By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

UNCERTAINTIES of unimaginable proportions envelope Nigeria. No matter how we try, we cannot get used to them, they are new every morning.

New burdens that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and company imposed on us since Buhari’s departure on 29 May 2023 have ensured that the Nigerian works unsure if he will be paid. If he is paid, he is uncertain if the money can buy half of what it bought the previous month.

Payment for government services does not guarantee a service, no matter how badly rendered.

Tinubu addresses these concerns with his statistics. He calls us to sacrifice and acts differently. The biggest sacrifice his media team records for him is cancelling a trip to South Africa because of the rising numbers of abducted school children. So much for sacrifices!

When therefore Nigerians doubted if America would still intervene in the insecurity in the country, it was part of the uncertainty.

The news that precision bombs hit parts of Sokoto State on Christmas night was a relief to a country reeling under the scourge of terrorists. People are killed, kidnapped and all government does is to repeat trite messages that woefully fail to provide hope and succour for the afflicted areas.

Some think the Americans did not do enough in Sokoto. They had expected that the terrorists would be vanquished in one attack. Others had considered North East, Boko Haram’s major base as the more urgent area.

The "warning shot" from the Americans was strategic. By their account, the strikes stopped imminent attacks on Nigeria. If some were expecting boots on ground, the Americans supervened that with precision bombs. There could be more strikes, the Americans said.

Chances of “information interception” was nil. No encirclement or ambush was possible. Technology was at work.

The cooperation of the Tinubu administration was critical. After all the emphases on “non-kinetic approaches”, it chose the wiser counsel of shared intelligence with the Americans.

Condemnation are coming from the expected quarters.

Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a retired Captain of the Nigerian Army, a long-standing terrorists and bandits rights promoter, has condemned the strikes, saying only “clean and holy hands” should have attacked the bandits. The US, by his standards, did not qualify.

“The attacks are symbolic of a harbinger neo-Crusade war against Islam. Attack on Sokoto, where 90% are Muslim with no imminent danger of terror, while the real threat is in Maiduguri and on a Christmas Eve, with the claim of protecting against Christian genocide, says a lot. We believe the terror is manufactured and sustained by the same people claiming to fight it,” he said.

It would be great to hear from the surviving terrorists. Gumi knew that even if the attack was “symbolic”, the attack on Sokoto, the state seen as headquarters of Islam, behind which the terrorists hide, could be a warning to the authorities to rein in fundamentalism.

The extra burden of making the New Year with fears of American bombs “hitting new targets” is more bearable than terrorists running free all over the land. It is by far better than “non-kinetic approaches”.

What Tinubu thinks is important is taxation to the extent that there is an allegation that a portion of the gazetted tax law is different from what the National Assembly passed as law. The “fraudulent version” awarded the tax authorities powers that the National Assembly did not approve. Another very important item is winning the 2027 election.

Like books on Buhari, the multiple interpretations of various parts of the tax laws have left Nigerians more confused and anxious. Banks have enhanced the confusion with their messages to their customers. Some of those messages are bereft of clarity.

What happens on Thursday, January, 2026 when the new tax regime starts? It is a public holiday.

Happy New Year to our readers. May your road not be rougher than it is already.

Finally…

FEMI Gbajabiamila knows his job so well that an impressed President would not change his Chief of Staff. In August 2023, a former Executive Director of Operations at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, a former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Hon Victor Ochie, went public with allegations that he gave Gbajabiamila $1m to secure the position of Director-General of the NIMASA. Ochie did not get the job, and further alleged that he was told to manage his loss – that some who gave $2m, $3m had not got any appointments. The matter is still with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, at Ochie’s instance. Those who want Gbaja out would have to wait. The President says he is a great man. That counts. Gbaja is Chief of Staff to the President, not Nigeria or Nigerians.

THE pupils of St. Mary's Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State got safely home before Christmas. Why are the applauds for National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu so muted? He promised; he delivered. It is an achievement since so many of similar cases have not been resolved. Some still wonder the extent of the compromise that resulted in not a single suspect being arrested over this massive organised crime.

WHAT Tinubu praises as the resilence of Nigerians includes Nigerians being stuck for days on the Lokoja Road in Kogi State. The country was calm as if those travellers were attempting a world record for the longest time people were stranded on a road. We should remember that there was no emergency like war, earthquake or flooding on the said road. Nigeria is shrinking daily under the watch of people who are watching only their own interests.

A RASH of books on former President Muhammadu Buhari appears by the day, all in different ways explaining to us who Buhari was and what he was for even against. More books would be required for as long as they keep proposing that the Buhari that drenched Nigeria in darkness is different from the Buhari of their books. Isn’t it easier to say that Buhari’s narrow-mindedness was of a kind that only Buhari understood?

PROPHETS are abroad. Our ears are filled with a peep into 2026 by many prophets in their predictions. Predictably, they are heavy on politics. Of course, the services are for the attention of those who can pay.

DID we you hear Tinubu loud and clear on the 2026 budget? And you are cheering and explaining the opportunities for growth from his fiscal policies. There are no more rooms for pretence hence he calls it “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity”. Have you asked Tinubu what he is consolidating? The same budget performances that are only remembered for more borrowing, uncompleted projects and policies that throw more Nigerians into grave poverty? Of course, we need “renewed resilience” to survive Tinubu who is dropping hints that the resilience that saw us through eight years of Buhari and two years of Tinubu would be inadequate in 2026. Shared prosperity? Tinubu has been great at sharing poverty among Nigerians that he can easily mistake poverty of Nigerians for prosperity in 2026. Tinubu has spoken clearly, hopefully, Nigerians would understand that the line for more hardship has been drawn.

•ISIGUZ0 is a major commentator on minor issues.

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