The Hypocrisy of Adebayo Shittu
Nigeria’s bread and butter politicians never cease to amaze me. It is usually about their stomach. I watched the charade of one of them on television last week and I was so depressed. It was the garrulous Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, commissioning the South West Zonal office of his Muhammadu Buhari Osinbajo (MBO) Dynamic Support Group in Ibadan, Oyo State. This group of jesters aims to pressurise Buhari to run for a second term. Obviously, this minister is unaware that Buhari is old enough to know what he merits and deserves. At 75, President Buhari does not need any pressure to decide if he should stand for re-election. What Shittu and his cohorts are doing is akin to pressurising a 75-year-old man to marry a 15-year-old girl. Buhari surely knows his stamina; I doubt if he would take such a risk.
At the MBO launch, Shittu persistently dished out humdrum achievements of the Buhari administration, including creating six million new jobs in agriculture. I could not imagine an elderly man like Shittu celebrating fantasy attainments, amidst so much hunger, pain, poverty, unemployment, large retrenchment and mass killings in this country in the last 32 months. This man could not even point to any tangible achievement of his, after over two years as minister. He persistently talked about humdrum attainment. At a point, I had to switch off the television. This country will not make progress with politicians like Shittu.
The minister continued his charade on Wednesday at the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja, where he distributed Buhari’s re-election face caps to co-ministers. His intention is plainly selfish. Shittu is desperate to become the next governor of Oyo State but Governor Abiola Ajimobi would have none of this. In fact, Ajimobi rightly regards him as a misfit, based on a statement he issued last week. So, Shittu thinks he can oil his ambition and get the President to support him, with his pro-Buhari rhetoric. This is the main motive of his MBO. It is the truth that must be told. Ajimobi and Shittu have been at war over this minister’s ambition to rule Oyo State. They have been fighting dirty. Just of recent, Shittu petitioned Buhari over what he described as the “unbecoming behaviour” of Ajimobi. In his diatribe, Shittu accused Ajimobi of nepotism, arrogance, creating division within the party in Oyo and disenfranchising members. He also alleged that the governor ordered the demolition of his computer centre which was under construction.
This joker called Shittu has suddenly realised that the fortune of the APC had nosedived in Oyo State due to Ajimobi’s “arrogance, grandstanding, nepotism, caustic/ unguarded utterances and creating unneces- sary divisions among party leaders and members, thereby balkanising the party along group lines.” He added: “The signs that Ajimobi is set to destroy the party are glaring to political watchers as the voting population in the state is becoming disillusioned more than ever before.”
Shittu is evidently desperate for power in Oyo State. He wants power in a state he has contributed very little to. Can this minister honestly state how he has been assisting the suffering masses of this state before and after he was appointed minister? Who was Shittu in Oyo State politics before Buhari appointed him minister? His gubernatorial ambition is clearly dead on arrival.
Still on the case of Shittu and others who have been trumpeting the bloated achievements of the Buhari administration amidst anguish in our land. These people are unaware that their Buhari, a man elected President of this entire beautiful country, has swiftly metamorphosed into President of Fulani. His clannishness is frightening. Shehu Usman Dan Fodio advised in his book, Bayan Wujub al Hijra, thus: “One of the swiftest ways of destroying a state is to give preference to one particular tribe over another, or to show favour to one group of people rather than another, and draw near those who should be kept away and keep away those who should be drawn near.”
Today, I urge these cold-blooded pro-Buhari activists to spend quality time reading Obasanjo’s epistle to the President. My takeaway are areas he lamented Buhari’s ineptitude, corruption in his government, nepotism, clannishness and the anguish in Nigeria in the last 32 months.
He remarked: “The lice of poor performance in government – poverty, insecurity, poor economic management, nepotism, gross dereliction of duty, condonation of misdeed, if not outright encouragement of it, lack of progress and hope for the future, lack of national cohesion and poor management of internal political dynamics and widening inequality – are very much with us today. With such lice of general and specific poor performance and crying poverty with us, our fingers will not be dry of ‘blood’.
“There were serious allegations of roundtripping against some inner caucus of the Presidency which would seem to have been condoned. I wonder if such actions do not amount to corruption and financial crime, then what is it?
“Einstein made it clear to us that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the height of folly. Already, Nigerians are committing suicide for the unbearable socio-economic situation they find themselves in. And yet Nigerians love life. We must not continue to reinforce failure and hope that all will be well. It is self-deceit and self-defeat and another aspect of folly.”
On Buhari’s “poor understanding of the dynamics of internal politics”, Obasanjo said: “This has led to wittingly or unwittingly making the nation more divided and inequality has widened and become more pronounced. It also has effect on general national security.” On buck-passing, the former President said: “For instance, blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for devaluation of the naira by 70% or so and blaming past governments for it is to say the least, not accepting one’s own responsibility. Let nobody deceive us, economy feeds on politics and because our politics is depressing, our economy is even more depressing today. If things were good, President Buhari would not need to come in. He was voted to fix things that were bad and not engage in the blame game.”
I sincerely hope that Shittu and his likes still shouting sai Buhari, will honestly digest the content of this epistle, amend their ways and work for the interest of the suffering masses of this country. Sycophancy and hypocrisy will not take this country anywhere.