The Birthday Advertisement Buhari Must Reject

Posted by African Examiner Babs Ajayi, Featured Contributors/Columnists, Latest Headlines Thursday, December 17th, 2015

By Babs Ajayi

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The governorship candidate of the APC in the inconclusive election in Bayelsa State, Mr. Timipre Sylva bought a full page advert in the Nation newspaper of Thursday, December 17, 2015 to congratulate President Buhari on his 73^rd birthday. This is a congratulatory birthday advertisement from a candidate President Buhari has refused to see or meet in recent days despite his desperation to meet the president. The advert itself is nothing more than an unsolicited bribe being offered in the public domain to the president, and Mr. Timipre Sylva has several reasons to want to bribe President Buhari. But the president must publicly reject this bribe as a dirty ploy by Sylva to have his way, to avoid answering to the multi-billion-naira money laundering charges preferred against him by the EFCC and to coarse the president to sway INEC to cancel the recent election in Bayelsa State where he was handily defeated.

One major problem with our nation and a source of our backwardness and the poverty of our people remains corruption. Inducing office holders such as state governors and presidents by contract and favour seekers has done and continues to do untold harm to our nation. The giver of public praise via congratulatory advertisements often always expects something back in return. It is also a terse statement of the giver’s readiness to work with the receiver in the eventual looting of state and federal governments and the misappropriation of funds. The congratulator and well-wisher is never well-meaning as he/she plot to extract favours from the sitting governor or president. Where are those who used to put all sorts of dubious congratulatory advertisements in newspapers to ‘honour’ the likes of Ibrahim Babangida during his days as evil genius and maximum kleptocrat? How about the endless flood of congratulatory advertisements in national newspapers when the now highly exposed thief and treasury looter cum thief, Sani Abacha was president? Where are those Abacha well-wishers now? The adverts dried up within days of the departure of the unworthy Evil Genius and the Most Evil goon. And where are the well-wishers of the recent kleptocrat Mr. Jonathan, who was in recent days indicted by a London, UK court in relation to the more than $1 billion oil block 245, Malibu Oil & Gas and Dan Etete; the court noting that Jonathan received $523 million from the “smash and grab” deal?

All those who swore by Jonathan and spent hundreds of millions of naira to wish him well on the pages of newspapers and even donated billions of naira towards his re-election campaign funds have since deserted him. With many questions unanswered about the billions of dollars and naira that Jonathan approved for sharing by party stalwarts and leaders, many previously unknown actions of Mr. Jonathan and his cabal of corrupt men and women (People who shamelessly re-stole what was recovered from Sani Abacha, a thief from our recent past) must serve as lesson for today’s leaders. Mr. Jonathan and his gang demonstrated a unbelievable wickedness towards our people, particularly the people who suffered (and are still suffering) untold hardship from the hands of Boko Haram even as best wishes and congratulatory adverts were almost weekly posted in newspapers to praise the buffoon spirit of Mr. Jonathan. It is in the light of this that President Buhari must openly and firmly reject the praise and congratulation offered to him by a drowning Mr. Timipre Sylva.

Many may consider a one page, coloured newspaper advert as nothing much, but it conveys much more. It conveys familiarity that may not be there, suggests comradeship that do not exist, and symbolizes a readiness to work and collaborate with an office holder to steal from the people. Accepting a congratulatory advertisement opens the door to the entrapment of criminals who are desperate to penetrate government and, in most cases, reap huge financial favours such as what the arms deal scam showed to us. Mr. Sylva wants favour from the president; he wants to use him to fulfil his selfish desire and to secure an electoral victory through the back door. His advances must be stoutly rebuffed. President Buhari may even insist that Mr. Sylva put up an advert in the same newspaper to inform the world that he did not obtain the approval of the president before putting up the unwanted advert. President Buhari must set precedence by letting it be known that he does not appreciate nor welcome congratulatory advertisements in magazines and newspapers, and should never be offered any form of congratulatory messages anywhere. He must make it clear that he does not want it, he does not need it, and he is very happy without it.

Babs Ajayi

Babsajayi@yahoo.com

@Babs_ajayi