Enough of Propaganda, The Time To Place Performance Above Politics And Politricks Is Now.

Where those who pretend to be Democrats and Progressives have progressively chosen to stifle dissent; where those who pride in ‘so-called’ pro-democracy credentials restrict and narrow down the political space; and where those who in the past stood up against State Capture become paladins of a most omnious attempt to subdue the people, then defiance and proactive steps targeted at taking back our Country for good becomes plausible, and indeed the only option.

What is unconstitutional about a ‘Shadow Government’ for which the Government is in Court against Citizen Prof Pat Utomi and Co.? Does the prefix ‘shadow’ not qualify the effort as simply an intervention targeted at proferring possible and plausible alternative policies to the prevalent policy flip flops of the present watch? Why is the Government scared about the thought of a Shadow Government? Why is the DSS concerned? And why is a government that is desperately and consistently decimating the opposition jittery about a Shadow Government? Why with the gale of defections to the Ruling Party are they still mortally jittery? Why?

As Prof Pat Utomi returns to the Country to commemorate the June 12 anniversary now a Public Holiday in Nigeria, it is apt to highlight the hypocrisies of the Party in Power. Since 2015 when the APC took over from the PDP, we have had the worst shade of pretenders to democratic ideals in the saddle. They have been perfidious and egocentric; they have become shameless power grabbers comfortable with election rigging and electoral malfeasance; their hypocrisy is Olympic, asking the people to tighten their belts whilst their policies gravitate to waste, wanderlust and profligacy; and they care less about the primary responsibility of government which is the protection of lives and property. So one wonders why the gale of defections to the APC, and why the APC has become so attractive to some Politicians in the other Parties, note that I am reluctant to use the word OPPOSITION PARTIES because the Parties are largely Multipurpose Vehicles for Power, and the defectors to the underperforming and underwhelming Government of the APC are simply lacking in courage, conscience, candour and scruples.

I have repeatedly said that I am glad that the Ruling Party is its most vicious antibody, and that the APC is visibly its own greatest enemy, I shall explain this in a bit. The APC is manifestly its most vicious enemy, and the unbridled arrogance of the Ruling Party is going to be her Achilles Heel. The Party is progressively moving from one that repudiates protest and dissent (recall the violent crushing of the EndSars Protests in 2020 and the EndBad Governance Protests in 2024) to a Party that stifles divergent voices, the constant arrests and detention of Journalists, Bloggers and young people for ‘Cyber-bullying’ is rife and has become the fad under the present watch. The APC is increasingly bereft of discipline and clearly vacant in compliance with due process and the Rule of Law.

Before Partisan Obscurantists descend in the gutters and mud with unresearched data, falsehoods and diatribes and attempting to defend the indefensible, please chew on the following…

1. They pride themselves in the hasty removal of Petroleum Subsidy saying that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu PBAT took a bold, a daring, a resolute and a patriotic decision by removing fuel subsidy, and such is the bandwagon… However, the truly discerning and patriotic would ask, why remove Subsidy without viable alternatives? Has poverty, penury, disease and despondency not increased as a result of the hastiness of that decision? Most Medium Scale Companies and Small Businesses that depend on fuel as alternative power to run and sustain their businesses have since closed shop as hunger and poverty quadrupled. What makes more sense, pursuing the thieves who profiteered from the Fuel Subsidy Scam and recovering the trillions so stolen, or increasing poverty and hunger in the name of a TOUGH Political decision so-called?
2. The floating of the naira cum devaluation of the currency. Another hasty and unresearched TOUGH decision hailed by Court-jesters and Partisans. Where in the world does a government devalue her currency without first strengthening the levers of production; without first deepening the frontiers of food and job security; and without first cushioning the tracks of inflation? But because the PBAT government is more inclined to propaganda than governance, to falsehoods than performance, and to diatribes and tommyrot than leadership, they are unwilling to interrogate the impact of their policy flip flops on the nation.
3. They pride themselves in raising more revenue, in paying more monthly allocation to the States, in an increase in minimum wage etc, whereas all that paves to insignificance compared with the level inflation. If you disagree, wonder why a Government that boasts of huge increase in revenue on account of the removal of Subsidy, increase in electricity tariffs, and taxation is yet enmeshed in humongous and inexplicable local and foreign debts? They pride themselves in repaying about 3 billion dollars to the IMF and the World Bank, whereas are set to borrow 21.5 billion dollars, who is deceiving who? Who will tell them that the lifespan of falsehood and debauchery is short?
4. They pride themselves in a certain 700 or is it 750 kilometers Lagos/Calabar Coastal Highway, don’t blame me, the distance is as indefinite, confusing and uncertain as everything concerning the project. From the Contractor to the Contract evaluation; from the various figures about the projected cost to the admission of the Minister of Works Engineer Dave Umahi on National TV that they do not know what the actual cost of the project will be; and from the Contractor not emerging through open bidding to the manifestly compromising personal relationship with Mr President, the details are curiouser and curiouser. Folks, what Government in the world embarks on such a legacy project without knowing what the project would cost; and like a people arrogantly anxious to validate the many allegations of corruption surrounding the project, they have gone ahead to commission an alleged 30 kilometers of the Road ditto 4.3% of the Contract, a claim which also have been proven false. Indeed the APC has elevated falsehood and propaganda to an act of State.
5. They have democratized insecurity with Nigerians feeling far more unsafe today than they were in 2015, and worse still than they were two years ago. Before now we were dealing with ISWAP, Boko Haram, Marauding Killer Herdsmen and Kidnap-For-Ransom. Today, added to the many security challenges is the emergence of more terror groups like Lakurawa and Mahmuda no thanks to the Olympic arrogance, monstrous disconnect with reality and the weakness of the APC Government. They celebrate perfidy over performance, and trade false data of so-called performance over truth. How sad!
6. Jittery about the ill-fate that stares the Party in the face with 2027 approaching, they are threatening, coercing, intimidating and compelling corruptive, corruptible and corrupt persons in the opposition to join the APC, laughably the Party is manifestly caught in some sense of dejavu albeit contrived and false. The APC has for politics become a Beatification Centre where upon defection the Corrupt is made a Saint, this is simply the underpinning currency and principles behind the gale of defections to the APC across the country, it has nothing to do with good governance, and or performance.
7. The fight against corruption has gone kaput as the government is overtaken by profligacy, roguery and wanderlust. Are you unaware of the close to 7 Trillion naira padding of the 2025 Budget? Have you seen mind-blowing, demonic and soulless line charges like 266m naira for a single Streetlight, and 213m naira for a single Borehole? Then you ask, are the Streetlights meant to bring light from Jupiter? Are the Boreholes bringing Water from Mars? The APC excels in everything negative, and they falsely believe or think that mendacious propaganda can right the incalculable damage they do to themselves.
8. Their failure in handling national security has increased food shortage and hunger as farmers for fear of lives are forced to stay at home no thanks to marauding herders. Yet the mendacious APC propagandist will say that things are getting better.
9. Inflation, the hike in the cost of energy and communication amongst other things have led to a huge lull in business as companies are forced to shutdown with a concomitant surge in unemployment and poverty, whereas the APC propaganda machinery would have us believe that things are improving, nothing however is further away from the truth, so we are not deceived.
10. Where, how on earth and why should a government that says it is democratic have a military styled government over a State in the name of Emergency Rule? Does the unconstitutional and illegal application of Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution as Amended in Rivers State not put a lie to the so-called democratic credentials of the present government? I am convinced that sooner rather than later, the fall of the APC shall be louder than the cacophony and the confusion in today’s PDP.
11. What about the National Assembly that has become an extension of the Executive arm of government? Did you see how they validated the unlawful declaration of a State of Emergency through Voice Vote? Do you know that to validate the Declaration of a State of Emergency the National Assembly must not only meet the required quorum but they must do so by Two-Third Majority, yet against the letters of the Constitution they swore to protect, the National Assembly did so unlawfully and illegally through Voice Vote. And the Party sees nothing wrong with it. Sadly, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas unashamedly superintend over the worst, the most corrupt and by far the most uneventful National Assembly in our history, and the APC is proud of that, and proud of them. How Shameless!
12. What about the soulless and the incorrigible elevation of that infamous song of sycophants ‘On Your Mandate We Shall Stand’ to a theme-song in State and Federal Government functions? Who will tell PBAT to helm in his sycophants and Court-jesters? The International Conference Centre ICC that was built by the Military Administration of Ibrahim Babangida in 1991 was only rehabilitated by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Barrister Nyesom Wike and named after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, interesting times, and such is the present craze, the fad in Government is the naming of our national infrastructure after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and here is how low our values in leadership has become. Who will tell PBAT that Nigeria has no place for Mobutu’s styled dictatorship or any dictatorship for that matter? Who will save Mr President from his jesters? Who will tell him that his mandate is now blood soaked, blood stained and blood soiled no thanks to his failure to defend and protect the Nigerian people? And who will tell him the whole TRUTH?

The many failures of the present watch are chiefly responsible for the Shadow Government pioneered by Prof Pat Utomi, and they constitute the fillip behind the call for a March On Abuja later this year, and these programs are not only legitimate but constitutional. However, we are not ignorant of the fact that the APC is committed to stifling dissent and silencing the OPPOSITION but they will fail, I assure you they will.

Humbly, I must advise the Federal Government, the Department of State Services DSS and other agencies of government that rather than threaten genuine progressives interested in making our country functional and effective, the government must fold its sleeves and get to work on making real the promises of democracy, anything to the contrary makes the call for effective, effectual and efficient citizens action in dimensions they cannot imagine, imperative.

Countrymen and women, going forward the call remains, OPEN UP THE JAILS if you cannot govern.

Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr
Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVT. A Good Governance Advocacy Group.

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