Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any
word but wisely spoken words can heal; kind words are like honey; sweet to the
taste and good to the health( Proverbs, 12:18
&16:24)
I am in love with a Harvard
Business Review case study,
titled ‘The team that was NOT’ ( Suzzy Wetlaufer, HBR,
November-December, 1994; hbr.org)and I exploit every opportunity to deploy it
for optimal impact. It is about a team that was NOT a team because it lacked
everything required for team effectiveness:
there was neither mutual respect
nor strong foundation, the members were rowing in different directions, there
were some toxic members, the leader was
not sure of himself wdg(WDG
means welu dili gaba; the Igbo version of ETC). Consequently the
team faltered and could not meet its deliverables. The speech by BAT on
4/8/24 was not a speech, and
particularly, for a time like this. Indeed, it was ‘a speech that was not’ because it
did not hit the target and it was more like a campaign speech. It was not even a good speech to be delivered
on a Monday morning. The nation was (and is still) hurting, and
the youths had given a long notice of protest( good for Guinness Book of
Records).
Known agents of Government blamed Ndi’Igbo
for being responsible for a protest that
was yet to start. The protest was
politicised and tribalized, with people asked to go and demonstrate in their
states. Onanuga was at his best in this
regard even though Ajuri Ngalale
declared that the Government could not stop people from protesting. Many people
appealed to the youths to give BAT more time. But his frenemy
Bwala, had declared long before now
that nothing would come out of ‘more time for BAT’. Security
agencies were speaking from multiple sides of the same mouth, threatening,
soft-pedalling, issuing guidelines, undertaking ‘shows of strength’
but they did nothing when some of
members of the Emilokan household started the ‘Igbo must go
movement’( IMGM). LASG
dissociated itself from the IMGM while
the FG asked them to stop it... nothing more! However in UK, two people who
promoted anti immigrants sentiments were jailed
within 72 hours. Adeyinka grandson was also jailed for 4.5 years for anti-Igbo crusade in 2022. In Nigeria, Onanuga, Oluomo and gang, have done so
brazenly and got away with it. This unknown group will also get away with it.
The genocide-friendly campaigns are against full-blooded Nigerians and for no
crime except that they are Nd’Igbo. So, immigrants in other climes are better
protected than some citizens in Nigeria. The Chief of Defence Staff, General
Musa, left his challenged security duties and became
an emergency economic advisor to BAT, informing us that that the
government cannot do much with limited resources in just a year; financial
advisor of BAT.
As all these were
happening, our dear BAT was mum. May be
,as a Master Strategist, he believed
that he had it all covered. However, the
request for him to talk to the people
intensified and on 4/8/26, he spoke.
There were deaths, lootings,
including one fellow who looted police signboard in Kano (some people call it pro-looting as
against protest), security breaches here and there, highhandedness of the security forces, and the
display of Russian flags. A
commentator had quipped that if the Russian flags were flown in the DOT
part of the country, it would have been operation gwo-gwo-gwon-gwo!
Sure, people protested for different reasons; hunger in the land (a woman came
with an empty pot because there was
nothing to cook), bad governance, regime change, plain criminality,
and other sundry reasons like the
fellow who demanded for subsidy on illicit drugs and a woman who blamed bad
governance for the loss of male-attractiveness hence her inability to be
married at 37! Another did not want to
protest but reminds them that hunger dey!
The looting in the
North was so much that one person looted a police sign-board! Lasisi
Olagunju devoted a column to the protesters of the North(
Tribune, 5/8/24) who did what
locusts do to farms. They attacked and looted at least one mosque and at least
one church; they hammered concrete slabs and squeezed iron rods for sale, well-paved roads suffered
their anger because the beauty of the asphalt offended them. In a library they
stole dustbins and spared books because trash is valuable, book is worthless.
They attacked private and public buildings, they looted doors, wrenched windows
off their hinges and stole installed tiles. They are a perfect proof of what
the unbuilt child will ultimately do to well-built structures.
However the only
things related to the protest in the speech
that was NOT, were condolences for the death caused by his agents,
asking the youths to go home to create a conducive environment for dialogue (
You may ask ASUU and NLC how ‘creating a conducive environment for
dialogue’ worked for them), asking security men to maintain law and
order( which they did VERY well, forgetting to follow necessary
conventions). May be it was in the process of maintaining law and
order that they invaded the NLC office;
something that was NOT done even during the military regime! He also took a jab
at the enemies of democracy! Even though
he declared that I have heard you loud and clear, understand your pains
and frustration, govt will listen and address these concerns, he did
not offer any olive branch; he did not address ANY of the demands of the
protesters or even the issues bothering most Nigerans including those who did
not join the protest; he also did not provide the protocol and procedures for
the promised dialogue! He then
committed 95% of the time on
listing ALL the wonderful things his government had done in the
past 1 year with promises of more to come. That is why I argue that it was more
of a campaign speech! Incidentally, many people ( no be meooo!)
have itemised the lies or non-truths in the speech. Rudolph
Okonkwo identified 10 non-truths in the speech while Bolaji Akinyemi saw it as
bullet for bread. Even his friend, Wole
Soyinka, whom he will soon rename Nigeria after, fired a very bombastic shot:
that serving bullets when bread is needed is ominous
retrogression and a prelude to revolution
However, I must admit
that he has, once-more, fulfilled one of his core promises; to continue from
(and improve on) where PMB stopped. This evidences adherence to the principle
of DWYSYWD ( Do what you said you would do), which is a mark of
integrity. I will share with you, some of the speeches that PMB made in
difficult times during his rulership,
for you to compare the former with the
later.
In a speech on 12/6/20, PMB told us how
excellently Nigeria was performing on all fronts, especially in terms of security, anti-corruption and economy. But
when I looked at the front pages of our news media within the week, I was left
wondering whether I was in the same country of which he spoke so glowingly
about (See Ik Muo; Buhari’s June 12 Speech: A Front-Page Analysis; 26/6/20). It was around that time that Nosa
Igiebor lamented that the Buhari
Administration operate ‘in a parallel world where
alternative facts rule and reality is totally distorted….. their narrative,
collides violently with our own reality’.
During the
EndSARS crises, the nation was on fire
but the president kept his cool. We begged him to address us and when he
eventually did, very reluctantly on 22/10/20, there was no empathy, no assurances and no outline of actions; he didn’t calm frayed
nerves and he ordered the youths to go home, telling them in a coded language: just try it again! He did not even mention the Lekki bloody
affair, which had caused local and global outrage neither did he mention the
infiltration of the peaceful protest by ‘unknown thugs’. But he had time to boast of his landmark
achievements, including tradermoni and other such
integrity-challenged programmes( See Ik Muo, A
nation in turmoil, A president who doesn’t speak often & giving the monkey
a cup of water!29/10/20)
At a time, our security situation became so
precarious that cries for help have echoed nationwide as it appears all
our defences have crumbled( Isaiah,22:5&8). Nigerians, forgetting their previous
experiences, started demanding and begging their president to address them and
again he did not disappoint. Using the LIFO principle,( Last In
First Out) I wish to start with his June 12 outing. I did not ‘see’ anything in the speech,
except that his commitment to ‘bequeath a sustainable democratic
culture,… pursuit of a fair society remains unshaken, his desire to see that Nigeria remains a
country for each and every one of us has never been stronger; he acknowledged
the notions of marginalisation and agitations for constitutional amendments,
and lifted 10.5m people out of poverty in the past 2 years. For most of
these avowals, we all know the reality but on the poverty lifting claim, The
World Bank and BusinessDay responded on our behalf. They did not say that PMB
lied because nobody wanted the Twitter Treatment;; they rather
proved statistically that he was economical with the truth. Anyway, he was not
the one speaking; he just said what he had been asked to say.
The day he actually spoke was on the
Arise TV outing; where nothing was pre-recorded and there was nobody to urge
him on, when we heard from the horse’s mouth and when he spoke out of the abundance of the
heart (Luke,6:45)( see Buhari,
Out of the Abundance of the heart the man speaks). He asked the
governors to go and sort out the security challenges themselves (when his
agents are undermining their efforts) and yet he agreed with Malmi on open
grazing; ordered the reopening of the grazing routes (a Northern law that has
nothing to do with the South), with its divisive properties and that the
murderous herders, who are NOT terrorists, are
foreigners. He
distinguishes foreign from local , criminal from non-criminals Fulanis;
he also knows that all Hausas or
Northerners do not belong to the Bako
Haram . However to him, all Nd’Igbo, including his ministers( Onyeama Ngige and
Njoku) Allen Onyema( AirPeace), Chidi Anyaegbu,( Chisco) Innocent Chukwuma,(
Innoson Motors) Obianodo( Young Shall Grow) Prof Soludo, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla (
DG, WTO), Ogbonnaya Onu, Stan Ekeh, Okwadike IgboUkwu, Engr Edu Okeke (Azura Power). Profs Anya and Utomi,
Chimamanda Adichie, Philip Emeagwali, and Chika Nwobi, are profiled as
IPOBians,. He also stated that IPOBians(
Nd’Igbo) do not have the training, competence and experience to command the
army, lead the NNPC or become the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation because these positions are earned and that even seniority does not matter. And then, he made the unfortunate DOT
declaration and we automatically changed
from being Nd’Igbo to Ndi-DOT!
He explained how his actions or inactions during EndSARS improved the climate for FDI(???) and reminded us that the EndSARSers wanted to ‘coup’ him out of office, that the youths should behave if they wanted jobs, blamed the PDP government for dwindling economy and unsustainable debt burden and informed that his Niger-Centrism is because he has cousins there and that we will benefit from their economy. Instead of unlocking the humongous wealth within, we are looking onto Niger Republic. Niger can only give what they have, which is poverty! An example of our economic collaboration with Niger Republic is the case of the Nigerien young man, Aboubakar Hima who further impoverished us by vanishing into thin air with our commonwealth to the tune of $394m, €9.9m and N369m (you can calculate the billions involved).
I have just recalled some of the GREAT PMB speeches, which were mostly off-tangent. This address of BAT on the End-Hunger protests, will surely rank among his GREATEST speeches. If you do not agree, Go To Court, but be it known to you that the courts and the judiciary system, have been completely ‘captured’
Meanwhile,
INEC has announced the results and the President won both the battle and the war! How? Northern
youths, represented by Arewa Youths
Consultative Movement, have passed a vote of confidence on BAT and Akpabio.
This was on August 10, when the protest ended and when norther youths were
mourning their members who died during the protest. The President of AYCM declared that their
empirical research has revealed that Tinubu and Akpabio have made monumental
achievements geared towards economic recovery and the promotion of unity and
peaceful coexistence in the country. ( I gleaned it from The
Nation!!!)Akpabio had declared that while
the youths would be protesting,
he, and his cohorts, would be eating! The youths he
ridiculed and mocked are the same ones
passing the vote of confidence on him. The National Council of States and the Nigerian Governors Forum have also
passed Votes of Confidence on BAT, urging him to CARRY_Go!!! Why did our youths
protest in the first instance? When everything was, and is, working so well? We live in
DIFFERENT worlds and We perceive differently!!!
Other Matters
On 12/8/89, ‘We DID’. 35 years later, we are still DOING. It is the Lord’s doing!
Then and now
Thanks to those who rejoiced with and prayed for us to keep on DOING!
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