survival. Even their master was given four years of freedom to succeed, no once said a word of criticism until it had become evident and apparent that his modest achievements have become subdued by his monumental and unprecedented failings as President. Yes, things are tough now, but sometimes it doesn’t get better until it gets really bad, the Buhari administration must be given a chance, we asked and solicited the same on president Jonathan’s behalf when he became president.

Sambo Dasuki should keep his dirty hands to himself, attempting to splash his roforofo on our president only shows the man isn’t remorseful and like my younger brother did, years ago; he will get the beating of his life (apologies Abayomi) through a well articulated prosecution for all his atrocities. Isn’t it frightening that we already have all these accusations only after scratching the surface a little bit? heaven knows what lies further beneath the surface.

As for our “Robbin Hoods” history holds on to judge them too, if our nation succeeds under them, then they can indeed claim to have been acting from the script of the 13th/14th century legend as they too certainly aren’t saints or even close to the word. However, the man they succeeded in pushing to power to some extent, might save their blushes by delivering our people from the shackles of impunity and schizophrenic thievery of our nation’s resources, we know he wouldn’t stand for corruption; what about them?

Happy Birthday Mr President and Merry Christmas to you all.