Frankly Speaking 2023: Thoughts on Adeboye’s, Soyinka’s posers

By Tunde Abatan,
tunde2013abatan@gmail.com,
08165660217

Both Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye and Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka are world citizens by all standards.
Both in their irrespective callings,they have garnerned enough knowledge and wisdom to call to question certain oddities in our national life.

That it took the personality of an Adeboye to come out and intervene in crucial national issues from the pulpit which is his primary ministry, and call of duty, is to demonstrate the precariousness of the situation we found ourselves as a people .

Same reason account for Professor Wole Soyinka whose interventionist crusading is as old as Nigeria itself.

Isn’t It curious that almost two years after Adeboye sounded a similar warnings about the social dislocation and heamorraghae in Nigeria , a polity occasioned by civil strife, kidnappings, bombings targeted at strategic points and latest bombings of our rail system in an orgy of deliberate blood letting, such has remained unresolved.

The cleric also pondered on who is interested in isolating Kaduna,the erstwhile political and most concentrated military base of our armed forces.

Isn’t it curious that terrorists and it’s likes can strike at will at a city known for its high concentration of military institutions and nobody has made any explanation or offer solution to stopping the human carnage.

Why is it that those interested in isolating Kaduna have renewed their effort twelve months to election? .
For what motive he asked.?

For now, killings ,abductions, kidnappings have sent commuters away from Abuja-Kaduna highway,while travel by Air is also as dangerous as by road.

Today, traveling by road in most parts of the North has also assumed it’s notorious dimension as trains are now bombed at will.

Curiously, security forces failed to deploy the Tucano jets bought with billions of tax payers to rid the forests of bandits who has continued to display open bravado.

Why is government incapable of dealing with this non state actors now merchants of blood?.

Isnt it curious that in the past two years or so the nations oil resources in spite of mining and running at almost full capacity, only 20 percent gets accounted for?.

When daily crude oil sales on which the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country,OPEC has allocated 2.5 million litres per day could only account for 500,000 litres due to high theft, isn’t it pertinent to ask where the proceeds from the 80percent has gone to.?

Why is terrorism and banditry now being financed by our oil deposits while the macro economic sector is suffering due to little inflow of capital from those who are supposed to sell our oil?

If between January 2021 and February 2022,the nation and
by extension all explorers have lost $3.2billion from crude theft, how do we expect to get funds to service the economy.?

In spite of this it is also clear that, the nation has to spend 92 percent of the 20percent remitted oil funds,to service it’s humungous debt, then it all means Nigeria is working for some powerful interest.
This is curious despite the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari himself is the defacto Minister for Petroleum Resources.

You then ask of what point is he holding the ministry when 20percent of it’s resources are stolen under his nose and watch?.

If according to Guardian report,only five percent of the crude oil that were pumped through the pipeline between October 2021 and February 2022 were received by producers, it means Adeboyes figures is but only a pitiance from what is stolen daily under the watch of a General who had presided over the industry when he was in his late 30s.

The Adeboye sermon also means in effect that the 92percent we are using to service our debt is what is left of the 20percent we got after oil theft backed obviously by powerful interests have taken their huge share of 80percent crude.

Hence,the level of poverty in the polity and by extension the insecurity like cultism,ritual killings and banditry is also a function of social pressures brought about by economic deprivation on all fronts.

According to Guardian, only five percent of all the crude oil that were pumped through the pipeline between October 2021 and February 2022 were received by producers.

The rest were lost to illegal oil bunkering, a problem that seems to have taken a turn for the worst since global oil prices skyrocketed.

It is also a reason why Nigerians would continue to suffer from fuel scarcity as our refined products are sourced from outside since the refineries are comatose.

Tony Elumelu who owns huge stakes in Tenoil in a series of tweets said, “business are suffering.How can we be losing over 95percent of oil production to thieves. Look at Bonny Terminal that should be receiving over 200,000 barrels crude daily. Instead it receives less than 3000 barrels leading to declaration of Force majeure which has taken a toll on their business.

Austin Avuru of Seplat Petroleum released a report titled “Reining in the collage of Nigeria Oil Industry,Save Oil Producers”, he said crude oil producers “no longer get to see as much as 80percent of their production making it to the Terminals.”

For Professor Soyinka, the evidence of Buharis government hypocrisy is more evident in the appointment of Iyiola Omisore as national Secretary of the party.

As for him,”with the emergence of the prime suspect as National Secretary of the ruling party”, a poser is evident as if the Inspector General of Police is “equipped to confront political obstacles in a resumption of investigations”.

Without necessarily hitting the nail on the head, Soyinka questioned whether the investigations will see the light of the day given the light of”present political ordering”.

That Buhari ‘has personally received and anointed Omisore ‘is enough evidence that,not enough value of objective assessment can be placed on Buharis earlier presidential pledge during the run off to 2015 elections.

In other words,Buharis style of today is a reflection of hypocrisy which has typified his running of government and the ‘famed’ anti corruption war.

That a former Senator could be dusted up from reclusion under EFCC trial in alleged N45 billion graft, to sit stop an ‘anti corruption’ party is a clear indication of selective trial which has obviously in Soyinkas words “disrobed credibility.”

The ethical somersault of Buharis government of recent is itself a clear indication that after all the Buhari goal is positioning of his Fulani stock and political lieutenants in the Congress for political Change,CPC,to advantageous position and not under the guise of any anti corruption war.

Hence,it is clear to all and sundry as Soyinkas rightly observed, that we are back to the season of Business as usual..Nothing has Changed in the Change.

It is apparently an understatement that events have rightly proved that Buharis corruption war is an euphemism for promoting ethnic superiority and executing devious political agenda in a fragile polity.