Welcome to Mai Chanji

“Their hate for President Goodluck Jonathan justifies the suffering in the land. Recession matters not. Hunger matters not. Loss of jobs matter not. Polio matters not. Making a mess of the naira matters not. Fulani herdsmen matter not. High cost of foodstuffs matters not. Chibok matters not. We have men consumed by their hate for Jonathan and it matters not if Nigeria burns” – Prince Henry Nwazuruahu Shield, Facebook, August 11th, 2016.

How right Mr Shield is. His contribution is not only courageous but also insightful and profound. The Buharists and the “lying liars” are blinded by their hate for Jonathan and for those of us that have chosen to stand by him.

It is so bad that if their wives were made pregnant by another man they would say that it was Jonathan that was responsible. Yet their record of governance is clear and there for all to see.In one year and two months of President Buhari and his APC’s “Mai Chanji,” Nigeria has become a very different place to what it was before. Our nation has really been ‘’transformed.”

A few examples will suffice. One year two months ago we were the largest producer of oil in Africa, but thanks to “Mai Chanji” that is no longer the case. One year and two months ago we were the number one destination for foreign investment in Africa, but thanks to “Mai Chanji” that is no longer the case.One year and two months ago we were the largest economy in Africa but thanks to “Mai Chanji” that is no longer the case.

Sadly it gets worse. In the space of one year and two months the naira has depreciated from N160 to $1 to N410 to $1. If there is no change in fiscal and monetary policy anytime soon, there is a consensus amongst economic and fiscal experts that by Christmas, the naira will have depreciated to, at best, N500 to $1. One year and two months ago, Nigerians could buy a bag of rice for N8,000, but today they are paying N20,000 for that same bag of rice. As Pastor Reno Omokri, a former aide to President Jonathan said, if the minimum wage is N18,000 where are the people meant to get the money to buy rice and other basic food commodities for their families?

In one year and two months, graduate and non-graduate unemployment has soared; banks and companies are retrenching; manufacturers are closing their factories and plants; industries are collapsing, farmers are complaining and businessmen and traders are crying. That is “Mai Chanji” for you. Yet it gets worse. One year and two months ago we were generating 5,000 megawatts of power for the electrical grid but today we are generating less than 2,000 megawatts.

Again, one year and two months ago we were making large sums of money from the export of our crude oil, but today oil production has been reduced by one third and we are importing crude oil and refined products from the neighbouring nations of Niger and the Republic of Chad. One year and two months ago, the Nigerian Stock Exchange was recovering and on the rise and our banking sector was flourishing and liquid. Today, the Stock Exchange has lost N1.6 trillion in the last 14 months and our banks have become nothing but weak and barren money-lender stalls and pawn shops. That is “Mai Chanji” for you.

In one year and two months, our Air Force, once the pride of African skies, has been reduced to nothing but a cow and sheep recovery agency. In one year and two months our army, once one of the most professional, feared, disciplined and respected in Africa, has been turned into a civilian-killing machine which has unleashed on the very people that they are paid to be protecting. For the record, they slaughtered 1,000 innocent Shiite Muslims in the streets of Zaria, according to the group, simply because they blocked a road, worshipped their god in a different way to others and they are not Sunni Muslims. That is real “Mai Chanji” for you.

It doesn’t stop there. In one year, Boko Haram has redefined itself, resurrected from the dead, acquired new, more dangerous and more sophisticated weapons and leaders, established two equally ruthless factions and come back bigger, stronger and more deadly than ever before. In one year and two months well-armed government-protected Fulani militias, who pose as herdsmen, are raping and killing innocent and defenceless Nigerians in the farms and towns of the Middle Belt and the south. In one year and two months the majority of Nigerians have been cowered into silence out of fear of persecution and trepidation of being locked up indefinitely by Buhari’s Gestapo. That is “Mai Chanji” for you.

In one year and two months we have been turned from a democracy where the freedom of speech once reigned and where the criticism of the president and the government was welcome and even encouraged, into a totalitarian police state where the press is muzzled, judges are muscled and legislators are threatened and docked.

One year and two months ago, judges were revered, court orders were honored and respected in the land and the rule of law prevailed. Today, court orders are violated and treated with contempt and impunity; the rule of law has been reduced to an inconsequential and empty mantra and members of the Judiciary are threatened with criminal investigation, media trial and witchunt, childish probes and baseless criminal prosecutions if they do not play ball and do the bidding of the security agencies and the executive. That is real “Mai Chanji” for you.

Four years ago our sports men and women went to the London Olympics with their heads held up high and with all the kit and resources that they needed. But today, our sports men and women at the Rio Olympics have been begging foreigners and Nigerians alike on the Internet for transportation, food, clothes and their allowances. That is what “Mai Chanji” has done to us.

Yet, one wonders just how low we can go and how bad it can get. Is this not evidence of a curse? Is it not God’s judgment? Is this not a change or “chanji” from light to darkness? Is this not what we warned Nigerians about? Is this not what we told them would happen if they gave the Haramites power? Did we not tell them that the APC broom was nothing but a symbol of witchcraft and that their fanatical supporters had been put under a terrible sorcerer’s spell?

Many of those that once supported President Buhari and his party are now lamenting and publicly recanting in bitter pain. They are asking the nation to forgive them for their ignorance and short-sightedness. Some of them have even been locked up simply for having the courage to criticise the government and party that they once worked for and swore by. Yet the suffering has only just begun.

Things will get far worse before they get any better. This is because the darkest part of the night always comes just before the morning. The truth is that this government is a plague. They have brought nothing but sickness, poverty and hardship. They are an affliction that thrives on the suffering of the people. They are the incubus and succubus spirits that feed on the nation’s glory and that suck life out of the people.

Their motivation is pure and unadulterated hate and their objective is to impoverish Nigeria, to silence the opposition, to intimidate and enslave the people, to satisfy their insatiable lust for power and to impose a hideous and ungodly ethnic and religious agenda.Wickedness is their forte, the abuse of power is their modus, brute force is their language and lies, deceit and propaganda are their weapons of warfare.  They are nothing but bullies and fascists and like all bullies and fascists their time will soon come to an end.

Permit me to conclude this contribution with a profound question. Does anyone remember the following submissions and have they not proved to be prophetic? The first came from the embattled IPOB leader Mr. Nnamdi Kanu who has been in illegal detention for the better part of the last one year. He said the following on Radio Biafra on the 6th of February 2014:”They campaign vigorously for elections. You would think they are coming to grow the economy, enthrone justice, breed unity and tolerance, love for one another.

“No, they are coming to enthrone Hausa-Fulani supremacy, to reposition the security agencies by sacking all competent hands and replacing them with their kinsmen in order to drive their ethnic domination of the Biafrans, the Fulani herdsmen will be armed and encouraged to slaughter us with impunity and their masters will protect them. They are coming to ensure that my people are enslaved forever. Those who do not believe me will soon see it happen before their very own eyes.”

These are interesting words which have proved to be true. With what is happening in Nigeria today, it is clear that Mr Kanu has not only been proved right but he has also been vindicated.

The second came from none other than President Jonathan himself. In Abuja, on Saturday, 10th December 2014 he said: the following:” The choice before Nigerians in the coming elections is simple:a choice between going forward or going backwards, between the old ways and the new ways; between freedom and repression; between a record of visible achievements and beneficial reforms and desperate power-seekers with empty promises.”

Can anyone dispute the fact that both President Jonathan and Mr Kanu are amongst the prophets?

Fani-Kayode is a former minister of Aviation.