Nigeria, Behold Thy New Messiahs

Our tragedy is that those who have brought the nation to its knee always think Nigeria suffers from collective amnesia. And with history not being taught in our schools, many Nigerian youths below 32 years of age have no idea of how some of the  military-baked new-breed politicians, who last week assembled  in Abuja in the name of coalition, were driven only by a desire to continue sharing our resources just as soldiers do of conquered territories.

No one puts this better than Dino Melaye, a man who without any evidence of work before joining President Obasanjo as special assistant on youths, later a senator but today adorned his tastily furnished Abuja house with expensive state-of-the-art cars. When asked for his reason for going into government some years back, he said without reflection that he was in power to ensure Nigerian youths get their own fair share of national resources. Melaye never heard of American president, John F. Kennedy who admonished American youth never to ask what America can do for them but what they can do for America.

The stars of the gathering of the aggrieved include 78 years old Atiku Abubakar, 77 years old David Mark, 68 years old Rauf Aregbesola and 63 years old Peter Obi, driven by a resolve to get a man who stopped their milking of Nigeria out of the way. It is times like this we miss Ken Saro Wiwa, master of sardonic humour who often succeeded in making us laugh when he in fact had expected us to cry.

Atiku has been trying to rule Nigeria since 1992. His big break though however came in 1998 when Obasanjo, relying on the Yar’Adua factor picked him as his vice presidential candidate. But Atiku Abubakar, driven only by self-interest, in less than four years started scheming to deprive his principal an opportunity for a second term by aligning with James Ibori as the coordinator of south-south governors at war with federal government over resource control.

Regretting his choice of Atiku as his VP later, Obasanjo in his book, Under my Watch said this of his deputy: “His propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts, his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth and national interest for self and selfish interest”. This forced Atiku, in 2007 as a sitting PDP VP, to seek rehabilitation under Tinubu’s ACN. In 2013, he waited long enough to pull down PDP along with Bukola Saraki, Aminu Tambuwal and his clique, driven by only self-interest, with his loss to Buhari in the APC presidential primary, forced him back to PDP where he paired up with another roller-coaster, Peter Obi, who had just finished his second term as governor of Anambra as APGA candidate.

 Atiku’s attempt to foist himself as PDP candidate in 2023 in breach of PDP rotational constitutional provision, thereby depriving the Southeast, the back bone of PDP, forced Peter Obi to pull down the whole PDP edifice and returned to his aggrieved Igbo people who gave him between 95 and 97% of their vote. In 2025, resistance by Bode George and the likes of Nyesom Wike, who funded and remained the only symbol of opposition while Abubakar, Obi, Tambuwal, Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El Rufai and Dino Melaye were behaving like a woman with five husbands, is the source of last week Abuja coalition driven not by their alternative to Tinubu’s policies or humbled by what they had failed to do while in power for 16 years.

One of our other old wine in new bottle is 77 years old David Mark who has been in government since he was first appointed chairman of abandoned properties in Port Harcourt at 38. He became governor of Niger State in 1984 as commissioner for communication during Babangida regime he was largely remembered for declaring that telephone is not for poor people.

He was said to have led soldiers of fortune opposed to actualization of MKO Abiola’s June 12 mandate, allegedly volunteering to personally shoot Abiola if he was ever sworn in. Mark served the interest of the rich. Forbes publication for instance claimed number of private jets jumped from 20 to  150 while Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer claimed Nigeria ranks behind the United States,  United Kingdom and China among those that top their order for the supply of their aircraft type.  

For all his years as Senate president, there was no motorable road between Abuja and Otukpo, since Mark, as number three man, as Nyesom Wike put it last week, had a helicopter to ferry him from Abuja to Otukpo. The road abandoned by Mark for 16 years is now under construction by Tinubu’s government he and his frustrated group is trying to uproot. Perhaps the true test of his relevance in his Benue State is to interrogate how after 16 years, his daughter contested an election under another platform and won.

The truth be told, for all his years in power, David Mark was never on ground for his besieged people. Like the typical Middle Belt soldiers of fortune traditionally  known as hired mercenaries for  fighting Fulani wars, his concern is self-preservation as his people were being slaughtered in their hundreds by herdsmen,  while successive Benue governors were chased from  pillar to posts by armed bandits. David Mark only worked for David Mark. How else does one explain David Mark who has been in government for over 40 years, pre-empting EFCC by dragging a body that had accused him of confiscating the senate president mansion, a national monument, without paying the economic rate to court?

Rauf Aregbesola betrayed those who helped him to power. With no deep root in Osun politics, he was foisted on Osun with the help of the likes of Pa Bisi Akande. Even after winning the election, Olagunsoye Oyinlola declared a fatwa banning him from Osun. And when he tested the resolve of Oyinlola, he only managed to escape with his life as bullets freely rained on his car. He eventually retrieved his mandate through the judiciary. When he fell out with his benefactor, he joined the opposition PDP to frustrate the ambition of his APC candidate. He did not stop there; he publicly stood against the presidential ambition of his benefactor. And when that failed, he joined a group bent on removing his benefactor from power last week. He has forgotten how he was locked up like a criminal ostensibly for forging a police report. Those who see him as an asset forget if there is anything Yoruba detest; it is a man without character.

Rotimi Amaechi betrayed Goodluck Jonathan to bargain for position in Buhari government in which billions of Rivers State money went into bringing about. He was speaker of Rivers State for eight years, governor for eight years before emerging as Buhari’s super Minister of Transportation for another eight years, during which time he was pursuing various degree programmes across the world. By diverting most of his ministry projects to Katsina State, he had thought that was all needed to become president of Nigeria.

His loss to Tinubu in APC primary tuned him into a sore loser, refusing to campaign for his party’s candidate.

Amaechi had earlier told us he is hungry because he depends on the good will of his wife, who he said is an industrialist. Wike, a man who should know better, as his former chief of staff, pleaded with the president to release the suppressed NDDC report which allegedly revealed the humongous amount of money Amaechi’ wife allegedly cornered from NDDC, every month ostensibly to train Niger Delta women.  Amaechi also admitted owning a Rolls Royce which he said was a gift. Wike who also admitted to owning one last week revealed that Amachi’s was a gift from Rivers State government contractor. We are waiting for Amaechi to come clean of these serious allegations.

Another star of the group is Dino Melaye who  was on hand to ensure that the leadership of the eighth senate was secured through display of audacious bravery, deploying self-help strategies of areas boys or what legendary Fela would describe as “igboju pass power’ (reckless bravery) often managed through bully and blackmail.  Melaye did not deny that senate rules were forged, his argument was simple: “If the senate rules were forged, it meant the confirmation of the AGF, service chiefs and the passage of the budget stands invalidated”. He and his group threatened to impeach the president if the case was not dropped. He was also known for demonstrating his audacious bravery by mobilizing 80 like minds senators to accompany Saraki’s wife to honour EFCC invitation to intimidate the judge of Code conduct Tribunal (CCT)

Dear compatriots, herein are the baleful legacies of our new messiahs.