USA Africa Dialogue Series - Now that the Army has turned Jonathan into Shonekan...

Today I remember Ernest Shonekan. Google him. I remember yesterday. Yesterday, by wading into the elections mess, the Nigerian military effectively turned President Goodluck Jonathan into a Shonekan, an effete president, serving at the mercy of the owners of guns.

The military has engineered the best of all coups. They can get away with their continued loot - without the appearance of the dreaded uniform. Where Buhari is the wretched cardboard cut-out from behind which thieves and seedy intellectuals hide and lie in wait for their turn at the trough, Jonathan is now the wretched, drunken cardboard cut-out from which termite generals and civilian boll weevils continue the rape and pillage of our country. Buhari will not be president of Nigeria. The generals have spoken. The situation is sad. We have lost a budding democracy and it is our fault.

Something curious happened yesterday that surprised me. The soldiers did not need to roll into the streets (they did). Where there was wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media, on the ground, it was suffering and smiling as usual, the long-suffering masses were indifferent. They heard the news, shrugged and clambered into the daily wreckage that members of the political and intellectual elite have made of their lives.

We have been here before. 1993. Just like the army of youths on social media today, starry-eyed, and dreaming of meaningful change, many of us put our faith in the likes of Tinubu et al (NADECO) for deliverance. You all see how that turned out. The soldiers are returning in installments and when they come back the only placard I will carry is the one that says "To hell with democracy!" The past 16 years have been hell for the vast majority of our people; we need a conversation about what is sustainable in terms of governance. Nigeria is what happens when you install democracy without accountability. I am deeply distraught by all of this and I hope the hottest part of hell is reserved for the criminals of APC and PDP that screwed us like this. I have said my own. Good morning.

- Ikhide

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