Your Money or Your Life: Buhari or Nigeria

This is a new low for a nation famous for the ridiculous, mainly when discussing corruption. During Buhari’s tenure, animals swallowed money so much that it became the norm in the past eight years. But as utterly ludicrous as those were, they were not as damaging as the idea that a President’s signature can be forged.The far-reaching consequence of this boldfaced attempt to defend the indefensible and shield the guilty on international negotiations, the integrity of classified files, national security issues, and so on makes this entire debacle heart-wrenching.

The constant campaign of propaganda to prop up the image of a failed administration in the eyes of Nigerian citizens is terrible enough; going as far as to tarnish our national image completely and, ultimately, interest is a step taken too far.

Buhari’s “I am not aware” is all we hear even after office. He was unaware of the massive corruption in the petroleum sector that saw a significant drop in production despite appointing himself a minister to “prevent” the same corruption. He was unaware of the 89 trillion naira stamp duty misappropriation and many more. There has been misappropriation of the ways and means and several security breaches. The entire country was falling around his ears, but the blameless Buhari was oblivious.

Why does the APC administration of Bola Tinubu feel this obsessive-compulsive need to launder Buhari’s image to the point of throwing the entire country under the bus? Why must his pseudo-innocence and piety be shoved down our throats?

But at least that was within the country; Nigerians have adapted and learned to live with the silliness of the current administration and its immediate past predecessor. Why take our shame outside? Particularly at a time when we desperately need an influx of foreign investment to boost our Buhari-battered, Tinubu-butchered economy. It is almost like the government is holding the country to ransom and demanding the classic armed robber anecdote, “Your money or your life”, only that we are losing both.

What must have crossed the mind of the Interpol boss when such an absurdity was put on his table? What would our foreign partners who have seen the news think of Nigeria? And ultimately, what would be the opportunity cost of protecting Buhari over Nigeria? Only time will tell.

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