OPINION: Our Gingerbread President Still Running

By Steve Osuji

We are in a time warp aren’t we? Do you feel like fairies in a fairytale sometimes? For most Nigerians, it must feel like we are living in one large, dark, fantasy island in the middle of nowhere today! Perhaps we are in a  bizarre enclave governed by a Gingerbread President?

You know the Gingerbread man, the fairytale character in ancient children’s books? Springing out of the oven, Gingerbread man, aka, John Dough,  sprints away from its maker and makes away. 

Running heedlessly, it keeps going until it meets its sorry end – ending up in the belly of the fox.

This simple metaphor speaks to indiscipline, insouciance, unwisdom, unruliness and a total absence of empathy. When these shortcomings are heaped up in a leader, the result becomes tragic.

This make-believe story is true of Nigeria’s current situation. President Bola Tinubu seems to be merely running – without running the country. Three years on and things keep turning for the worse. More and more Nigerians are pauperised  and scourged by bandits and terrorists now seemingly running free across the land.

Consider the most current matter in the news concerning insecurity in Nigeria. A few days ago, the US released an update on the US-Nigeria May operation in Borno,  northeast of  Nigeria in which about 119 Jihadists were killed including a leading commander, Abu al-Mainuki.

Let it be known that the current involvement of the US in Nigeria’s war against terror  tagged US -Nigeria, is actually a face-saving misnomer. The US under President Trump sights an opportunity to feed his ego and extend his country’s sphere of influence  while saving Nigeria from a certain annihilation by ISIS Jihadists almost claiming Nigeria for a prize. 

Let’s understand it for what it really is!

The first airstrike was in Sokoto in December 2025 and the second was last May. These are raids emanating straight from the US and hitting targets in Nigeria.

These are top secret military operations only a few living beings are privy to. It is unlikely that any soul in Nigeria gets an inkling of it until the target is hit.

This is more so as Nigeria is a highly intel-compromised environment. Not her high commands or even the presidency can be trusted with  such red-file military information.

Besides, these long-distance operations are products of careful information gathering, sustained high-definition tracking and precision targeting. Only those who have access to the US President War Room are privy to these live-and-death operations.

They don’t come cheap either and Nigeria will have to pick the bills. She must pay dearly with her resources and sovereignty which her poor leaders have surrendered cheaply, more out of ineptitude. Call it the pains of  gingerbread president syndrome.

But the big story following the May US strike in Borno that killed Abu al-Mainuki is that a huge stack of intelligence equipment was found there.

Here’s a sum of the statement from the Americans: an unprecedented volume of electronic intelligence equipment was captured from the ISIS camp in Borno.

It’s the largest quantity of enemy intel equipment captured since the 9/11 attacks. It was three times larger than any such recovery since September 11, 2001. The haul was so large an additional aircraft was required to move the equipment to the US.

The statement reads further that ISIS seeks to establish a caliphate in unmanned territories in Africa (read Nigeria).

Let’s give more context to the above information from the US government:

One,  if we take their word for it (what choice do we have), the terror group was able to amass a mountain of sensitive equipment on Nigeria’s soil without the knowledge of our military and intelligence corps.

 Two, the huge equipment was wholly hauled  to the US and,

Three, Nigeria is a swathe of unmanned territory. It’s common knowledge that apart from the cities, most forests and hinterlands of Nigeria are are not the concern of our leaders. They have developed no capacities to man these areas and they don’t care.

This, of course, is what you get when a state is run by a Gingerbread leader. All he does is run without running the space.

In such an environment nothing is anathema, leadership has no responsibility and it takes none. Citizens, including military generals, are killed routinely and what we hear is bombast and puffing like the gingerbread man whose ethos is empty boasts and worthless exertions.

It’s only a gingerbread president who would watch helplessly as schools, churches and mosques are attacked freely and repeatedly for years. This sad situation has been with us for nearly two decades. But for a President who witnessed the upsurge of terrorism from the start, thereabouts  2009; for one who criticised previous presidents over this matter; one who campaigned to stop insecurity, expectations are high.

Three years on the job and not even a concrete idea has been proffered as to how to end the madness.

No solution was afoot. Nigeria was on the brink caving in. This US intervention actually came as a saving grace.

The 47 pupils and their  teachers held captive in the forest for nearly 60 days is enough for the president to have bitten the bullet or at least make the heads of military leaders roll.

It’s reminiscent of the Chibok Girls kidnapp of 2014, which he berated vehemently.

Today, our Gingerbread President no longer have any sense of indignation. Each assault on the hapless citizen is only met with a sorry blustery and nothing more. No thought, no plans, no action.

In the final analysis, the very low quality leadership Nigeria is currently damned with today compounds problems instead of solving them.

A simple security problem an able commander in chief would easily handle has spiralled into what is becoming a loss of sovereignty and  strategic initiative as a country. The final cost of the US-Nigeria collaboration is better left to the imagination.

 Meanwhile, such a bumbling president is hard at work seeking a second term in office. Like the fellow in our gingerbread fable, ‘running’ seems to be all that matters.

LASTLINE: ASO ROCK: A Forest Of A Thousand Scandals

Never in its 35 years of existence has Aso Rock, the abode of Nigeria’s president, suffered such desecration as seen today.

The stench wafting from the Presidential Villa fills the atmosphere from Cape to Cairo.

From millions of dollars in  bribe-for-access to huge ‘fees’ for FG appointments.

A couple of months ago, a certain Dr Tejuoso regaled the world how some denizens of the Villa extracted billions of naira from her and others to help secure  FG’s appointments.

Today, it’s the story of the chief of staff to the president , Femi Gbajabiamila, at the centre of a fresh malfeasance oozing from the Villa.

How did a nebulous agency, Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC)  ‘germinate’ and take root in the Nigerian bureaucracy in  Abuja? It’s occupying space, employing hundreds of staff, having accounts with CBN, getting allocation in the budget and allegedly paying out N600m in bribes, yet it remains a fake entity?

Why is nobody fired already in this sordid situation. This must explain why numerous shady characters are being appointed into Tinubu’s administration as envoys and heads of boards.

Again, the question is: why are heads not rolling already? Or is this a confirmation that the president is not in charge?