Nigeria: Dear Nigerian Citizen, Buhari Is Not Your Baba

opinion

Dear Nigerian Citizen, Buhari is not your baba. Let's be clear on this, there is only one kind of relationship here: that of a master and a servant. You are the master and he is the servant. That is what happened when Nigerians from the North, South, East and West gave him 15, 424, 921 votes. You gave him an employment letter and he has now become your employee. He is a public servant.

I know that you are well trained, and the 'baba' title is both out of respect and fondness but the elections are over. The campaign season is over, the candidate has become elected. He no longer needs to be cuddled, pampered, protected; he needs to be instructed, challenged, and rebuked, if the need arises. But how are you going to do that when you have given him a pet name, this 'baba' title? This title encapsulates what those smart political scientists call clientelism and patronage, the condition that the Peoples Democratic Party, and indeed the opposition, used to keep us all in bondage for 16 years. A little contract here, a blind eye there; all for the unwholesome exchange of our rights and privileges to call the shots. The little contracts here and there turned us to the servants of the PDP and when we voted them out last weekend, we took back our rightful position as the custodians of the power to employ and to sack, for that matter. Oby Ezekwesili has called this position the #OfficeOfTheCitizen.

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