Nyesom Wike had decided to use state powers to stop the inflow of Money earned in Rivers State as Value Added Tax (VAT) to Abuja, where it is shared as Free Money to states that generates virtually nothing but crisis upon crisis
If there is any tribute Nigerians will forever owe the President Muhammad Buhari led government, it is his unapologetic tribal affinity to his own people in a complex nation of diverse ethnic and tribal groups forged together under the guise of a federated republic acclaimed to be united in diversity.
All that seizes to exist 6 months President Buhari came into the fore and energized focus on a group in the federation he will only identify as “My People.”
Nigerians of all tribes and class cried foul of the President’s lopsidedness in the selection of his cabinet members and key officers of government to no avail. The more Nigerians complains of the Presidents open support to ethnic divisions the more he and his supporters are emboldened.
Neighbors, friends and families united in the Nigeria’s historic strength in diversity were compelled to pause and search deeper between the North, South, West, East and even the nonexistent South, South region – a mere political expression weaponized to disorganize the South East region and begin to ask questions that were long time ignored.
Before the emergence of a democratic Buhari, whatsoever political situation Nigerians have found themselves in had been an acceptable norm irrespective of whosoever reservations anyone may have had on the Nigeria’s alleged skewed and disputed constitution until the Buhari’s ethnic group of the Fulani’s extraction – the ones he had referred to as “My People” during the infamous mediation of Fulani Cattle Dealers and indigenous people of Saki, Oke Ogun in Oyo State on the 13th October 2000 – chose to go on a rampage public disturbance, maiming, killing anyone that incurs their wrath and destroying people’s farmlands as if on a revenge mission against the Nigerian population for that unfortunate incidence of October 2000.
Nigerians woke up every day to witness the speed at which the nation was going into descent and anarchy without their President calling the people he had declared as “My people” to order rather he unleashed the military and every security operative to go after every dissenting voices and individual who were bold enough to cry foul.
Erstwhile silent people of the Southwest Nigeria were jolted from their indifference to the long cry of people of the South East, the Middle Belt even indigenous people of Southern Kaduna and mounted campaign to completely disconnect from the acclaimed skewed Nigeria federation as the Oduduwa nation, all to no avail.
As I write, the leader of the campaign, the brave Sunday Igboho is in captivity alongside acclaimed Buhari’s enemy Mazi Nnamdi Kanu of Biafra.
The Buhari’s divisionary tendency was paying off despite all the hues and cries of the Nigerian people with the likes of Hope Uzodimma in the South East leading the confusion train, an appointee from the South South, one Lauretta Onochie leading the confused social media platform and the Bola Ahmed Tinubu group in the west leading the complicated dissenting voices in the Southwest albeit with extreme circumspection as he battles for his own space in the ‘muddled water’ of Nigeria’s unity in diversity completely proven wrong by the Muhammad Buhari administration without any form of compromise.
When it appears as if all manners of overtures to call the president to order has failed, the President and his groups of supporters whose indifference to the plight of Nigeria populace continue to gain momentum everyday with the Fulani cowmen of the President going on rampage in their killing and destruction of people’s life and means of livelihood, the Presidency, their agencies and hitmen were all jolted to their feet when in the month of August 2021, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State took a drastic decision that will hasten the requirement of all the dissenting voices from Southeast, Southwest and the minority indigenous people of Nigeria the Presidency and his hitmen had perpetually struggled to suppress.
Nyesom Wike had decided to use state powers to stop the inflow of Money earned in Rivers State as Value Added Tax (VAT) to Abuja, where it is shared as Free Money to states that generates virtually nothing but crisis upon crisis that continue to frustrate businesses of all kinds including the business that generates such funds attributed to VAT, Buhari’s kinsmen keep laying claims upon as Federal Allocation.
“Money earned from River State for business embarked upon in Rivers State will no longer be sent to Abuja, the president’s heaven henceforth, let every state generate its own revenues. This injustice must stop” He declared.
At first, this statement appears as a commentary from an evening “breaking news’
But by the 1st of September 2021, the River State Assembly had signed that into law enforcing all business owners domiciled in Rivers State to pay its taxes to the River State government. While Buhari’s government seek further explanation to this confusion, Lagos state government joined in the hard punch by passing into law the same status, sending the Buhari’s government to the canvass – a second fall.
In addition, the law on ban on Open Grazing that has been lying at the floors of the state assemblies began to receive accelerated hearing as Lagos on the same day of 8th September passed the bill into law banning the movement of cows led by the Fulani Cow herders, the proud people of the President anywhere in Lagos.
While the Buhari government runs from Pillar to pole seeking the compromise of the Judiciary as it was during the conferment of Hope Uzodimma as governor of Imo State without any verifiable competent electoral win from his 4th position in the line of electoral victory., various communities in the South East including sections of communities in Ebonyi and Abia State has already banned the sale and consumption of cow meat in their communities with heavy fines imposed on any defaulter. “Do not buy, sale or eat any resemblance of cows” in the region or be severally dealt with according traditional customs.
Prominent leaders of Norther Nigeria including Islamic Cleric and erstwhile supporters of Buhari’s taciturnity on the menace of these cows and the lawlessness of majority of the Fulani tribal group brazenly led by the Myetti Allah and FUNAM cultural organizations had begun to voice out their long time suppressed pains and anguish condemning the activities of killers terrorists code-named bandits and the manner the Presidency had been condoning the menace of the group he had not seized to show his clannish support to the people he had once addressed “My people” without calling them to order.
This is a blessing in disguise and Nyesom Wike had won many battles with this sole punch as the President makes futile attempt to invoke the powers of the Judiciary while other states adjust to cue from the leadership of Lagos and Rivers state..