Cradinal Okogie comes hard on Buhari, says "What sort of change is the President talking about?"

yesterday released a statement criticizing the
Buhari-led government. In the statement which
was signed by the Director of Social Com­
munications of the Diocese, Monsignor Gabriel
Osu, Cardinal Okogie criticized Buhari for failing
to heed court injunctions that granted both
Dasuki and Pro-Biafra group leader, Nnamdi Kanu,
bail. The respected religious leader asked what
sort of "Change" is the President talking about
when such acts of judicial disobedience is now
the order of the day.
According to Okogie, the belief of many Nigerians
is that the government is turning the nation into a
police state comprising of the President, the EFCC
and the DSS. He alleged that governors, who arm-
twisted Okonjo-Iweala into signing reserves held
by Central Bank, are today ministers in the All
Progressives Congress (APC) government. Read
part of the statement below
“He (Buhari) must retool, refocus and
aggressively face the social, economic
(fiscal and monetary) problems we have
head-on, without letting the anti-corruption
drive look like a political distraction. A
snail-paced and disordered methodology in
governance, his apparent disdain for judicial
authorities and decisions, a lost today and
found tomorrow 2016 Budget debacle, and
a rather rudderless and confused Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with an unclear
monetary policy strategy (inevitably
increasing the economic uncertainties being
faced by Nigerians), have set alarm bells
ringing in my mind and in the minds of
many discerning Nigerians. Indeed, his
perceived discordant relationship with the
leadership of the Legislature has many
naysayers chuckling and remarking that
President Buhari’s government is heading
into his comfort zone, a one man show. A
lot of Nigerians are beginning to feel that
Buhari is fast transforming this nation into
a police state where the president, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) and the Department of State Secu­
rity (DSS) rule the day. What they say is
given lurid headlines in the media, and it
seems to all that some of the defendants
cum accused persons are being tried in the
press with information conveniently slipping
into the hands of the press, presumably
from the security agencies, even before
such people have been charged to court.
The pro-Biafran activist, Nnamdi Kanu and
the erstwhile NSA, Sambo Dasuki, were
granted bail by the courts but such bails
were disregarded by the security agents
under Buhari’s watch. Unfortunately,
democracy is difficult and this government
must realise that democracy pervasively
coloured with impunity, arbitrariness and
highhandedness, cannot be used to fight
and correct the financial impunity and
reckless abandon of the previous
administration, even if it is more difficult to
do so; the rule of law must be obeyed and
be the order of the day. If Buhari wants to
leave a creditable legacy come 2019, he
should retool the bureaucracy. For instance,
the roof of the Central Bank is leaking
water. Governors, who arm-twisted Okonjo-
Iweala into signing out our reserves held by
Central Bank, are today ministers in the All
Progressives Congress (APC) government.
We are still talking about change and
corruption when old things refuse to pass
away! These political gimmicks can only
carry away gullible or naive Nigerians.
President Buhari should beam his flashlight
on policies and programmes that will lift up
the masses. Existing industries are almost
dead and they call for urgent revitalisation.
The budget ought to aid solutions to the
mass unemployment, rural-urban migration,
skewedness in the distribution of income,
abject rural poverty and industrialisation of
rural economy. The 774 local government
capitals should be linked to their state
capitals. Even the mindboggling in­
frastructure deficits can take the entire
tenure to address. The weakness in the
bureaucracy has not been addressed. The
problem the APC government is trying to
solve is bound to re-occur because it is
treatment of effect rather than the cause,”
he said, adding that causative factors are
being totally ignored or glossed-over while
institutional weakness pervades the
Ministries Departments and Agencies
(MDAs), offices of the Accountant-General,
Auditor-General and the Central Bank. Our
Change must change something. How could
we continue to talk of change in a static
system? How could we be talking of change
when the same crew are governors,
ministers, senators, and members of the
House of Representatives? This is a cyclical
devolution of power to the same people
who are never out of power! What sort of
change is the President talking about?
When will the youth take over when even a
governor does not take a bow and go?
When shall we plan for the replacement of
delinquent leadership? This is what
constitutes change. Change is not changing
from Jonathan to Buhari. Change is be­
havioural and pervades all levels of society
including the family, the church, the
mosque, schools, market women and
business men. When we talk of change, we
talk of positive-salutary, healthy growth and
development oriented change that cuts
across the entire gamut of the society.
What sort of change is this that ignores the
glaring unequal distribution of national
income? It is absurd that the same
government that is unable to pay N18,000
per month to the lowest grade of labour
can afford to pay N1.8 million per month to
anyone in the economy. Why must tax
payers’ money be used to feed Mr.
President and his family? Why must the tax
payers’ money be used to buy brand new
exotic vehicles for the legislature, judges,
ministers and governors when they are
heavily paid? Why don’t they use loan
finance or mortgage finance to buy their
cars and houses? This is also a form of
looting and it is the cause of grounding the
economy and calling in an IMF spin-doctor
all the time. Precisely two years ago this
same President Buhari rejected off-hand
this use of a spin doctor to heal the ailing
economy. He preferred the use of counter-
trade and inward looking policies like
cutting down costs and flamboyant exotic
life styles. Today, I am not so sure we have
the same Buhari. I do hope he has not
changed all the colours of the rainbow. The
ruling elites are living a luxurious lifestyle
while the masses are in abject poverty and
yet we are all Nigerians. Enough of this
change-conundrum”.