"1 Meal A Day for children in public primary schools. That is real Change".
The above statement is one of the many promises that Mr. Muhammadu Buhari has made in his bid to be our President, the fourth time around.
I had not noticed the bill-board carrying that promise till a few minutes ago in the Gbagada area of Lagos. I was actually on the watch for it this time because a friend called me last night to draw my attention to it. This is what he said about it:
"It is either that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress have not done their home-work or they are sure most Nigerians do not critically analyse electoral promises. At a meager N100 (One hundred Naira only) per meal for each child and at the current School Enrolment Level nationwide, an APC-led Federal Government would require at least N700,000,000,000 (Seven hundred billion Naira only) per annum to fund the One Meal A Day Promise. And we know that no Nigerian government would award a contract of N100 per meal".
Anyone who is familiar with public finances in Nigeria can immediately see that the One Meal Per Day Promise is not worth the billboards that carry it! With a Federal Budget that now averages N5Trillion per annum, it is clearly impossible to commit about 14% of the total budget just to feed primary school pupils once a day. And no child can be fed at N100 per meal even if it is Soaked Gari and Sugar that the APC plans to give the children!
The APC knows it will not keep this promise. It is just about sloganeering. It's pretty much like its promise that it would "not tolerate corruption" when public funds are being used blatantly to finance Mr. Buhari's electoral campaigns.
So why does the APC make such irrational promises? Simple: DECEPTION. The party's strategy to take power is to deceive the people. The David Axlerod strategists have told the APC that all it need do to win over most Nigerians (and especially the young, educated, patriotic, middle-class types) is to speak about "change". After all, who does not want some change? Who does not aspire for something better? Life is about aiming higher, achieving more faster, better and more efficiently. Every product or service provider knows the power of offering more, faster and better. You can't fail with your customers with such hype.
And the APC has adopted that strategy. But it is not offering anything better. It is merely about packaging or, more accurately, REPACKAGING. So Mr. Muhammadu Buhari has been repackaged into a suave, sharp-dressing, urbane, metrosexual, alpha-male....much like something air-brushed and which you would ordinarily see in a magazine like Gentleman's Quarterly, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health or Ebony. His history is revised. His past is forgotten. His hideous sins are forgiven. The APC would have Nigerians believe that old things have passed away and all things about Mr. Buhari have become new. He is now "born-again"! A New, Improved Buhari. LOL!
So they ensure Mr. Buhari does not speak much. They know if he opens his mouth too much and too long as he used to do, the packaging will fall apart. He will speak from the abundance of his heart and it will be evident that he has not changed and so cannot offer change. This is why he speaks for no longer than two (2) minutes even at campaign rallies in the north where he can speak in his native tongue (Hausa) and not make the Queen squirm at his spoken English. And this is why he cannot be part of any Presidential Debate. He would have to speak for more than two (2) minutes and the facade of repackaging would fall apart for the entire world to see the Real Buhari.
Deception is a powerful thing. Lucifer uses it to great effect. He is the Father of Lies and he knows how to deploy lies effectively. It worked with even God's Angels. A third of them followed his rebellion against God! It worked with Eve. It worked with Cain. It even worked with Abraham, God's Friend and the Father of Faith. Abraham almost lost his beautiful wife, Sarah, to Pharaoh and King Abimelech because he was deceived into thinking he needed to lie about their relationship so as not to lose her. The age-long contention between the Jews and the Arabs is also a consequence of Abraham succumbing to the sincere but deceitful counsel of his wife when tarrying for God's Promised Child didn't seem to make any more sense to her.
There is a panacea for deception. There is an irrefutable answer for lies. TRUTH.
Nigerians must insist on truth from the APC. And from the PDP too. We must no longer countenance deceit in our politics. Do not make promises you have no plans to keep. Of course, because men are imperfect and only know in part at any given time, men can be sincere and make promises which they may eventually become unable to fulfil due to extraneous factors outside their control. With the best of intentions, men still fail. That is understandable. Only God is infallible. Only God's Promises are Yea and Amen. God cannot lie. He is not a man.
But we are talking about political promises which are bare-faced lies ab initio. Promises conceived from wicked hearts which were never meant to be kept. We must shine the Light of Truth on such lies and such liars.
Nigerians, Beware of Lies!
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