by Reno Omokri

On December 11, 2014, then President Goodluck Jonathan accepted the presidential nomination of the Peoples Democratic Party to contest the 2015 Presidential elections as its candidate. At that occasion, the former leader made a statement which, in hindsight, can now be seen as a prophecy.

On that day, Jonathan said:
“The choice before Nigerians in the coming election is simple: A choice between going forward and going backwards; between the new ways and the old ways; between freedom and repression; between a record of visible achievements and beneficial reforms – and desperate power-seekers with empty promises.”

When the Naira crashed to N500 to $1 on Monday January 30, 2017, it hit me that Dr. Jonathan’s prophecy had been fulfilled.

I remember (and I am sure you can too) the giant bill boards the APC erected all over the country saying, and I quote:
‘Is N216 to $1 okay? It is time to act now. Buhari-Osinbajo’.
Well both President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo have ‘acted’ for almost two years now and today it is now over N500 to $1. It is time for the duo to answer their own question.

On the 20th of November, 2014, a certain young Nigerian named Mohammad had tweeted the following on Twitter:
“Today a dollar is N180 and a pound is N280, hope you have a family….this is really the transformation agenda..!! GEJ has finished Nigeria…”
This tweet went viral because the APC through its agents on Twitter retweeted it until it trended online.

Flash forward to Monday the 30th of January, 2017, the day the Naira crossed over the N500 to $1 Rubicon and the now sober Mohammad tweeted three times and I will quote each of those tweets below:

The first tweet:
“GEJ should please forgive me!!!”

The second tweet:
“N500 even when they claim they are fighting corruption, #bringbackourGEJ”

The third tweet:
“GEJ a true definition of the word HERO …!!!”

This time around, though the APC refused to retweet Mohammad’s who tweets from the handle @deee009, his last tweets are even more popular than the first because Nigerians retweeted them, storified them and blogs celebrated them.

On Tuesday 31st of January, 2017, another young Nigerian named Uchenna tweeted through his twitter handle, Uchez2 this:
“@Uchez2: How did the dollar stay at N175-N200 for 4yrs under “massive looting”? How is it now at N510 in 2 years under “massive savings”?”

What Jonathan’s 2014 quote and Mohammad’s 2014 and 2017 tweets as well as Uchenna’s question have shown is that, no matter how far and fast falsehood has travelled, it must eventually be overtaken by the truth.

Everybody is affected by the failed promises of the Buhari administration. The richest African and Black man in the world, Aliko Dangote, has seen his fortune depreciate by more than 50% from $25 billion under former President Jonathan to $12.4 billion today. We pray it does not shrink to $1.2 billion before 2019!

There is no Nigerian that is not affected and that is all the more reason why the multiple award-winning singer and rapper, Innocent Idibia, a.k.a. Tuface has said he is going to lead a nationwide protest against the policies of this government which are impoverishing Nigerians.

Of course very predictably, the administration, either directly or indirectly, has come out guns blazing against the much-loved entertainer.
Government surrogates and jealous rivals have sought to disqualify and disenfranchise him from leading his protest by saying that as a father of seven children from three different mothers Tuface lacks the moral authority to protest against government policies!

First of all, the problem many of this celebrity haters have with Tuface is not the protest itself per se. They are really angry that they were not the ones who thought of it!

If having children from many women is their grouse, then they would have had a grouse about many Nigerian leaders. Which Nigerian leader has children from only one woman?

And it almost became comical when the Presidency asked to debate with Tuface on live TV. Really? A President who refused to debate with his opponents at the Presidential Debates during the elections now wants Tuface to debate live on TV. I mean just negodu!

When some musicians and actors gathered at Ojota with Nasir El rufai and Dino Melaye against then President Jonathan in February 2012, nobody cared how many children they had but suddenly they care about Tuface’s baby mamas!

I guess both El-rufai and Dino Melaye have all their children from one woman!
In the new and improved Federal Republic of Double Standard, if you have more than one baby mama you can be a President, a Governor or a Senator, but you cannot lead a protest! It is haram!
You are not morally fit to protest!

And it was so disappointing to see an official of the All Progressives Congress Twitter handle mocking the protest. APC News TV tweeted and I am quoting:
“@APCNEWSTV: JUST BEFORE YOU JOIN THE SENSELESS PROTEST, NOTE THAT! Godswill Akpabio bankrolled the posh wedding of 2face”

What rubbish! First of all, this is a desperate lie. But even if this were true (it is not) didn’t Nigerians vote for President Muhammadu Buhari despite the fact that former Governors Rotimi Amaechi and Bola Tinubu bankrolled him?
If the Presidency and the APC want us to believe that Tuface Idibia’s planned protest is “senseless” because his wedding was bankrolled by former Governor Godswill Akpabio then they are inadvertently admitting that President Buhari’s Government is “senseless” because its election was bankrolled by Amaechi and Tinubu. That will explain a lot!

It will explain the Presidency’s senselessness in the matter regarding Supreme Court Justice Walter Onnoghen who has been denied what should have been his privilege by political tradition as well as by judicial precedent.

Ibrahim Magu is accused of corruption, yet President Muhammadu Buhari insists on confirming him. Justice Walter Onnoghen is free from corruption, yet President Buhari refuses to confirm him!
All this from a so-called anti-corruption President. Is it because Magu is a Muslim from the North, while the other is a Christian from the South?
This is yet another example in the series of double standard that is the hallmark of this administration.

A Government that publicly urged accused justices to immediately step down yet wrote copious and even verbose letters to justify why the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, who has been proven to be corrupt – should continue to retain his post. In Nigeria, it seems there is one law for the 97 per centers and another for the 5 per centers. Again I say, welcome to President Buhari’s new and improved Federal Republic of Double Standard!

What President Buhari is doing to Justice Walter Onnoghen is nothing short of judicial heresy. He is placing his parochial bias above a well-established doctrine that seniority at the bar and bench is the major requirement for upward mobility in the legal profession.
And as an aside, I am noticing that the rapidly shrinking army of the cult of Buhari is also set against the new U.S. President, Donald John Trump. And it got me thinking.

I have a hunch that the problem Buharists have with Donald Trump is not his policies but the fact that a politician is actually doing what he promised to do during his campaign.
They are so used to President Buhari, who promises one thing and does another thing, that when they finally see a leader who says what he will do and does what he says, they go into shock.

In his first day in office, President Trump has already started fulfilling his promises. He has not blamed Obama, he has not blamed the state of things he met on the ground. He has rather beunan his tenure by focusing on his promises rather than focusing on the alleged wrongdoings of his predecessors.

This is why many people who supported Nigerian President Buhari cannot stand Trump. Because he exposes the hypocrisy of someone who promised change and is delivering more of the same.
This is why they are so heavily invested in blame gaming the system and blaming every negative occurrence on previous administrations while waiting to give President Buhari credit for the few things that have gone right under his government which are, ironically, the handiwork of the very administrations that he denigrates.
Two days ago (January 31st of 2017) the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that foreign investment into Nigeria has dropped to a 10-year low.
I am waiting to see the creativity with which the Buhari administration will come up with reasons to blame Goodluck Jonathan for this!

Perhaps Jonathan went around to all the nations of the world to convince them not to invest in Nigeria!

I thought that the Buhari government said Nigeria was a pariah state under Jonathan. How could a pariah government attract more investment than an acceptable government like the Buhari administration? You see, like I said previously in this piece, no matter how far and fast a lie has travelled, it MUST eventually be overtaken by the truth.

And it is silly of the Lagos State Police Command to say they would stop Tuface’s protest! This is the sort of impunity that has become the norm under President Muhammadu Buhari.

Doesn’t Tuface have the constitutional right of freedom of assembly? Does he not have the right to free speech?

The same security forces that cannot bring the killers of Pastor Eunice Elisha to book, or give justice to the beheaders of Evangelist Bridget Agbahime have now found their voice when it comes to stopping the harmless Tuface.

Is it not silly that at a time when the Department of State Services (DSS) has not been able to utilise its manpower to make any discernible impact in the war against terror, they have the men to storm Apostle Johnson Suleiman’s hotel room in Ado Ekiti? At a time when we have a governor confessing that he paid money to killers of the citizens he has constitutionally sworn to protect, at a time when Nigeria has overnight become the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian, at a time when the dollar goes for N500 to $1, is it really Apostle Suleiman that is the problem of Nigeria?

The Presidency called Apostle Suleiman’s speech hate speech! puh-leeze! What hate speech can be worse than President Buhari’s 97% versus 5%?

That a Presidency headed by a man who threatened that the “dog and baboon will all be soaked in blood” has the guts to ask the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to condemn Apostle Suleiman is the joke of the year. If those guys in the Presidency are looking for someone to condemn, let them go to London!!!

The father did not give Jesus a name that is above all names because Jesus is intelligent. No. Lucifer is also intelligent. God promoted Jesus because of two qualities: loyalty and humility. When people ask me why I am loyal to former President Jonathan, they do not realize that I do not live my life for anybody whether it is Dr. Goodluck Jonathan or President Muhammadu Buhari or even Donald J. Trump. My life is a test and upon my death the father will mark my test paper.

I am loyal to ex-President Jonathan just as I try to be loyal to all my friends whether high or low because a disloyal and proud person is like Lucifer who tried to take the father’s throne. A loyal person is like Jesus who had the opportunity to do the same yet chose to remain loyal and humble. If I do not follow the Messiah’s example, then my Christianity is questionable!

QUOTE: There is no Nigerian that is not affected and that is all the more reason why the multiple award-winning singer and rapper, Innocent Idibia, a.ka. Tuface has said he is going to lead a nationwide protest against the policies of this government which are impoverishing Nigerians. Of course very predictably, the administration, either directly or indirectly, has come out guns blazing against the much-loved entertainer.

Government surrogates and jealous rivals have sought to disqualify and disenfranchise him from leading his protest by saying that as a father of seven children from three different mothers Tuface lacks the moral authority to protest against government policies!

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

This article first appeared on ThisDay