14 hours Ago By Rapheal
In transparent fairness to him. He belled the cat. He did it at a very difficult time.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo flew the kite. And it stuck. He damned the consequences.
He was daring. He took all the risks. It turned out to be extremely profitable.
He started it all. He did all the travels of his life when he happened to us. He was dogged, tenacious.
Not without a price anyway. Obasanjo paid heavily for it. He was highly vilified.
We shouted. We yelled. He ignored all our hue and cry.
He was stubbornly adamant. He wouldn’t be deterred. He would not stop traversing.
He swore he was doing it for us all. He insisted: Though, he did the trips. It was not about him but about us.
So he claimed. We never believed him. He pleaded he was only a willing instrument.
Anybody could be. It just happened he was there at that particular time. He deserves his due.
He did attract foreign investments and favours to us. We dare not deny him. Even when his dearest third term agenda suffered a mortal defeat.
He didn’t give up on travelling. He remained unwavering, undaunted. He forged ahead with renewed vigour.
As if nothing had happened. He increased his passion for us. He continued his foreign trips undeterred, undisturbed.
And he achieved the seeming impossibility. None of his successors walked close to that. He gave us a huge, life saving parting gift.
You can only choose to envy him. You can’t fault him. His foes and friends were at perfect synergy on this.
They agreed. His exploits knew no bounds. His magic wand was at work.
He put it into good use for our collective benefit. He made our Shylock creditors to cancel our debts. They reluctantly forfeited $18 billion.
The monstrous Paris Club succumbed. Obasanjo’s dexterity, deftness worked wonders. They had no viable choice.
Obasanjo recalled with nostalgia: “When I became elected President of Nigeria, one of the things that worried me and that I wanted to do something about was debt relief. “The quantum of debt that we were carrying, the burden was too heavy. We were spending $3.
5 billion to service debt, yet the quantum was not going down and I believed that we should seek debt relief.” It couldn’t have been a smooth sail. He expected to run into trouble waters.
But he refused to be persuaded otherwise: “Many people inside and outside Nigeria thought it was a bad dream but I was convinced. I went to the World Bank and I started talking to our creditors.” He launched himself into it with all the strength he could muster.
And it paid off handsomely: “On June 29, 2005, the Paris Club of creditors, which accounts for $30.8 billion representing 85.82 per cent of Nigeria’s debt, granted the country debt relief to the tune of $18 billion.
” Former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua gently happened to us. He was calculated; he rarely travelled. You could count the times he did that.
Even his domestic trips were few. His prolonged illness completely took him out of our sight. He was knocked down.
And finally knocked off. We lost him to a deadly illness. Jonathan struggled to emulate him.
He too didn’t make foreign travel a habit. He was more comfortable being around. He wasn’t out of the country that much.
He opted for moderation. He was humble in carrying it out. He put decorum into use.
And there was sanity in his numbered foreign trips. Exact opposite was the case when President Muhammadu Buhari banged on us. He made no pretence.
He gave his maximum attention to foreign trips. He treasured those trips, very precious to his dear heart. He didn’t feign it.
At some critical periods, he almost became a visiting president. And a guest in his Aso Villa residence. Always airbone, shuttling, flying around.
Anywhere his instinct dictated, he landed. He travelled like no man’s business. Whether profitable or not.
Whether he understood it or not. Even, if it wasn’t “businesslike.” Travel he must.
And travel he did. He jumped into every opportunity to abandon us. He too wanted us to acknowledge him.
That we ought to believe him for a fact. That he was doing all that for our sake. He couldn’t convince us.
He strived to walk the footsteps of Obasanjo. He couldn’t. He ought not to have attempted it.
So, he chose to be different in his weird and queer way. He brought in a unique new dimension. He introduced to us “medical tourism.
” And dwelt on it richly and deeply. He undertook that several times over. It turned out to be his pastime.
Time was in this country. Buhari was lost to medical tourism. And that lasted “barely” 100 days.
The lowest ebb of governance ever. It was the longest out-of-sight stunt undertaken by any sitting president. Agreed.
It was entirely beyond him. But his handlers handled it with utmost arrogance, carelessness and recklessness. Thank God for his life.
But, you wouldn’t see that happen in a saner clime. We are still agonising on the burdens his numberless foreign trips attracted to us. We graciously obliged him his medical tourism.
It was nature at work. It happens to all mortals. No escape! It was a disturbing mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly.
The, he entered into our tight space. President Bola Tinubu is it! He came, saw and opted to up the tempo. He has taken it to the high-tech level.
He simply globetrots. Flying from one country to another. Crossing continents, oceans and seas like never before.
Moving over forests, bushes, deserts, snow fields, et al. His is not connecting flights; it’s connecting continents. He has thrown his body, soul and spirit to foreign trips.
And there is no stopping him. He has taken it as a lifetime journey. It’s a matter of must.
He’s unperturbed of whatever our feelings are. He elected not to care a hoot. To ordinary minds like ours, Tinubu’s team is a mere convoy.
But to the host countries. They perceive it larger than that. They scrutinise his convoy and discovered it is one huge foreign exchange earner.
Enormous FOREX, spinning hard currencies. And they take it very seriously. It’s serious business and should be so treated.
That they do wholeheartedly. We pretend to look for foreign investments. In the process, the large entourage turns out to be investment to their hosts.
The hosts grab it and run with it. They are learning the rope quite faster than expected. They’re smarter than our smartest! They beat our fastest hands down.
That’s what happens when your avarice overtakes you. You easily become the victim of your greed. This is how it probably happens to them.
Let’s paint a picture in our minds. The moment the “investment delegation” lands. Everything turns around good for the expectant hosts.
They are the lucky beneficiaries. The guests begin to do what they know how to do best. They enter town raving and ravaging.
They colour their host country red. From top-to-bottom; buying all the “buyables.” They purchase anything, all things as the greed in them dictates.
Regardless of their needs and wants. Flaunting their wealth in hard currencies. They show case appalling opulence.
Prowling and making crude statements wherever their feet touch. They leave indelible marks in supermarkets, recreational centres, clubhouses, etc with their financial prowess. They are the toasts all over.
And they enjoy and cherish their absurd exploits in foreign lands. They won’t care whose ox is gored! That’s their own bizarre way of attracting foreign investments. Our President’s convoy abroad is a delight to their hosts.
They are always excited. Nuhu Ribadu testified as much with uncommon sincerity to a boss. He is Tinubu’s trusted National Security Adviser (NSO).
He follows his principal everywhere he goes. Home and abroad. Leaving the rest of us “unprotected.
” His allegiance is more to the Presidency than the country. What absurdity! He forgets so easily. Without a country, there can’t be a presidency.
And there cannot be an NSO. Ribadu avowed world leaders are falling over themselves. Just to have Tinubu visit them.
Get a bite at our national cake. He was in his best element: “With a groundswell of solidarity around the world, today, the whole world is looking to work with the country. “The president just returned from India and their President will be visiting on the 15th of November (2024).
Other presidents visiting include the German President. Nigeria has been invited to G20.” Then the climax: “There are more than 20 requests for presidential visits extended.
” Ribadu spoke at the Comptroller General of Customs’ Conference in Abuja, last year. It then seamlessly follows. Whenever Tinubu jets out looking for whom to invest in Nigeria.
His large convoy is host country’s export earner. And that’s by no means massive. The reason his convoy is a carefully selected team.
It’s made up of diverse characters. With varied ulterior interests, intentions motives. The species that make up the delegation are not ordinary.
All the facets of our national life are ably represented. And in reckless abundance. No sector is abandoned.
No section is marginalised. Kudos to the compilers! That makes the bunch exceptionally money-spinning . Every member will want to make the team all the time.
Again, another painted scenario. At the planning of each foreign trip. The composition of the team takes pre-eminence.
It shapes the trip. To them, that’s the crux of matter. All others are secondary.
It is essential to make the team. If you are not there. You’re not anywhere.
If you’re there, you’re everywhere and made. That’s how they make Tinubu’s foreign convoy our core export earner to host countries. See the eerie manner of our ways and means of doing things! That is our odd interpretation of due process.
Everywhere their hosts swarm on his convoy. To be spoilt and pampered. They are convinced the team members are able and capable.
Their spending capacity is not in doubt. They know what it means to have a Tinubu’s convoy in their midst. What about the multiplier effects? Vast and limitless! No country that experiences it regrets it.
Instead, they yearn for more. That keeps the list of invitation open, endless. That portends bad omen.
Most of the trips end in sheer jamboree. We’re hardly positively impacted. What usually come out of such are strictly personal gains.
The delegates are self-centred in motives. Tinubu made some past attempts to cut down on his convoy. In practical terms, he never did.
He did not even go near it. And that won’t happen. All are political statements.
Falsities and falsehoods at play. When will all these shenanigans end? When will we be wise? When are we going to come out of our pretence, fake life and self-denial? One thing we may want to dare. Since our misleading leaders have insatiable appetite for foreign trips.
The misrule in their DNA is taking the best part of them. We need to interrogate their travelling plans at electioneering. We ignorantly invest in these characters.
Believing they will do our biddings. And represent us appropriately. We miss and mix it altogether.
They will never, ever do. They have successfully made our President’s convoy a lucrative sub-sector of our struggling economy. Our losses are the gains of our hosts.
That’s the tragic irony hung on our collective fragile neck. We confess: We have never seen a leader as globetrotting as Nigeria’s. We are provoked to ask.
Where exactly is our President right now? On the sea, in the air or on the road? Forever in transit? It’s as messy as that!.
