If I Talk About Nigeria, Nobody’ll Sleep Again — T. Y. Danjuma

If I Talk About Nigeria, Nobody’ll Sleep Again — T. Y. Danjuma

Excerpt: “Nigerians are in a ‘big hole as a nation,’ and President Muhammadu Buhari is not here to rule the country, but rather, ‘dominate us’.

Listening to General T. Y. Danjuma (rtd) at a book launch making subtle efforts to create more suspicion and acrimony among Nigerians, one could swear he is not among the authors of the chaotic and underdeveloped Nigeria President Buhari is trying to sedate and restore back to normalcy.

It’s pure mischief for Danjuma to insinuate Buhari is not ruling but trying to dominate Nigeria. It’s petty for anybody to accuse President Buhari of trying to dominate Nigeria whether as an individual or as a representative of any of the divisive dogmas on which basis Nigeria was built. Dominate how? By military force or by political persuasion? An old soldier like Danjuma should know more than anybody that Buhari, presidential powers and all, lack the capacity to dominate Nigeria in a military sense.

Ditto, Danjuma is well versed in local and global politics to know that the office of the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria lack the powers to turn its occupants into dominating monsters as painted by Danjuma. This would leave Nigerians with only two options to define Danjuma’s tantrums. Either he is suffering from advanced stage senility or he is simply being mischievous or a mixture of both. Whatever, it’s time Danjuma and other “if-it-I-talk-heavens-would-fall” Nigerians operating with an inflated sense of entitlement save us these rhetorics or spill the beans and let the heavens fall. Nigerians are sure tired of having their sensibilities insulted by mostly the authors of their miseries.

Let’s even ask, what’s keeping these self-appointed moral compasses from spilling the beans and sharing the so called secrets of this government or Buhari. What’s with this irritatingly childish “if I talk, if I talk” anthem among mostly declawed and smoothly deactivated heavyweights that are clearly having trouble adjusting to a life of near zero political relevance and threatened economic relevance?

Sure, these irritants don’t want to have us believe it’s their love for Buhari or concern for Nigeria that’s holding them back from revealing the so called secrets they are holding back and making it as if they are doing any favor to Nigerians. I pray it comes to a contest of revelations between President Buhari and this shameless parasitic crowd for Nigerians to know which revelations could induce national sleeplessness and which not.

What’s the “if I talk” secret anyway? That Nigeria is a mess? That’s not exactly the kind of secret Nigerians are dying to hear. It’s the details of this mess they are dying to hear to make sense of the unnecessary poverty and penury the are suffering for no reason other than the misfortune of being citizens of a rudderless country with almost one dollar billionaire “ex-this & that” to each million of its 200 million citizens (I’m being modest).

We all know Nigeria is a mess, in case that’s what Danjuma is trying to teach. Even more, we know Nigeria was not messed up by any mysterious cosmic force but by deliberate inactions of its past leaders (read: “dealers”). We also know Danjuma is among the most recycled members of this group. This is saying, if there’s any secret to say that could potentially incinerate Nigeria, he’s one to pay money and suppress it. He certainly don’t belong to those who could use it to threaten others. That members of his groups are making these noises, “na shakara”! I dare them to cast he first stone.

Of course, there are secrets Nigerians are dying to know but certainly, these secrets are more than the hows and whys these seemingly invincible warlords were reduced to mere mortals complete with susceptibility to the dynamics of power. If we are talking about secrets, I’m sure many Nigerians would gladly offer their 2 ears to learn the secrets behind the easy abilities of the large community of retired military Generals who inexplicably spent an entire lifetime as career soldiers and seamlessly metamorphosed into billionaire businessmen and heads of blue chip multinationals.

If Danjuma has any secret to tell Nigerians it couldn’t be more than explaining why lesser endowed countries as Nigeria could achieve greatness and fame while Nigeria was left in diapers as seen to it by self-serving citizens privileged to be in position to guide Nigeria towards greatness but chose to use the opportunity to shortchange the system and built private empires. It’s not a coincidence that long after Africa is weaned of military dictatorship, Nigeria is still held in political bondage by its retired Generals. And we all know how expensive it is to be relevant in African politics.

It’s painful that Nigeria is operating on bizarre logics. People that ordinarily should be calling the shots in high security jails that respects seniority, are still holding tight to a non-existent respectability and improvised mandates. These are authors of Nigeria’s problems turning around to insult our sensibilities distracting those working hard to clean the mess they left. It’s time we are saved periodic tantrums of people that in saner climes are mere foot notes in history books by now.

With an impeccable record of service and high public regard and respectability, President Buhari is the envy of this morally lazy crowd hence, nothing would be spared by them to lower his esteem and credentials and induct him into their hall of shame.

Shine your eyes!