By now, the euphoric celebration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory at the poll two weeks ago should be over. And so, the time for the President to gird his loins, roll up his sleeves and really put his hands to the plough has come. Unlike he did some four years back when he pegged his redemptive mission on how well his team could manage the collateral damage inflicted on the socio-economic life of the nation by a fleecing gang from the Peoples Democratic Party, Buhari no longer enjoys such luxuries. History, I must say, would deliver a harsh verdict on him should he bungle this fresh opportunity that Providence has placed on his laps to make meaningful and memorable impacts in the lives of all Nigerians. After four years of assessing the damage (real and imagined), it should be taken as given that this government must be adequately equipped to steer the ship of state off the cliff of self-destruct without whining on and on again about missed opportunities and deferred hope. If there was ever going to be a moment to exhale for Nigerians; that time is now. This government cannot afford to clasp its hands in surrender and watch things degenerate beyond the way it is presently. And, most importantly, Buhari ought to know that the buck stops at his table and he cannot throw his nose in the sky, rebuffing genuine advice and informed criticisms from well-meaning and not so well-meaning Nigerians.
To be clear, no one is saying that Mr. Buhari should not continue with his fight against corruption. But, in doing that, the vicious circle of media and selective trials must stop. The shadow boxing must end. Nigerians are tired of the hilarity. They want to see some real fight. Institutions must be strengthened such that corruptive practices can be nipped in the bud before they grow into monumental monstrosities. For, if the truth must be told, institutional corruption is at the root of the Nigerian narrative of movement without motion. Before our eyes, it became a lucrative venture for everyone who has the privilege of being in charge of government property because culprits hardly get punished in the real sense of the word. With all the song and dance this administration made of the fight, it is yet to be seen if any ‘big fish’ would end up in the prison after conviction at the court. Here, we are not talking about those fast-fingered Internet criminals that the anti-graft agencies parade daily. What amazes most Nigerians is the rate at which people who allegedly raped the national treasury of billions of dollars and ripped its belly open ended up walking away with slaps on the wrists as the ‘full wrath’ of our laws. Unfortunately, the charade still persists in this government such that Nigerians believe that the fight is all noise and hollow fury signifying sheer vacuity. Nothing, they said, has changed as key government officials continue to romance with the so-called treasury looters in the name of political expediency while the President pretends to be unaware of the rot going on around him. Pity.
The other day, Buhari promised an all-inclusive government and people wondered if he actually knew what that meant. And, in a prognosis that defies logic, he equally said the next four years would be tough. Now, that beggars belief. Sir, you are not a slave driver but the President of a country. Sometimes, I wonder if this man weighs words before unleashing them. If anything, the last four years had been anything but pleasant. Most citizens roughed through the hardships with the hope that another four years of Buhari would either set Nigeria on the path of economic glory or an unexpected gloom. In fact, the opposition PDP latched on the missteps to forecast an inglorious end to Buhari’s reign, bandying figures of job losses and socio-economic traumas of disenchanted Nigerians. It was nothing short of a mystery that, amid the misery, Buhari was picked at the poll ahead of his sweet-talking arch rival, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP. Having done that, I doubt if any of those that stayed true to the Buhari course is prepared for another season of belt tightening. Ha! When they are not on a suicide mission! Most homes have been stretched to the limits and what they need in the next four years is a breather—something that would compensate them for the sacrifices of the past years. Nothing more.
For Buhari to succeed, he needs to listen to the pulse of the people and work towards realising their dreams and aspirations. He must understand that he is not an emperor but an elected leader who is simply a first among equals. Unlike his days as a military ruler that was foisted into power through the barrel of the gun in a coup, he is answerable to the people and that includes those who voted against him regardless of which geo-political zone they come from. He doesn’t have to like them or their faces but he must accord them all that is due to them at every point in time. In acting presidential, he should eschew bitterness and embrace the entire country as one. The first weight that he would have to shed off his thinking faculty, to my mind, would be the petty proclamation he once made about first attending to the needs of the 95 per cent that voted for him in some geo-political zones while ignoring the rights and privileges due to the 5 per cent that voted otherwise. The Constitution doesn’t empower him to be selective in the distribution of favours. That is not how democracy works. It should not be subjected to such infantile politics of hatred and pure bigotry. I just hope the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria understands this simple fact.
In his speech at a ceremony organised to celebrate his 82nd birthday in Abeokuta on Tuesday, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said something that should be instructive to Buhari’s desires to succeed. Despite his rabid attacks against the policies, actions and some actions of Buhari, the former military head of state made it clear that he has nothing personal against the President who was a junior officer to him in the Nigerian Army. Yes, he did gloat about the fact he remains the longest serving Nigerian leader dead or alive having spent close to 12 years in office both as military dictator and elected president, Obasanjo said his desire was to engender a focused and committed leadership that would berth a democratic practice of good governance, development and sustainable economic policies. He said the onus is on the Buhari government to show how well it is doing in those areas instead of calling him names for daring to expose ‘the other side’ of the government’s policies which is permissible in a democracy.
If I were Buhari, I would take time to have a deep introspection into what Obasanjo said. Good enough, he has not spoken against the choice of Nigerians to return Buhari back to power despite his obvious shortcomings. This is not the time to unleash his rabid dogs after him or dismiss his submissions as borne out of pure jealousy. There is a lot of wisdom in separating the wheat from the chaff and the message from the messenger. Buhari, I dare say, stands to gain a lot if he takes another look at Obasanjo’s letter which was released to the public sometimes in January last year. That ‘so long a letter’ contains some bitter truth about the incredulous lethargy that the Buhari leadership style inflicted on the psyche of the nation and which helped to wake a sleeping, if not almost dead, opposition party.
Those in the corridors of power may not like it. But the contents of that letter set rolling the political tremors that Nigerians were to witness later. With the stroke of the pen, the old wily fox unveiled some discomfiting truth about the government.
Now, what exactly did he say and how important would those lapses, if left unattended to, affect the Buhari legacy post 2023? Obasanjo, in his usual hit on the nail writing style, expressed deep concerns about the Buhari administration’s loud silence and manifest incompetence in dealing with the killings in the North Central region by blood thirsty herdsmen. He said, aside Buhari’s poor understanding of the economy and vacillating attitude to governance, the President’s clannish disposition and nepotistic proclivities are alien to the principles of democracy. He didn’t make vague allegations but substantiated them with facts and figures which are difficult to dismiss with a wave of the hand. He also noted that Nigerians, who voted massively for Buhari in 2015, were no longer economically-secured as they were under the previous government while the fight against corruption was compromised by the fact that the basest form of corruption and financial crime were being perpetrated with ‘allegations of round tripping against some inner caucus of the Presidency.” These are weighty allegations which the administration is yet to address one year after.
Yes, Buhari is back to power and that, to my mind, indicates that a large number of the electorates do have the belief that he has the capacity to do things differently and move the nation forward. He surely cannot achieve this if he throws out the baby with the bath water. If you ask me, the Obasanjo letter should be an ever present item on Mr. Buhari’s office tray for those pages bleed with crying facts that could have turned the table against him in the elections. Though the elections are over, Nigerians are still bleeding from the pains of the past and the utter negligence displayed by those whose responsibility it is to keep them safe and secured. The revelry on display at the seat of power when the killings were going on at that time still hurts. Having been given the opportunity to change the narrative, it would be a double jeopardy for the Buhari Presidency to round up in its last years as a monumental mistake in the annals of the Nigerian history just because of a president’s fixations to some anti-democratic norms. Is that what Buhari wants? And by the way, can we have an inspiring list of new Ministers and other appointees by May 29, this time?