Sickening.....

Sickening….

Once in a while, as humans, we all get sick and need to get treated and get back to normal activities. The tragedy however is that a lot of us sometimes do not get back to work. They die. A good number of these deaths are sadly due to preventable and curable diseases as a result of inability to access affordable medical care. If this was everyone's lot, we can always agree with our spiritual leaders that it is our destiny or the works of the devil. Interestingly, this is neither true nor everyone’s lot. And this is where the comedy starts.

By the time you are reading this piece,President Muhamadu Buhari will have arrived in London on his third medical trip this year, some eight months after returning from the last one that lasted fifty days .The president left without telling us the cost of the medical treatment to the tax payers but by the time he is back in four days, three thousand and two-eighty four(3,284) Nigerian kids would have avoidably died of malaria. He will probably not hear the bad news because of his ear infection.

As for those us who are not hard of hearing,this is not the work of the devil; he is too busy handling natural disasters than getting involved with man- made disasters that our elected leaders are quite competent of starting and sustaining to their benefits and to our detriment.

We all knew that Buhari at his age will be prone to ailments giving his strict youthful lifestyle of just smoking and womanizing,but we chose to vote for his integrity anyway, a quality which was clearly lacking in other morally bankrupt presidential aspirants with good health. What we did not bargain for is his preference for seeking treatment abroad for his local ailments—like many African spiritual and political leaders— which is at odds with his administration’s rhetoric of war against corruption.

Though between opinion and fact, a debate always ensues, but it is my opinion that Buhari’s famed integrity coupled with unverified integrity of his entire cabinet has not been able to move the country forward. That is a fact when you consider our present situation: With an army without arms, bereft of strategy and lacking general ideas, General Buhari has been reduced to a boy scout in his battle against the Boko Haram. While we can excuse him on the ground that he inherited the north-east crisis like he inherited the 13 aircrafts in the presidential fleet, the marauding herdsmen are of his own ingeniuos making and just speaking hausa to them has obviously not yielded any solution and will not. It is time for the obvious.

Mr President must also not listen(not that he can medically do anyway) to those singing that “quitters don't win and winners don't quit”. While in UK, the President should visit the Emirates and ask for one Arsene Wengers, he is a living example of the tragedy of that cliche. He eventually quit not on his terms and not as a winner but a loser!

Sir, an ailing economy does not deserve an equally ill leader. Your family needs you and we need our country back, preferably in one piece!

Buhari came.

With trivial matters like denuclearization of North Korea, official end of war between South and North Korea, Iran deal and investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections on Trump’s mind, it seemed our President chose a good time to visit the White House. But, since the visit was more of a summon than invitation, President Buhari had little or no choice than to come.

It is also worthy to note that since Trump insulted some nations-Nigeria inclusive- some months ago, Nigerian President was the first from the sub Saharan African Region that will be officially visiting the White house. Being the most populous Black Nation on earth, expectations were high from the rest of the world, especially from other “shithole countries”, who felt Nigeria is in much better position to call  Trump’s bluff and also push back on his derogatory remarks.

The President however had his own agenda and addressing Trump's alleged remarks was not on it. At the top of the agenda for the meeting was the issue of security, and understandably so. President rode to power on the mantra of a change predicated on defeating Boko Haram and tackling corruption. It has not been easy as the president was later to find out. In corruption, he found his contemporaries and party faithful and in Boko Haram, the president was hampered by his religion and armament to confront an enemy of international repute. Desperate for help, PMB brought out his passport, applied for visa and here he is in White House for an audience with the leader of the free world.

Hardly had President Buhari entered the meeting that the security agenda quickly changed to agriculture. Even though America had already agreed earlier in principle on a sale of half a billion dollars military hardware to us, there was a sudden need for a reflection. If the leader of the giant of Africa looks this lean and frail, our host felt security should be the least on our priority and therefore proceeded on a topic that will be of immediate benefit to the massive Nigerians at home. Food. Contrary to Buhari’s policy of protecting our agricultural industry by stopping imports, Trump managed to bully his way into opening Nigeria up to trade by outright flattery, describing Nigeria that he has neither been to nor invested in as the ‘’most beautiful country’! Obasanjo will not have fell for that and Jonathan will probably have clapped.

To the relief of our youths, the bilateral talks came to an end without any mention of them, even in passing. Neither country broached the subject of climate change, even with the shrinking of lake Chad and the North Pole, both leaders were selfishly fixated on the up coming elections that they are jointly poised to lose.

As a parting gift, Buhari got nothing in terms of humanitarian assistance for the internally displaced persons and neither aid for the reconstruction of innumerable devastated towns in the northeast. Rather, he was warned that killing of Christians in the middle-belt and northern Nigeria will no longer be acceptable, but one wonders what the US can possibly do if this persists. It is called shakara but I hope it works.