When Northerners Wail

Tunde Asaju

By Tunde Asaju

I am worried to see many hailer gradually turning into wailers. The reason is simple, the ruiners have now shown that the lives of the disposable people they used to win elections mean nothing.

In the last 24 or 48 hours, the number of people killed in the north, even in Buhari’s home state is enough to cause international outrage if black lives matter.

Well, what do we have. A Buhari who is crying over the death of a dictator and pretending not to know that his people are dying. Oh, sorry, strike that! I heard he has called another meeting in Aso Rock. Usually, when a meeting is called, all the bad guys stop carrying out their nefarious activities until the outcome of the meeting – or I’m I missing something?

This is it dear fellow Arewans. When people were crying over herdsmen, most of you turned your long necks the other way, because you did not have yams in a barn in Makurdi and the 90 people initially slaughtered there were arne!

Then they moved to the West and those ones found their mojo and started Amotekun. Even then, most of us pretended that it did not affect us.

I don’t want to talk about the massacre of peaceful IPOB/MASSOB protesters. We also thought it was okay to slaughter the Shia, because after all, they; we argued are apostates.

This historical lethargy that comes with second terms is the reason we were shouting that you should retire #MuhammaduBuhari before he retires the nation. But most of us would rather have a murderous fellow religious/regional empty head in charge than give our votes to someone else who could have given this nation the leadership it requires to maintain its position as a nation and also a pride of Africa.

No apologies guys. The genie is out of the bottle. Since Covid-19 spared Buhari. The guy has been enjoying his starched guinea-brocades and oiling his smooth skin. He has shown that second term is for relaxation – find that in the pictures in which he is tending his ignominious diastema.

What would come out of this meeting? Well, very predictable. I am expecting another appeal, in which he warns the bandits to surrender their arms or…he will go back to pick his teeth!

Building a nation takes leadership. Leadership takes courage. Yes, I campaigned for Buhari because I thought he would do better than Clueless Joe. I was strongly convinced he would. He was a brutal dictator in his first term, fought indiscipline and corruption and introduced orderliness. Those were not the best credentials, but they were better than Clueless Joe and his comic wife.

This Bubu of a guy had no plan for governing even after making four attempts! Could you believe that? Took him a lot of heckling and six months to gather the most lacklustre ministerial list in the history of bad governance. He wouldn’t discipline anyone caught doing the stupidest things. He wouldn’t look into merit in appointments, he wants to keep you all satisfied by picking from his area (forget that nonsense report about another area dominating), you guys know it’s bunkum or at best subterfuge.

Running a country like Nigeria takes planning. It takes courage. It takes a man who can stand on his feet. Our troops need arms and munitions, but they also need to be gingered. Obama fought a useless war, but he would sneak into Iraq and Afghanistan to rally his troops. Buhari went to a town where children were killed or kidnapped in flowing robes and walked on red carpet. He actually only went because he was heckled.

I fell sorry for all of us in Arewa land. By the time the bandits are through with us, only those in Abuja and a few other towns and cities would have Sardauna as our father. Most of you haven’t been able to go home. You can’t travel in the day without kidnappers, at night you encounter armed robbers and there are armed soldiers/policemen ready to finish you if you fail to ‘show appreciation’.

This nation is going down the way of Rwanda before genocide. We are even worse right now than Somalia. And instead of borrowing to build, Buhari and his jokers in the irrational assembly are borrowing to renovate a useless structure that has no bearing either with governance or the state of the nation.

I am not calling for insurrection. I am hoping that in writing this, you could search your conscience. They are all over the place now, saying the right things and positioning themselves for 2023. They will come and campaign in mosques and churches; they would tell you that if the north loses the presidency, it would cease to exist. They would dangle the carrots of federal character before you and you will go all over the place fighting your fellow brothers on social media instead of listening to the obvious call – paupers of Nigeria, Unite!

This house is falling and by jove, we were the ones who pulled the rafters. If there is going to be change that changes the fake change, the keys to that is in the hand of every northerner. No region would do it without your help. Shine your eyes if they are still there and seek for a leader with the charm to glue a faltering nation together, and a plan that is actionable and could be timed for its effect.

Except you all make Buhari know that the presidency is more than having access to 12 presidential jets, free food and accommodation plus insane salary and allowances, Nigeria is doomed. I tell you if Nigeria breaks, we northerners would be the worst for it. If you ask me why, I will wager a few reasons.

Keep on wailing – you deserve it. But do more than wail, start organizing now. Kill PDP and APC, they will never bring succour and redemption to this country. You need to be a millionaire to get their nomination. Anyone buying forms for a million would never do anything tangible for you or this country. We need to sit down and talk and stop that nonsense about region and religion.

In Lagos, when they look at ‘malo’, they don’t care if you come from Katsina or Benue. Good luck wailing o, it won’t stop a thing – the killers know that life means nothing and they won’t respond to governments that make deals with murderers.

My name is Tunde Asaju and I am proudly a northerner even though I’m in chains.