President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent visit to the United States of America on the invitation of President Donald Trump has exposed the putrid underbelly of Nigeria’s political discourse. First, quite a number of people were disappointed at the measured comportment and his rather ‘timid’ style in addressing issues raised during the meeting. Those who have sharpened their pencils and filed their biros to take him to the cleaners for ‘de-marketing’ the country at the international stage remain painfully shocked that he didn’t give them that opportunity to begin another fiery fight on the cyberspace between a growing band of wailers and a diminishing list of hailers. At the height of that frustration, those who have chosen to tar Buhari as being irredeemably sold to particular agenda would go on to conjure lies and publish such as true reflections of his engagements with the Trump administration. Every statement he makes; his meetings with the ‘geriatric’ Nigerian ambassador to the United States and some select groups in the diaspora, the pro-Buhari rally and all other things were subjected to mundane if not irritating political jibes, demeaning twist and offensive taunts.
To these set of people above, nothing good could ever come from Buhari. To them, the President is a plague, an anathema to anything noble. Trust former President Olusegun Obasanjo to be at the centre of this kind of discourse. And that is where we all mix the point as wailers and hailers if I may borrow these two abused words in our fast-developing political lexicon. No matter the hard feelings and bitter bile that anyone may want to spew against a leader that continues to wobble through the rare opportunities offered him to make the difference, we must interrogate the President’s visit to the USA within its proper context. It is not something that should be subjected to our warped and jaundiced cleavages. It shouldn’t be the time to throw the usual roforofo political tantrums that continue to tie us to the apron strings of retrogressive development. And so, it runs against the grain of logic, fair play and equity to assume that Buhari’s American trip was a waste of tax payers’ money without any positives. This kind of narrative just doesn’t fly in the face of the good things Trump, a man who was known for saying it the way it is, says about our country and Buhari’s efforts at changing the tale. Oh c’mon, that should count for something.
Yes, Buhari was told the bare knuckle truth about his numbing inability to show leadership amid the spate of mindless killings going on across the country. Specifically, Trump was concerned about the killings of Christians in churches against the backdrop of what happened in Benue State some days before Buhari flew to Washington DC. Trump admonition may be a bit distasteful to his Nigerian guests but I doubt if they were shocked considering his antecedents. For me, he was merely reminding Buhari to be pro-active in addressing the insecurity problems instead of offering hollow excuses to explain off a seeming impotence. When your citizens are being butchered daily by those you have identified as remnants of the Libyan horrific crisis, you don’t wring your hands in submission to the savagery. You don’t maintain loud silence that confounds the populace. And you don’t play the victim Mr. President Sir. What you do is to confront the enemy with the boldness, anger, fire and brutal force like a leader elected to secure lives of citizens as enshrined in the constitution. That is the simple reminder that Trump drummed into the President’s ears, tasking him to “protect innocent civilians of all faiths, including Muslims and including Christians.” It’s an advice he needs to take seriously if he is, indeed, a President for all!
But then, that was just one leg of the story. There are other aspects which should gratify us as a nation no matter which side of the political divide we belong. If we all heard Trump loudly chastising Buhari for a seeming leadership failure in tackling insecurity in the land, we should also hear him loud and clear when he commended our President for standing firm in the arduous task he set for himself—fight against corruption and his commitments to seeing that stolen funds are repatriated back to the country. It is the least we can do in spite of our convoluted and warped perceptions about a do-nothing Presidency. We shouldn’t get it twisted. For me, it is ennobling that, in spite of everything, one Nigerian leader gets the plaudit for braving the odds in the fight against corrosive corruption in this country.
Listen to Trump: “Nigeria has a reputation for very massive corruption. I also know that the President (Buhari) has been able to cut that down very substantially. We talked about that, he is working on it and they have made a lot of progress and I think they will continue to make a lot of progress. We have a lot of people in this country that invest in Nigeria, so cutting down on that corruption element is very important to us and Buhari will be able to do that.”
I’m sure we all know that Trump’s endorsement of Buhari’s efforts did not come from the two leaders’ momentary interactions at the White House. He must have been duly briefed by the relevant officials before making the pronouncement. And so, it was Buhari’s moment to exhale. How many of our leaders in the recent past enjoyed that singular honour of being officially recognised as an anti-corruption czar? If we wail at him for his doddering docility in handling some germane national issues, why can’t we hail him where he has excelled as a leader?
- Continued online www.staging.thenationonlineng.net
