Those who were young (men-about-town) in the 80s will remember the 1979 hit track by McFadden & Whitehead, titled Ain’t no stopping us now. The lyrics goes thus:
Ain’t no stopping us now!
We’re on the move!
Ain’t no stopping us now!
We’ve got the groove!
And if you ponder and reflect on the political journey of President
Muhammadu Buhari, right from 2003, when he threw his hat into the ring, till
now, there have been spirited attempts to stop him. It got to a head in the
build up to the 2019 elections, when a pernicious confederacy was put together,
all to stop Nigeria’s inexorable march to greatness. It failed, resoundingly.
On Wednesday, May 29, 2019, President Buhari will take oath for second term in
office. Millions of good Nigerians will be delirious with joy, but some other
significant minority would be in ‘sifia’ (severe) pains. Why? Ain’t no stopping
Muhammadu Buhari, he’s on the move! The man will get his groove, and evildoers
will be in trouble.
The combat between light and darkness, evil and good, has been an eternal one.
Some people love darkness more than light, because it is under the cover of
darkness that they thrive, luxuriating in their evil acts: grand larceny,
plunder, killings, and others. So, they will never love the Mai Gaskiya (the
honest man), and would do everything to stop him, or pull him down.
The efforts to stop Buhari have been robust, pulsating. After a reputation of
honesty and probity as military governor, petroleum minister, member of the
Supreme Military Council, his colleagues found no one better to wear the diadem
as military head of state than the ramrod straight man from Daura. And he began
to reset the foundations of Nigeria, knocking sense into the heads of the
corrupt and those prone to indiscipline. It was no longer business as usual.
But the dream run lasted only 20 months, before they truncated it. The
landlords of Nigeria struck, and stopped Buhari. Up in smoke went probity and
accountability. Discipline flew out through the window. And we went back to a
place worse than square one.
The man came back as a reformed democrat. He sought to be president in 2003,
2007, and 2011. But those in mortal fear of righteousness in high places banded
together, and stopped him. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had perfected the
art of elections manipulation, and they used it to the hilt.
However, in 2015, there ain’t no more stopping Buhari. A massive coalition for
change was built around him, and good Nigerians stood up for the champion. Did
he live happily ever after? Not on your lives! The adversaries went after him.
Ran, pursued, and attempted to overtake. All sorts of things, physical and
spiritual, were thrown at him, just to get rid of the man who would not steal,
and not allow people to steal.
A debilitating illness came. And for most of 2017, the President was receiving
medical attention, both at home and abroad. Instead of goodwill and prayers,
they were rejoicing. We’ve finally stopped him, they gloated. But did they?
Could they? Not if God was still alive.
Ain’t no stopping Buhari, as in August 2017, he got back his groove. His health
rebounded, and he resumed work fully.
But would Pharaoh desist from pursuing Israel? No. He was destined to perish in
a watery grave, so he pursued Israel into the sea. They formed what they called
a coalition, vowing that they would stop Buhari from winning the 2019
elections. This was after letters had flown around from the master letter
writer, virtually commanding the President to dismount from the horse. That
letter writer thinks he’s the landlord of Nigeria, as anybody he moved against
never survived. He felt he could enthrone and dethrone leaders at will. But the
Yoruba people say it’s the day that the witch kills twins that she stops eating
meat. The letter writer bit more than he could chew, and it stuck in his
throat. He formed a political coalition, it collapsed right in his face. He
first adopted a political party to use in his bid to unseat the incumbent, then
in act of utter confusion, he abandoned that new party, and went for candidate
of the PDP.
The same man he had spent the past 10 years destroying, writing volumes and
volumes of verbiage against, he now attempted to sell to Nigerians. Were we
fools?
See the grand conspiracy by those who called themselves ‘Atikulators.’ They
included former presidents, some retired military top brass, disgruntled senior
civil servants, business people, preachers, and the elite, generally. The
sluice gates of free funds had been slammed shut, and they were unhappy. As
dolorous as King Lear at his worst.
The letter writer mobilized the international community, feeding them with
misinformation and disinformation. Fulanization. Islamization, and other creepy
concoctions. He was already addressing the PDP candidate as “my incoming
President.” Oh, how so very easy to build castles in the air!
Marabouts, witches, wizards, and false prophets masquerading as pastors,
bishops, and archbishops also joined the fray. They began to spew falsehood,
which they attributed to God. He that sits in Heaven just laughed at them, and
held them in utter derision.
All those who were on the wrong side of the law joined the conspiracy. Ex-this,
ex-that, who had abused their offices, and were being made to answer questions,
crept under the umbrella. They knew if their man won, their cases would die
natural deaths. So, for them, it was a matter of life and death.
They came with spurious political permutations and calculations. Votes in
North-west and North-east would be shared. They would sweep North-central,
where they had spent the last two years trying to demonize and de-market Buhari
and his political party. South-west would also be shared, and then, they would
win South-east and South-south wholesale. It seemed foolproof on paper,
particularly when you also throw in massive vote buying, hacking of all the
hackables, and a complicit judiciary as Plan B. They were already planning how
to sell Nigeria, and tell the poor to go to hell.
But they didn’t reckon with the staying power of the poor and the downtrodden.
They are people who know where their bread would be buttered, and where their
future happiness lay. In their millions, they trooped out to vote for the
honest man. They chose light, instead of darkness. At the end of it all, about
four million votes separated the men from the boys.
The man left holding the short end of the stick went to court, claiming some
servers from George Orwell’s sugar candy mountain, gave him victory. It’s
within his democratic rights. Ain’t no stopping Buhari now, he’s on the move!
In recent weeks, banditry, killings, murder and mayhem have suffused the length
and breadth of the country. Everything appears orchestrated, choreographed, to
achieve certain ends. The law enforcement agencies are pointing fingers in
certain directions. But Nigerians want them to do more. Pull in the evildoers,
and let them face the law. That is what President Buhari tells them at each
security council meeting, too. And we will get there. Soon and very soon,
because we’ve got the groove. When the ram runs, its testicles dangle furiously
from side to side. But no matter what, the testicles can never fall off.
Nigeria will remain united, despite all machinations of the evil ones.
In that song by McFadden & Whitehead, you have these lines:
There’s been so many things that’s held us down, But now it looks like things
are finally comin’ round.
Yes. Things are coming round for Nigeria. We will get to where we are headed.
Our fair havens, land flowing with milk and honey. The crooked and corrupt
won’t ever stop us, nor would they rule us again, and the wealth of Nigeria
will be used for the good of Nigerians. Ain’t no stopping us now, we’re on the
move.
Mr Femi Adesina is the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity
