It is now more than one year since Yar’Adua became the president of
Nigeria. Despite the fact of the fraudulent way in which he emerged as
the candidate of his party and the massively rigged election that
brought him into office, Nigerians still hoped for better times under
his presidency.
On assuming office, the Fulani man promised that he was going to make
the respect of the rule of law a cardinal principle of his
administration, he announced his vision 2020 and he promised to
convene a conference on the Niger Delta and declare an emergency on
power supply in the country.
More than one year after, nothing has come out of these Yar’Adua’s
self-avowed goals, which have now proved to be nothing but cheap
slogans to deceive Nigerians and give them false hopes.
In fact, Yar’Adua’s actions have been diametrically opposed to the
achievement of what could be lofty ambitions if the president were
sincere.
Let me explain.
Despite calls for the reconstitution of INEC in view of its
incompetence and fraudulent conduct of the 2007 general elections, the
Fulani president has refused to change the status quo. All the
bye-elections conducted by the body have not been any better than the
shameful 2007 polls.
On the rule of law, Yar’Adua has continued to maintain the so-called
Excess Crude Account, which undermines the constitutionally-mandated
shared control of the National Revenue through the Revenue Allocation
Formula.
In fact, the reality today in Nigeria is that more than 80 percent of
the revenue derived by Nigeria from crude oil exports is controlled by
the Federal Government of Yar’Adua. This not only negates the
principle of federalism but also deliberately concentrates power in
the hands of the president and his Fulani ethnoracial group.
On the Niger Delta, while Yar’Adua said he would solve the problems
responsible for the agitation in the region, his actions have in fact
worsened the situation. The federal government still refuses to
release the backlog of dues, amounting to more than 400 billion naira,
to which the Niger Delta Development Commission is constituitonally
entitled.
Also, the allocation of more than 400 billion naira for security in
the region while only 69 billion was allocated to the NDDC in the 2008
budget shows that this federal government is determined to degrade the
crisis in the region to a law-and-order problem. In fact, Yar’Adua has
de facto adopted the strategy of military conquest of the people of
Niger Delta, which explains the ongoing full scale military operations
in the region.
Moreover, the appointment of Ibrahim Gambari as the chairman of the
Conference on the Niger Delta is a slap in the face of the
long-suffering people of the region, considering the shameful role the
Ilorin Fulani man played during the judicial execution of Ken
Saro-Wiwa in 1995. He was then Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to
the UN.
By the way, have you not noticed the contradictions of economic
developments since Yar’Adua took office in May 2007?
- The naira has been steadily losing value against the major world
currencies. Please note that for more than 5 years, from 2002 – 2007,
Nigeria had a very stable exchange rate.
- The stock market, which rose continuously from 1999 – 2007, has been
on a downward trend since Yar’Adua took office
Yet all these negative developments are against the background that
foreign exchange inflow has been rising exponentially since Yar’Adua
took office.
How do you explain these developments?
It is simple; there are the results of a conspiracy of the
Fulani-dominated government to weaken the position of Southerners who
are perceived to dominate the private economy in Nigeria.
In fact, efforts are currently being made to weaken the banks to
prevent them from becoming a pillar of a strong private sector, in
which the Fulani hawks believe Southerners have a competitive
advantage.
For how long do we want to wait before we begin to resist an obviously
fraudulent government that will not take Nigeria anywhere but only
increase hardship in the country?
