EBF Governor, S.Long Williams Says Buhari’s New Year Message, Empty & Devoid Of Hope, Future Projection

*Urges Nigerians To Be Vigilant & Stay Alive

The Governor of the Eastern Bar Forum, Mr. S. Long Williams has issued a New Year message, which contains a reminisce of the year 2020 and all it’s vicissitudes.

Mr. Long has however noted that it is the collective responsibility of every Nigerian to ensure they are vigilant in 2021, do stay alive and demand an end to bad governance.

He said this in a statement which was made available to TheNigeriaLawyer.

“Gentlemen, 2021 has come. As a compass to how the year 2021 will be, let us take a look backwards and see how the year 2020 was and how we faired as a people and as a unit.

“Apart from thanking Almighty Jehovah for giving us the privilege to be alive in the midst of death, violence, despair, hopelessness and want, what else there was to celebrate in the year 2020?

“Without mincing words or being corky, it was one of the worst year in our history as a country. It was a year of death, destruction, negativity, bad and faulty policies, pain, suffering, want and anguish. Nigerians had never had it so bad. We got it all wrong in every sphere of our existence as a country. Is it the economy where you now need #500 to afford a dollar or #625 to afford a British pound. Is there anything being put in place to reverse this? NO. Instead we are being told by those whose sole responsibility is to manage our affairs and make life better for us that the worst will come as the naira will take a further plunge down the valley.

“The economy is in shambles, prices of basic needs of ordinary Nigerians is beyond reach, foodstuffs is now only for the politically rich, the middle-class has been wiped out. Its either you are a politically rich Nigerian or you are a poor Nigeria. Our future and the future of our children’s children in the next seventy years has been borrowed away by all manner of loans from institutions and from some funny countries.

“We are now ingloriously the poverty capital of the world. As lawyers how have we faired economically in a failed economy and in a failing country? The answer is not farfetched. It is clear and present that some are set out to ruin, impoverish and exterminate us”, he said.

In addition, he noted that the country has been plunged in a state of vices, and nearing a failed state.

“The sociopolitical landscape is nothing to write to mama about. Nepotism, bigotry, incompetence, clueless ness, kleptocracy, religious fanaticism, ethnicity, terrorism ( called banditry by those in government and their collaborators) now pervades the land. The government at the centre have reached it’s nadir. There is nothing more to offer. We have reached the stage of annus horribilis. The country is failing at a supersonic progression.

“As Bishop Hassan Mathew Kukah said recently “Our nation is like a ship stranded on the high seas, rudderless and with broken navigational aids. Today, our years of hypocrisy, duplicity, fabricated integrity, false piety, empty morality, fraud and Pharisaism have caught up with us. Nigeria is on the crossroads and its future hangs precariously in a balance”

The question is where do we go from here? Do we fold our arms and allow our lives fouled up by nincompoops, dead brains, religious and ethnic bigots, by perons who are not fit to be head of their families much more an hamlet? Do we leave our fate to faith, do we endure the trauma of the interregnum between now and another sham election year? Are we going to be alive, if alive sane, healthy and firm to kick the butts of our tormentors and the ruinous managers of our destiny and commonwealth when 2023 comes.”

Besides, he stated that the decision to end bad governance is ours to take just as the youths took to the street to demand the disbandment of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), through the nationwide #EndSARS protests.

“That decision is ours to take and we the people of Nigeria must take it. For all of us Christians, we must remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Matthew 18:18 when he said “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” The youths of Nigeria bind SARS in 2020 and it was bound in heaven and freedom came. What are we prepared to bind this year? The decision is ours to take and if we do nothing, God will do nothing. Enough of bad governance”, he said.

“As I welcome us all to a new year, i have nothing to declare than to say just endeavour to stay alive. we must all be on our guard as the enemy is sowing tares economically, socially and politically while men slept.

“I listened to President Mohammadu Buhari’s New Year day Speech, as usual it was a hallow ritual. He said nothing to give hope as to how the future will be. It is going to be business as usual and even much worse. We must be vigilant as vigilance protects the future”, Mr. S.Long further added.