Nigeria’s electoral system has drawn the ire of many citizens. This partly explains the low turnout of voters in last Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections in some parts of the country. The anger also reflected in the overwhelming reactions that trailed last week’s intervention on this page, titled, “Matters arising from Buhari’s victory.” The space is not enough to publish everything. Enjoy reading:
As usual, your argument is concise and precise. You always say your part and leave those concerned to their wiles and whims. Yet that will not deter us from saying the truth to the authorities.
A day after the presidential election in 2015, I sat with a friend (my constituency representative at the Anambra State House of Assembly) with others in his house while Prof. Attahiru Jega announced the results of the 2015 election. After the announcement and confirmation of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the election, I quipped to everybody around that it is not giving water to the monkey that is the problem, it is possessing the matching amount of dexterity to retrieve the cup from the monkey. We are now stuck with a set of die-hard power-mongers determined to do whatever it takes to clutch on to power.
Rev. Fr. Mbaka and his likes who are gloating over the outcome of the election are exactly the men J.P. Clark called the “wandering minstrels” in his poem, ‘The Casualties” (the message of the poem itself actually befits our present lot). It is a pity how the pursuit of lucre has taken over the altar of God. All through the ages, prophets and men of God are known to stand up for the people against bad rulers and practices but what we have in this age are purported men of God feeding fat on the gullibility of their followers and selling their congregation short for half-plates of porridge. The pocket justifies the pulpit. Shame! Even our Lord, Jesus Christ, came for the liberation and salvation of mankind, while here we have an ordained man of God, a priest in the order of Melchizedek, rejoicing over his assumed role in the continual denial and subjugation of the people’s right to everything orderly.
It is a wonder why the Catholic Church has kept mute over Mbaka and his money-cum-political mongering. Over the years, the Church is known for its rigid stance on errant priests and officials. Yet they have so far treated Mbaka with kid gloves. Is it that the money he makes for the Church has elevated him to the status of an untouchable? Or that discipline has taken flight in the Church?
For the chest-thumping All Progressives Congress, one has a cautionary proverb for them: “the man who swallowed a razor blade should not rejoice uncontrollably until he has relieved his bowels the next day without complications/pains.” At a time like this, one remembers the philosophical sage in Dame Patience Jonathan’s reflexive and spontaneous reaction during the drama accompanying the Chibok girls saga: “There is God o…!” And He will surely redeem the land and its people.
– Hon. Aloy Uzoekwe, Isuofia, Aguata LGA, Anambra, 08038503174, [email protected]
Dear Casmir, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka’s boasts, gloats and mockery of Atiku and Obi on social media are at once foolish, stupid and sheer madness. We hear the man has infliction of “agwu” madness in his family. The rumour mills here say that Buhari has offered Mbaka a choice of two junior ministerial posts in his new cabinet: (a) Minister of State for Propaganda. (b) Minister of State for Information, to assist Alhaji Liar Mohammed, who will be retained. Hurray! At last the President has found a qualified Igboman for a job.
– Dr. Chuka Nwosu, Port Harcourt, +2348085914645
The true matters arising from this presidential and National Assembly elections have raised so much dust that the lie that some were born rulers and others were born slaves (at best second class citizens) has been brought to the front burner of national discourse. That the Hausa-Fulani owns it all is gradually becoming a signed and sealed matter that must be accepted by all, according to the Buharis of this country. Now, soldiers who are paid by Nigerians in uniforms sewn for them by Nigerians are no more using military coups to forcefully take over legitimate governments of the state, but are now brazenly carrying ballot boxes already filled with the people’s votes for the self-appointed Hausa-Fulani claiming that they are representing their entire ilk. That, to say the least, is a painful reminder of the perfidy of those in power insisting that they must be in power forever. But can someone be in power forever without subjecting and oppressing others? Can subjection and oppression of others last forever? God forbid. As you clearly reflected, we remember how Attahiru Jega and his men manipulated and manoeuvred the game of PVCs to the advantage of the North, from Kano to Jigawa to Yobe to Borno, all the way on the other side of the North, to Katsina to Zamfara to Sokoto, a little down to Kebbi to Kaduna and to Niger, coupled with heavy rigging within the country, already with thumb-printed votes from their brothers in Niger Republic. This enabled their Fulani brother Muhammadu Buhari to defeat his Christian “kafiri” opponent, Goodluck Jonathan, in the last presidential election. Why give your Hausa-Fulani brother Atiku Abubakar the same inhuman, insane treatment as if we are just coming out of the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War, where jungle justice still persists? The most unfortunate thing is that people often forget, in particular Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, that jungle justice does not and cannot persist forever. Besides, let Fr. Mbaka know that there is false prophecy in life even in the days of old, according to the scriptures. What Mbaka is telling us is that even armed robbers pray very hard before they go out for their operation. In fact, they may even do fasting and prayer, only to dispossess the other man of his hard-earned property. When they succeed, they will proclaim that God has granted them victory over their enemy. That is what Muhammadu Buhari has done in the 2019 presidential election as Mbaka is trying to profess.
But let Fr. Mbaka not take people for granted that they don’t have any choice but to live in Nigeria and die in Nigeria. Fr. Mbaka, please, don’t be a false prophet, for the Niger Delta Republic and the Biafran Republic including the Oduduwa Republic are all still hanging around the corner. Be warned, my dear Rev. Father.
– Marcus A.P. Anga, Ogu, Ogu/Bolo L.G.A, Rivers State, 08064315962, e-mail: [email protected]
Casmir my wonderful writer, God bless and keep you. I would rather advise you to stop lamenting. To be candid, with the height of emotion raised before the fortunate cancellation and the subsequent election itself, many thought it was an end to this God-given and God-blessed nation, Nigeria. We are happy the nation is not up in flames and the citizens are all going about their businesses. Our President should avoid the so many mistakes of his first tenure, and try as much as possible to shelve his too open tribalistic innate tendencies, to make room for openness. He has to see the whole nation as his constituency.
– Pastor Livy Onyenegecha, Ibeku Okwuato, Aboh-mbaise LGA, Imo State, 08036174573
From your write-up, I can say categorically that you are biased. Your write-up, Mr. Igbokwe, shows clearly you are for PDP. A journalist writing will look at both sides and draw a conclusion. But your column is just castigating APC. Anyway, you are entitled to your opinion because you pitch your tent with PDP.
– Oyeniyi Janet, [email protected]
Bro Casmir, your piece on Buhari’s victory is as always a masterpiece but I disagree with you on Fr. Mbaka. He prophesied that Atiku and Obi would lose and they lost, shikena. His prophecy came to pass just as it has always. So, why deride him? He did not say that he is God and is not taking credit for the victory. Our people should stop deluding themselves but face reality. God did not want Atiku and Obi to win, otherwise, even in the midst of rigging, God is capable of changing the situation in their favour; or are you now doubting God’s capability in any situation? Remain blessed.
– Barr. M.C. Eze, Onitsha, +2348036743479
Whoever prayed for the election to go the way it did must have prayed to the devil and not the God I know … Atiku should emulate Buhari and go to court. His presidential project is definitely not only a northern agenda. He should be on the positive side of history.
– Eddy Idigo, Aguleri, +2348033038099
I congratulate you, my brother, for keeping the flag of national truth flying without fear or favour as required of an ordained journalist of your breed and training. Your pen will and shall never dry for speaking the truth as you see it, particularly on this charade of an election as can be seen in Nigeria. Keep it up!
– Anonymous, +2348039383237
Good day sir. My advice to you is that, please, try to be an unbiased journalist, because your write-up is so PDP and anti-Buhari in nature. I don’t know where you vote or monitor election, but in many parts of Nigeria election really counts, credible and fair, compared to the era of PDP ballot snatching, vote allocations and killing. I have not much time to respond to all what I read.
– Gaza Salami, [email protected]