Agenda Papers Editorial:President Tinubu & ruling party should leave Peter Obi & Atiku alone and face governance—By Austine Uche-Ejeke

It is sickening and nauseating that after 18 months of ascension to power this government is finding it difficult to settle down and face the onerous task of governance and provide the dividends of their electoral promises.

On a daily basis things are deteriorating and the average Nigerian suffering and at the same time hundreds are dying as a result of hunger and deprivations.
As such what Nigerians expect the government to do is to sit up and address the various issues bedeviling the country.

But what do we see these days it is the president’s aides not only coming out to pick on the comments by the opposition but to also threaten makers of such comments.

It is pertinent that we don’t support any Nigerian no matter how highly placed, state of origin, religious affiliation to make inciting or provocative statements that will destabilize the country.

But it’s annoying that even if when people make comments based on policy, actions and inactions of the government the attack dogs will come after the person.

A typical example is that recently when the presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi made his position known in the now famous new year message, the next thing was his bombardment with a barrage of attacks and even threats to his life and that of his family according to him.

The same treatment is constantly meted out to PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar each time he comments on any national issue. This act of the government has been going on for sometime since 2023 they came to power and one would have thought that they would have outgrown it as they mature in their administration.

The most annoying aspect of all these is that the people doing this are the ones that were vociferous when they were in opposition and nobody suppressed them. For instance the president, Tinubu started opposition even during the military regime of Abacha with NADECO . Also citing another example was their mode of opposition during Goodluck Jonathan regime when they used all kinds of provocative, inciting statements, lies and propaganda to pursue their political ambition. At a stage they even threatened to form a parallel government if they lose election. Nobody arrested them as they were allowed their freedom.

I don’t really know if this government wants Nigerians to keep quiet in the face of insecurity ravaging the country now where kidnapping has increased double fold since they came to power. Boko Haram, Bandits, terrorists, unknown gunmen and lately Lakuruma are frequently killing and dishing out deadly blows on Nigerians in a country where budgetary allocations to security runs into trillions of naira.

Or perhaps Nigerians should keep quiet and not speak out in the face of the excruciating economic hardship decimating them now where a good number of Nigerians virtually go to bed daily on empty stomach.

Perhaps also Nigerians should keep mum and not talk on the recklessness in spending by this very regime where jets, yatch, expensive limousine cars are bought for both the executive and the legislators and billions expended for just house renovations while at the same time telling Nigerians to tighten their belt and endure.

Let it be sounded loud and clear to this government that it will not serve any good purpose to stifle opposition and suppress the voice of discent.

What this thing is turning out to be is a dictatorial and autocratic tendency that nobody talks bad about the government and goes scot free as what they always want to hear are praise singers. Anything short of that is not acceptable and must be crushed.

If this very style is allowed to fester the president will turn into what the Igbos call ‘Eze onye agwalam’ meaning a king that does not want to hear anything from anybody and from all intents and purposes Nigeria is too big for such a huge joke and it will never succeed.

Finally it is advisable that a serious government should be open to all manner of criticisms and suggestions and what they will do is to choose the suggestions that will be of benefit to the people and also help in their governance. By so doing it leaves the country better as Nigerians will be free to air their views without fear or hindrance.

The president, his aides, ministers and party members should leave Peter Obi, Atiku and other genuine commentators to national issues to always air their views. They should face governance and redeem the people as the suffering in the country is getting out of hand. In few months time the regime will clock two years meaning they have done half time and they should be ready to present a good score card and not the report card of what Peter Obi said or what Atiku did not say.

*Austine Uche-Ejeke, a public affairs analyst and publisher of Agenda Papers wrote vide eaustineuche@yahoo.com*