The Sad Joke Called The Nigerian Government

“Bring Back Our Girls Movement has become a franchise and security forces know what they are up to.” ~Marilyn Ogar, Director of public relation, DSS

The above statement was openly made by the Director of Public Relations of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar on July 9, 2014 at a security briefing at the National Information Centre (NIC) in Abuja. She further accused the campaigners of paying courtesy calls to money bags to solicit for support. 

“I also want to ask that if it is not a franchise, why would those involved in the movement decide to carry out smear campaigns against certain government officials? If we have to fight for our rights, let us genuinely fight for our rights by being more transparent. We also know that they run bank accounts; that they visit prominent people to solicit for funds; funds for what?”, Ogar asked. 

Ladies and gentlemen that is the mindset of the characters saddled with the security of lives and property of the over 160 millions Nigerians.

Let me quickly go to another area revealing what a bunch of pathetic clowns these characters are...

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl-child education campaigner, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, was on a three-day visit to Nigeria from Saturday July 12, and she celebrated her 17th birthday in Abuja. Malala met Mr Jonathan in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and urged him to meet the families of the kidnapped girls. And after their meeting, the Nigerian President agreed to meet with the parents before they left Abuja “to personally comfort them and reassure them” that the government was doing “all within its powers to rescue their daughters”. 

So, it took a 17-year-old Pakistani girl, (God bless her dear heart), for the president of the country to agree to meet with the parents of the abducted girls, 92 days after their daughters were snatched by terrorists? What a caring and kind president! 

The callousness, wickedness and hypocrisy inherent in the federal government led by president Jonathan is sickening. As if that was not bad enough, characters like Major Gen, Olukolade, Marilyn Ogar and Mike Omeri, who have individually and collectively done all within their powers to harass, subjugate and insult Nigerians that have dared to join the campaign to bring pressure to bear on the government to do its job, were all jostling to have an audience with “superstar” Malala. 

Add that to Reuben Abati who addressed the press all in a bid to appear concerned. But none of them was as outrageous and asinine as the rambunctious Doyin Okupe, who goes by the appellation “Senior Special Assistant to the president”. Doyin in his various tweets responding to questions posed by some Nigerians said Malala is genuine while other Nigerian campaigners are not genuine. You then ask yourself how he arrived at or with what yardstick he measured “genuineness”. Doyin in his juvenile rants didn’t stop there, he made allusions to how the former minister of education, Obiageli Ezekwesili is “hypocrited” (sic) because according to Okupe, all her colleagues are APC members’ wives. Abeg see logic!! 

I don’t know if Doyin Okupe’s comments are representative of the federal government’s position, but with what we’ve witnessed, Doyin is likely speaking the mind of his paymasters. It therefore tells us that being in the opposition, according to Jonathan and his kitchen cabinet, means you are an enemy and a persona non-grata. This is what Jonathan and his people have turned Nigeria into. A largely polarized entity of “we against them”. That no issue of national importance, no matter how important it may be, matters as long as it doesn’t directly benefit or affect Jonathan and his PDP. Is this how a democratic government is run? 

If it took a 17-year-old Pakistani girl to get president Jonathan to agree to meet with the parents of the abducted Chibok girls, then it is clear that this president truly doesn’t give a damn about Nigerians. Although this shouldn’t surprise keen observers, in his five years as president, Jonathan has never failed to show his disdain for Nigerians and the Nigerian press. No wonder he has never bothered to grant a single interview to any Nigerian media house but gladly pays to have CNN interview him and eventually ridicule him. 

Notice how Jonathan’s henchmen went on the overdrive when the Washington Times and some other international media beamed their spotlight on his unfortunate presidency and lackadaisical style of governance. He cares more about foreign opinions and perceived image than the reality on ground back home. 

Truly Jonathan doesn’t give a damn. He has said it verbally on national TV, his cronies and acolytes demonstrate it to us daily and his service chiefs, led by Marilyn Ogar trumpet it unabashedly that “Jonathan doesn’t give a damn” about Nigerians.