By Oguwike Nwachuku
Nollywood actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has raised an issue that touches on the survival of Nigerians.
During the week, she tweeted that living in this country is “hellish” under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The tweet from the 41-year-old actress was supposed to be an advice to Buhari to take a second look at the standard of living in Nigeria, a country many erroneously believe flows with milk and honey.
“The country under your watch is Hellish! @ProfOsinbajo @MBuhari @NGRPresident. The lack of money in circulation, now coupled with the continuous assault and killings by uniformed men’ll make this country implode!!! It’s Unbearable! Do something! Insecurity! Fear and desperation everywhere,” Omotola tweeted.
By Monday, April 15, a day after the tweet, thousands had liked or re-tweeted it, making it one of the most talked about in the country.
Reaction to the tweet continued on Tuesday and took another dimension when Bashir Ahmad, an aide to Buhari, entered the fray.
Ahmad’s concern was Omotola’s angst over lack of “money in circulation.”
He tweeted: “Omotola those who are working for CLEAN money are not complaining and will never refer to our dear country as ‘hellish’.
“In Kano State alone, from 2015 to 2018, no fewer than 200 medium and small scale rice milling centres emerged. For that, billions circulated among millions.”
Omotola got the joke and replied: “As long as you’re not insinuating that I am not working CLEAN for my money… I hear you. It’s good that there [is] some progress.
“Do you truly want to say you don’t see all that’s really wrong? Can we fight for our future in truth for once? Without being partisan?”
Omotola’s followers also did not take Ahmad’s riposte kindly, as they tweeted to back her view that hardship in Nigeria is akin to hell.
Senator Shehu Sani fired: “Omotola’s view reflects the views of millions of poor Nigerians; throwing mud on her cannot twist the reality.”
One Tosin said: “And can you tell us your life history Mr. Clean money. If not for Buhari and his quota system who is @BashirAhmad?
“When you were wearing nappies Omotola was already swimming in millions from making movies. And what has your clean money done to reduce the [number of ] Almajiris in Kano?”
@De_Lordess (Larea Croft): “They’ll soon tell Omotola that she’s from Senegal and doesn’t have a say in Nigerian affairs.”
@realdanielemeka: “It’s actually sad that you constantly show naivety and lack of touch with reality just because you have a room to yourself in the Villa.
“Insinuating that Omotola, one of Nigeria’s most successful film makers, makes dirty money, even for you is just too much filth for your mouth.”
Tyro: “As soon as I saw Omotola’s tweet, I knew she had made a mistake with that ‘lack of money in circulation’ line. Buharideens are one-way automatons and you have to insure your tweets against their stupidity.”
Ayò Bánkólé: “Plateau, Borno, Benue, Zamfara, Nassarawa, Kaduna – deaths of thousands litter the streets due to govt incompetence.
“Yet you place rice milling on the same pedestal as HUMAN LIVES & insecurity that Omotola called out. You are a shame, a monumental disgrace to the living & those dead.”
But Buhari’s supporters, most of whom are on full time Facebook job, are posting comments and photographs discrediting hard working Nollywood actresses.
Omotola is one of few Nigerians who have used their God-given talent to project the country in good light to the outside world.
They showcase inner and external beauty and also possess the intellect that propel them to compete favourably with their peers outside our shores to book a place in the limelight.
Unlike most of the lady Facebook squirrels that litter our landscape and masquerade as Buhari’s defenders and praise singers, people like Omotola are no longer seeking national or international acclaim since their works speak for them.
Also, unlike the Omotolas, Buhari’s Facebook choristers do not have the capacity to generate logical opinion that can reverberate across and outside the country.
They rake up issues that portray them as relevant, even as both their pay masters and the outside world see them as social nuisance.
What they tag Omotola for expressing her view is no less than what they tag others who think differently about Aso Rock, and that is regrettable in a country that practises democracy.
Nigeria is designated the poorest country in the world, taking over from India. Rating agencies rank Nigeria the most miserable place to live in, despite claims by its leaders and their cheer-leaders that all matters concerning survival have been taken care of.
Why should these negative characterisations not bother anyone who sincerely means well for Nigeria? And why should those who point them out be singled out for abuse and stigmatisation?
Roads across the country are impassable, despite claims of massive road repairs; low power generation rankles, insecurity takes different and frightening dimensions the way unemployment is on the upward swing even with the millions of jobs Abuja claims to have been created.
Poverty multiplies daily because the indices that support its reduction in other countries are ignored by all of Nigeria’s three tiers of government.
Those who dare point out these anomalies like Omotola are branded anti-next level crusaders or anti-Buhari.
One way the Omotola saga has become inevitable is the clamour for 2023 even when Buhari’s first tenure is yet to run its course.
Yes, the race for his succession has started.
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has already alleged that All Progressive Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, are working against his 2023 presidential ambition.
He said they are plotting secretly to destroy his political career because of his presidential ambition.
Okorocha claimed in February that the angst in the Imo APC about his preferred successor, Uche Nwosu, his son in-law, was not really about Nwosu but about his own presidential ambition.
“The calculation is that if Uche Nwosu becomes governor and I go to the Senate, I will be a strong force by 2023. The most annoying fact is that they are using our people to pursue that agenda,” he lamented.
He described what was ragging then as a “war in a different dimension,” saying Nwosu was actually secondary to the bigger battle which is 2023.
Okorocha had announced to a gathering of journalists in Owerri in December 2018 that he will run for the Villa because he sees himself as the rallying point for Ndigbo.
His words: “The Igbo think the Presidency should be zoned to their area in 2023 but the South West have also thrown their weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari believing they will get the slot after him.
“Both the All Progressive Congress and the People’s Democratic Party are dangling 2023 to the South East as election joker.
“There is more to the noise you are hearing about the governorship election in Imo, it is not about Uche Nwosu, it is about a plot to stop Okorocha by all means, otherwise why will Adams Oshiomhole and Rotimi Amaechi be interested in who governs Imo?”
More discordant tunes have since dogged the quest for the Presidency with former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal, who is still facing trial over corruption charges, saying the North may not concede Aso Rock to another zone in 2023.
Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, has also warned presidential probables in other zones to be careful in their desire to succeed Buhari in 2023 because there will be no vacancy.
Tanko Yakassai countered that Buhari will hand over to someone from the South West, a view in sync with that of the political class whose preoccupation is to create chaos and reap from it while leaving the rest of us transfixed in confusion.
The age group of those jumping into 2023 race shows they are Nigerians who ought to be leaders but have betrayed leadership trust.
Juxtapose Omotola’s tweet with the comments of 2023 protagonists and discover why rulers in Nigeria do not take governance seriously.
Are we then surprised about the stupid endorsements over the leadership of the ninth National Assembly (NASS) by people who behave as if they belong there and should determine who presides over affairs?
That some interested party leaders are staking everything to install leaders for the Senate and House of Representatives without considering the independence of the legislature shows the desperation about 2023.
What is even more irritating is that they jostle for positions with endorsement of lawmakers without recognising the federal structure that compels the president to get support from all sections of the country by winning at least 25 per cent votes in each of the 36 states.
I do not think anybody begrudges the APC for sharing its loot.
But Oshiomhole and the APC national leader, Bola Tinubu had better watch what they are into, and the desperation with which they are endorsing candidates for NASS leadership without caring a hoot about the feelings of all ethnic nationalities that constitute the federal legislature, because no one person or group of persons has a monopoly of anything, including political mischief and strategy.
It is tragic that nobody pays proper attention to good governance. Political leaders are not bothered about what to do to improve the standard of living since their own children are in Europe or America, far detached from the hellish environment Omotola talked about.
They live a lie and travel on the plane of deceit in their relationship with the people just to hold unto power.
Across the length and breadth of the country, what is on the lips of many Nigerians is the inauguration of the president and governors who just won election.
Again, we are all on board the ride that will deliver nothing to us in terms of tangibles other than the same praise-singing, hero-worshipping, cheer-leading and contest for political office in the next dispensation.
No country, I repeat, no country survives on such thoughtless clamour for succession at the detriment of the factors that bring countries out of the clutches of poverty, unemployment, under-employment, diseases, under-development, among others.
Rather than waste precious time plotting mischief and talking about who succeeds Buhari in 2023, as if we know how long we will live, why can’t we talk about how to provide basic amenities such as roads, water, electricity, hospitals, schools as elements of status symbol in Nigeria instead of necessities of live?
Whatever Buhari must have been told behind close-doors by those who lay claim to his ascendancy as president, including blackmailing him to commit himself to the 2023 campaign of “Next Level”, he must be told in clear language, as Omotola did, that our own democracy is not delivering the deliverables.
We cannot sacrifice the happiness and gains that come with democracy on the altar of criminal-minded, dastard, self-cetred, and heartless politicians who only think about the next election instead of taking a stock of what the former election delivered or failed to deliver.
