By Israel Abiodun
Destiny has a strong influence in the shape of the affairs of men and nations. Theologians believe only God Almighty determines and divinely controls any outing of destiny at any phase in time and history.
And God works in mysterious ways. Even the great seer, Nostradamus cannot challenge the potency and efficacy of God on matters of fate and existence. God knows today, much as He knows tomorrow clearer than the commercial clairvoyants and soothsayers that dot the face of the earth. Great seers bow before His might.
Nigeria, the most populous black nation, has a date with destiny, which from every indication is ordained by God Himself. Here is a country richly endowed in human and material resources. It would not be completely correct to assert that fate has been so cruel to God’s creation in Nigeria and the nation itself. But it is alright to contend that fate has treated this potentially great nation so badly.
The world knows, Nigeria is a country crippled and crumbled by the foibles of its own people. It is yet a country, suffocated on all fronts by leaders and followers alike. It has been raped, pillaged, looted, pauperized and abandoned to lick its sores for nearly six decades since independence. After the imperialists stab, local leaders have pursued the destruction of Nigeria more aggressively.
In 2013, the foreign Daily Mail published a detailed report on corruption in Nigeria and estimated that since independence in 1960, “… about $380 billion (£245 billion) of government money has been stolen — almost the total sum Nigeria has received in foreign aid,” for the same period, which stands at $400 billion, to the extent donor nations vowed they did prefer to burn aid money to Nigeria than release it to be looted again.
When President Muhammedu Buhari came on board in May 2015 and started to canvass international support for the recovery of looted funds stashed in various foreign countries, he disclosed an amazing amount of Nigeria’s wealth stolen by Nigerians in a decade alone. While in America to meet former President Barack Obama in July 2015, President Buhari disclosed in an article published by Washington Post that, he was seeking ways to track $150 billion wealth looted from Nigeria in the last 10 years alone.
That is the level of appreciation of the trend of looting and corruption in Nigeria. And today, Nigeria, with her oil wealth desperately scouts for a mere $29 billion foreign loan to fix basic infrastructure. But in all these, there is nothing that is truly happenstance, as God has permitted the country to pass through these nauseating experiences to garner enough wisdom to reshape the future.
It is why the emergence of President Buhari as the civilian President of Nigeria at this point is not just an expression of the paradox of Nigeria’s unimpressive history; but something divinely ordained by God Himself. Buhari, an upright and incorruptible leader of integrity is on a special divine intervention mission and fortified to execute the covenant God signed with Nigerians to liberate them from the chains of servitude from the political oppressors.
It may not occur to many why President Buhari contested Nigeria’s Presidency three times without success. From 2003, 2007, 2011; but eventually God anointed him the leader of Nigeria during the fourth attempt in 2015. Nigerians should ask themselves questions on why President Buhari, although had no penny to prosecute the extremely expensive electioneering campaigns in Nigeria, but trounced rivals and major political heavyweights in the country to emerge victorious at both the APC party primary elections and the general elections.
Presidential candidate Buhari in 2014/15 told Nigerians he had no kobo to expend on his electoral quest, but Nigerian masses with a passion for political largesse ignored his “poverty” by choice status and rather donated funds to enable him prosecute his campaigns to lead them.
There is still the puzzle why a “poor” Buhari outshined his main rival in the presidential contest, former President Goodluck Jonathan, of the then ruling party-PDP. Jonathan flaunted enormous wealth and expended these resources to nail his re-election bid, but it failed.
It is yet another surprise why President Buhari triumphed against PDP, the then ruling party that had deeply entrenched itself in the politics and polity of Nigeria and threw up leaders of Nigeria at different times, for 16 years, whose negativities in governance was adored and cherished by Nigerians of their ilk, but the same Nigerians worked and indeed, upstaged their own beloved party at the polls for the sake of President Buhari. No one should make mistakes. It was God’s divine command and direction.
So far, President Buhari has shown the strength of character and will-power to right the wrongs in Nigeria and return the nation to its destined glorious path. The last two years of his democratic leadership of Nigeria has exemplified the partly accomplishment of this divine mission and covenant God Almighty signed with him to liberate Nigeria.
He met an economy neck-deep in recession; He met a country assailed on all four-corners by armed and violent criminal gangs. Buhari met a nation weakened to the bones by an explosive unemployment rate and months of unpaid salaries of public servants. The Masses President inherited a country whose image broad was a record worse in its history and Buhari met Nigeria, a land flowing in the abundance of milk and honey, but thoroughly sapped by the endemic corruption of leaders, which spirally permeated all facets of the Nigerian state.
The problems were indeed multiple and confounding. He gave his word about ending these malaises with time and he picked on the most sensitive ones- insecurity, the economy and corruption. And the impact in these prioritized areas, like in other sectors have been immense. And except for the bourgeoisie and the political cabal, whose only specialty is looting Nigeria, the Nigerian masses are happy with their President. And God too is happy that peace is gradually coming back to His people.
But the cabal, which has held Nigeria and Nigerians hostage for a dozen years are not happy with him. They prefer the old order and the statusquo to remain. They want him out of the way in order to continue with the pillaging and enslavement of the Nigerian masses. They are regretting and at the same time, challenging God Almighty on why He consented to the ascension of President Buhari to the throne. They have vowed to pull him down at all cost; whether legitimately or illegitimately. They have perfected all manner of intrigues and plots to throw him overboard.
In their polluted minds, they think the “prolong” illness of President Buhari, is the end of the road. Some have even wished or pronounced him dead, a tacit revelation that they know why President Buhari is this sick and had to undergo blood transfusion the first time in his 74 years on earth. They know why they have conspiratorially denied him the bed rest he needed badly to fully regain his health. They understand perfectly why the co-ordinated pressures on President Buhari over allegations of incapacitation, weakness and “neglect” of official duties have continued to resonate and how it will compound his health recovery process.
But are they God Almighty? No, they are certainly not Almighty God. So, President Buhari has a covenant with God and a date in destiny with Nigerians. With God on his side, Buhari will stop at nothing to redeem the pledges to his countrymen and women, which were divinely uttered. No amount of sad commentaries about his health, apparently orchestrated by some of those at the formative stage of his Presidential ambition in 2015 would frustrate this mission. This is the message of Nigerians to these power monks and vermins, as they pray for his recovery.
As far as Nigerians are concerned, President Buhari has lived and complied fully with the Constitution of Nigeria and oath of office. Each time he has to travel abroad for medication, he transmits power to his Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, like he repeated days ago. That is the character and inherent integrity of the quintessential President Buhari, who believes in the laws of Nigeria and the application of the rule of law. It is his penchant for standing up on the side of truth, justice and fairness to all of humanity. He did not hide under any banner to remote-control the strings of governance while on his hospital bed in foreign lands.
Therefore, those who have garbed themselves in awful masks to battle President Buhari should also resort to the law. But deploying brutal forces either using the media to push negative propaganda against his presidency or the outright recourse to political brigandage and hooliganism to upstage President Buhari is tantamount to tempting God Almighty and the Nigerian masses.
They need to tread carefully, lest they hit their foot against a stone. But it should be clear to them that since they are not God Almighty, President Buhari will fully recover and come back to Nigeria to complete the covenant he signed with God on behalf of Nigerians.
Abiodun, a public affairs commentator writes from Ibadan.
