By Professor Mondy Gold, CFP, FEBS, FCILG
The recent conferral of National Honors on selected individuals while deliberately excluding Chief Harold Jenewari Dappa-Biriye and the iconic Major Isaac Adaka Boro constitutes a brazen act of historical distortion and cultural erasure. This affront not only dishonors the legacy of the Ijaw struggle for justice and equity but further underscores the urgency of self-determination. Viewed through the prism of justice denied, this calculated omission reveals a deeply flawed and myopic governance philosophy steeped in superficial symbolism and devoid of genuine recognition for authentic nation-builders.
Senator Seriake Dickson’s courageous denunciation of such hollow gestures and performative politics articulates the collective sentiment of true democrats. His intervention exposes the hypocrisy, sycophancy, and cult-like leadership that have come to define the Tinubu administration and the complicit National Assembly. These acts of cowardly complicity must be confronted head-on for the sake of Nigeria’s democratic survival and the restoration of equity and justice in the administration of state affairs.
In a lamentable saga of disdain and calculated neglect, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stands accused of grievous offenses against the Ijaw Nation. This is a grievance that reverberates through the corridors of justice and echoes defiantly across the creeks and waters of the Ijaw Nation. It is with deep consternation that we reflect on what could have been achieved if Tinubu had prioritized the completion of the East-West Road, the vital artery of regional connectivity, or fulfilled the long-overdue promise of completing the Oloibiri National Oil Museum, a landmark that should immortalize Nigeria’s petroleum legacy.
While vast swathes of the nation remain submerged in floodwaters and the populace sinks deeper into collective despair, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu choreographs a grotesque theatre of extravagance, presiding over a government that dines sumptuously while its citizens languish in hunger and squalor. As displaced families navigate torrents of muddy devastation in desperate search of shelter, the presidency nonchalantly earmarks over thirty-nine billion naira to refurbish the already functional Abuja International Conference Centre, embellishing edifices while the nation’s socioeconomic infrastructure collapses. Simultaneously, two hundred and twenty-five billion naira was squandered on a presidential aircraft, an emblem of aloofness, soaring high above the cries of the destitute, as though physical altitude confers moral elevation. Ninety billion naira was funneled into the 2024 Hajj pilgrimage, and seventy billion has been lavishly expended on luxury SUVs for a National Assembly widely perceived as morally bankrupt and legislatively impotent.
These figures are not mere statistical abstractions, they are cynical wounds etched into the very sinews of the impoverished. They resound as the brazen chants of a regime unrepentantly disconnected from the agonies of its citizens, a regime whose hauteur is as offensive as its negligence is unforgivable. This is not the stewardship of a republic; it is an opulent charade of self-glorification performed before a grieving and betrayed nation. The time has come for Nigerians to interrogate this grand betrayal with lucid indignation and relentless resolve: for how much longer shall the famished multitude be compelled to underwrite the vulgar indulgences of a parasitic elite?
President Tinubu’s administration has come to embody a troubling culture of misgovernance and fiscal indifference that strikes at the very soul of a nation in distress. What we are witnessing is not merely political negligence; it is a moral collapse of historic proportions. At a time when Nigerians cry out for sustenance, he indulges in extravagance. When the nation pleads for justice, he responds with hollow pageantry and deliberate silence. The Ijaw Nation, a people of profound heritage, resources, and resilience, has been purposefully excluded from meaningful development. This is not a case of oversight; it is a conscious erasure. It is a blatant betrayal that continues to strip future generations of their birthright and dignity. Nigeria’s wealth is being squandered while its people suffer, and the silence from the top only deepens the wound.
Nigeria now stands at a perilous crossroads. The nation must choose between continued subjugation under a regime that has weaponized neglect and squandered national potential, or a radical reawakening toward inclusive governance and self-governance where every region, especially the Ijaw Nation, is given its rightful place in the federation. The path forward demands a break from symbolic politics and a steadfast embrace of transformative leadership that honors forgotten heroes and places the welfare of every Nigerian above partisan and ethnic considerations.
This is no longer a matter of political disagreement, it is a national emergency. The time for quiet tolerance has expired. The time for truth and unyielding resistance is now.
Professor Mondy Gold, CFP, FEBS, FCILG (Esteemed inductee of the prestigious Nigerian Hall of Fame, honored recipient of the United States President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Leadership and Governance, a globally respected authority whose influence spans academia, diplomacy, and leadership)
