A new wind of change is blowing over the land called Nigeria, that’s for sure, a wind that brings a new dawn in Nigeria! Some Nigerians see it as a good wind; others see it as a bad wind. And, of course, there are the intermediates of various degrees; from those who do not see the wind neither good nor bad; even those who don’t even understand what the hell the wind is. It all came with the historic 2015 presidential election, when, for the first time in Nigerian history, a sitting president was prevented from being re-elected. Retired General Muhammadu Buhari accomplished this feat; beating President Goodluck Jonathan at the polls with his campaign message of change-change from what he summed up as the protracted misrule of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Buhari’s victory means that the Nigerian people did want a change of government; a change of PDP! At the risk of sounding like a parrot, I must say, as I did in my previous comments, that my interest in and support for President Buhari lies in the war on corruption. I am not even talking about any other topic, nor about the faults that can be attributed to the President. I have always stated my reasons-Mr. Corruption is Nigeria’s nightmare, and I believe Mr. President has the determination and character to fight Mr. Corruption! It’s already happening; the change is here! Buhari fever is on, and the hitherto untouchables in Nigeria are definitely catching a cold! Heads are rolling in the highest places!!!

And of course the Buharri Fever is also making all the agencies and institutions sit up and try to do the right thing. A good example is very clear to see that as soon as Buhari became president, the hitherto epileptic electricity supply to the citizenry suddenly improved appreciably without any increase in electricity generation. Why? Buhari fever; that’s why! Efficiency among electricity workers increased rapidly, with workers realizing that before laxity prevailed, acts of corruption and sabotage under Buhari attract quick sanction. Furthermore, some of the funds stolen from Nigeria suddenly grew legs and returned to the treasury as soon as Buhari was announced as the winner of the 2015 election, even before he took the seat. Why? Because the accused persons who had successfully and arrogantly challenged the accusations in Jonathan’s government, contracted Buhari fever; that’s why! Furthermore, judges are now wary of granting frivolous injunctions that have hitherto stalled the trial of big politicians and corrupt leaders. Why? Buhari fever, that’s why! Many suspected looters abused this mumbo jumbo loophole called an injunction in the government of President Jonathan. They didn’t bother trying to defend the charges in court; some injunctions were simply bought to evade prosecution. No more; not with Buhari fever in the air. Until now untouchable citizens are on trial for alleged looting – even the so-called citizen number three – just like the rest of Nigerians if they were accused of stealing a mere goat. I just pray that the fever lasts!

In that sense, let us talk about us, known in our constitution as We the people of Nigeria, and our role in the rebirth of the nation. According to our constitution, the power of the nation belongs to us. The sad thing is that a large number of us are not enlightened to know exactly what that power is and how to use it. Therefore, this treatise is to preach, especially to the youth, the gospel of proper exploitation of our power through Buhari fever. We cannot just sit back and complain about what Buhari is doing wrong in the ongoing war against corruption. The president is human, just like the rest of us. So, he will make mistakes and bad judgments from time to time; like everyone else. Therefore, he must look at how regularly, like anyone who has ever sat and is going to sit in that seat. But that our criticisms are constructive and sincere, aimed at contributing to the revolution, and not sabotaging it, that is my constant argument! Let’s criticize the president constructively; he doesn’t slander you for political expediency.

We are all expected to actively participate in the war against corruption, in various ways. Buhari fever can only do so much to correct the many anomalies in our society; We, the people of Nigeria, have to get active and take advantage of the fever to change things for the better. Now it is easier for us to control the excesses of our leaders as stipulated by our constitution. Buhari’s apparent war on corruption of zero nepotism has begun to redefine the attitudes of Nigerians in public office, and it is no longer the norm for those who lack performance and character. I have already mentioned a good example: Buhari fever has warned our judges to be careful of issuing frivolous warrants to suspects in order to evade trial. Not surprisingly, despite high-powered intrigues, our “number three man,” the President of the Senate, couldn’t get a warrant now; while many lesser “big shots” could get it in the blink of an eye during Jonathan’s presidency.

However, no matter how angry we are at bad leaders, our constitution has stipulations on how to address our grievances; anything outside of those stipulations is illegal. For example, stoning Senator Saraki at a place of prayer on Sallah Day, as reported in the news last September, was barbaric and unconstitutional; in fact, it was a crime against the senator. The law of the land does not allow anyone to throw rocks at anyone, for any reason. We have legitimate ways to vent our anger on our misguided leaders as contained in our constitution. And the legitimate ways are not limited to letting leaders know we’re angry; ensure changes. The idea is-Don’t get angry; Get even.

My campaign is to put the youth of Nigeria on the right (legitimate) path to take revenge on our leaders. I begin here with two instruments of ‘war’: the removal of legislators who made mistakes and the impeachment of governors and presidents who made mistakes. The first and last time I heard of the instrument of removal mentioned in Nigeria was from a hideously brazen leader of the country’s corrupt cabal during President Jonathan’s rule, who actually believed he had the right to personally remove any federal legislator who disobeyed. his mandate. domain. In fact, he announced it on national television, and seemed intent on trying to make good on the threat, until a few brave lawyers explained that he had no such power; that the power belongs to the people! Obviously, his ignorance was a reflection of the entire Nigerian society; The masses have not one iota of idea what this is all about, because the game of democracy is new to them!

The second instrument, impeachment, the process to remove a misguided governor or our president, is more common among Nigerians, but in a very, very bastardized way. A good combination of the correct forms of the Recall and Impeachment instruments as stipulated in our constitution can go a long way to check the entrenched attitude of impunity among our legislators, governors and presidents.

Our main concern, really, is legislators, and I’ll tell you why. If we can control our legislators, then we can control governors and presidents through legislators. Second, legislators are supposed to take orders from us because they represent us. Actually, they should get our opinions first before voting on any major issue. We vote them into parliament to represent us because the 170 million of us cannot get into a room to deliberate on the welfare of the nation. The authors of our constitution knew all this, so they provided us with how to remove legislators from office if they refuse to obey our wishes/opinions. The authors knew that our legislators are human and anticipated that some of them are bound to err from time to time. The authors also anticipated the fact that power, the search for it, and intoxication by it when one has it, can very easily corrupt humans. So, knowing all this, the authors of our constitution, like their peers in other democracies, arranged the thing called RECOVERY, to check the anticipated excesses of our legislators, both at the state and federal levels.

Instead of throwing stones at Senator Saraki, the angry mob that besieged the place of prayer on a Day of Sallah should vent their anger through the Withdrawal instrument enshrined in our constitution. I want to launch it as an open challenge to our youth to create awareness and enlightenment campaigns on these two and other instruments to enforce good governance in Nigeria through their social media. And civil liberty organizations, too; let us all unite to support a campaign to remove legislators who do not represent us well in our parliaments. This will reduce part of their demonstration of impunity in their statements and behavior.

Now, as soon as we can control our legislators, we can always legitimately force them to impeach any governor or president we want to overwhelmingly remove. If they disobey, we call them; or if it’s too late for them to be removed, then we need to make sure we vote them out in the next election. In this way we will defeat the money bag syndrome, which has hitherto misaligned the loyalty of our representatives in our parliaments to our wayward governors and presidents. We will make sure our representatives vote on impeachments based on the truth and good conscience for us, and no longer for bags of money. Believe it or not, a senator I know once told me during President Obasanjo’s tenure, “Harry, when we need money, we just pretend to want to impeach the president, give us a few hundred million, and the case dies.” His pitiful excuse when I scolded him for corruption was that he had to join the others, because he couldn’t beat them!…I’m not lying!