WHITHER GOES OUR MORALITY?

An individual, community or nation that lost its moral compass is certainly on a date with ruination. Even during the Abachas, when there is a blur between official capacity and members of the first family and their cronies in governance, they were not as brazen. Obasanjo, despite his inflated ego has never been so wanton. But here is our Mr. Integrity, the expected savior of the masses and crucifier of corruption allowing this recklessness and wanton disregard for public sensibilities. At a time when the poor are crying all kinds of deprivation, exacerbated by the recent hike in fuel and electricity tariff, as three square meals0 are increasingly becoming a privilege for many households, when young girls are now openly offering sex in exchange for food, when men ran away from their houses as they can no longer bear the title of bread winners, what could be as immoral as sanctioning an aide’s use of a presidential jet for his wedding?

Does Bashir Ahmad as representative of Kano people know that in his home city young teenage girls in their hundreds donned their faces with Niqaf to disguise in queues along Mariya Sanusi Dantata’s house just to collect “Free Meals” twice daily? Does he know that this same “FREE TUWO”, besides being a source of free meal for hundreds of household turned beggars, is also a source of income for some of those beggars as they collect multiple and stood by the road side to sell it to other MAGIDANTA, whose economic acumen led them, on bikes and sometimes even in cars, to buy off the tuwo from those recipient at a rate far cheaper than preparing it from the grains at home, and goes home only to prepare MIYA?

Do we really need our leaders to appear as oppressive and ostentatious in these times? I have never seen insensitivity to the flight of the masses as displayed in this administration. Borders are closed without the proper policy in boosting local production, because how can farming become sustainable when there are neither real subsidies nor security for the real farmers to farm? Tens of thousands of police were being deployed to cover elections (as we have seen in Osun and recently in Edo) while several theaters of violence and enclaves are being ignored. Imagine what 30,000 troops of policemen can do in Katsina-Zamfara axis? Zulum is being attacked for crying out loud at the inadequacies of the way terrorism is handled in the Northeast. Society is doomed when there are no longer people that will speak and stand for the truth.

As a man of integrity who stood on the shoulders of anti corruption and enjoyed tremendous goodwill of his people, Buhari should know that the measure of his success will depend largely on how far he has delivered on making his people live decently by providing economic prosperity and security (both of which are becoming mirage by the day). Has he forgotten his contract sanctified by the Holy Quran and his vows to secure our lives, improve our economy and his famous phrase of “I belong to everybody, I belong to no one?” Does the trend in the last four and half years vindicate that? Not if we consider how the masses are being mercilessly squeezed in all direction as they are suffocated with crushing economic policies and privations, while the elites continue to wallow in corruption as our rulers continue to exploit our commonwealth. It is true that no country could achieve greatness stress free, people need to make sacrifices but the problem is under this administration it is only the masses that this administration believe they must sacrifice while the elites continue, scot-free, in their loot and extravagance with the tax payers money (The recent NDDC saga on my mind) as they continue to exhibit and display their ill gotten wealth with impunity and abuse of privileges like the usage of presidential jet for an aide’s wedding.