Icheoku says when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, during his presidential election campaign, promised Nigerians a breath of fresh air, no Nigerian understood the president to mean his own version of fresh air which to a functioning olfactory is nothing short of a stinking breath of stale air? Nigerians thought that President Jonathan's installed chairman of the PDP Bamanga Tukur at 78 years old, was his last old peoples' team joker and certainly enough of these old breeds resurrected; but the president thought differently? The president has slapped Nigerians on the face yet again with another one of his idea of "breath of fresh air" with his appointment of 79 year former Transport Minister in the second republic government of President Shehu Shagari, Umaru Dikko. President Jonathan appointed Umaru Dikko to a plum job of Provost Marshall of the PDP with primary assignment being to whip those errant seven PDP governors and their acolytes to order.
Remember him - the man who in response to hunger in the land under his NPN government, told the world that no Nigerian was picking food from the garbage dump so all is honky dory with affairs in Nigeria? If that is not enough to jug your memory, which must have faded after such a long time and for those alive then who are still alive, it was the same Umaru Dikko that was found invalid in a cargo crate at Gatwick London airport in a botched attempt to smuggle him back to Nigeria to face charges of gross abuse of office. With Umaru Dikko's latest appointment, Nigerians have once again been saddled with yet another dinosaur with twentieth century ideas and way of doing things and in this twenty-first century; and you wonder if President Jonathan deliberately want to fail Nigerians in the delivery of his promised breath of fresh air or he is just playing a cruel joke with them? Icheoku says why Umaru Dikko and where is his energy and gravitas?
Icheoku says with Umaru Dikko's appointment, as the man to deal with those rascal seven governors and their followers as the new chief disciplinarian of the PDP, another job opportunity has been denied a much younger and more energetic Nigerian and the unemployment quagmire continues to exacerbate. Icheoku asks what use is actually a man that age, who in more civilized societies should be restfully awaiting his maker in an old peoples home, in being resuscitated and tasked with turning things around in a wobbly party? How much longer does an 79 year Umaru Dikko has to live to seriously have the interest and presence of mind to do the heavy lifting required to put back the humpty-dumpty that is falling apart? Why would an 79 year old Umaru Dikko put whatever is left of his brain and brawn to right things in the PDP and the greater estate Nigeria from which he will soon leave anyway? Surprising? No, it is Nigeria and it is a place where things are stood on their heads - a land where the old brigade has obstinately refused to yield the territory for the youthful with workable twenty first ideas and ways and means of doing things, needed to shake things up and in order to earnestly begin the rebuilding process.
A lone voice in the wilderness, Icheoku can but hope that President Jonathan remembers his campaign promise to Nigerians, and realizes on time that there is nothing fresh about the air of Umaru Dikko and his ilks. Icheoku says the president has to change this his peculiar understanding of "breath of fresh air" or Nigerians will be forced to remind him in 2015 that he is a man long on promises but short on their delivery. Whatever may be the rationale for this latest appointment, Icheoku says this very Umaru Dikko, at 79 and his past records considered, is certainly not anything fresh, whether breath or otherwise and as a spent force, has nothing new to offer or add to the administration or the PDP. Sometimes Icheoku wonders who the president has as a counselor and who advises and recommends these octogenarians for his government; except of course the other co ancient-travelers like Tony Anenih at 80 years and Bamanga Tukur 78 years simply needed a companion, since the young party members are not versed in the things of the old and how things are done old fashioned and goaded the president? What an appointment!
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