Having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oath and serve as president to all Nigerians. I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.
-Buhari, May 29, 2015
The magic word was change and it worked like magic. The electorate keyed into the word and voted for the party of change – the All Progressives Congress (APC) – in the last elections. APC not only swept the polls, it also swept out the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ending the so-called largest party in Africa’s fantasy to be in power for 60 years. It took a change in government to open our eyes to PDP’s disastrous 16 years outing spanning 1999 to 2015. It took that change for us to know that PDP took us for a ride all those years.
With that change, APC’s battle cry during the polls, comes the hope of a better tomorrow for our country. With that change we have hope that things will work and that outsiders will not continue to look down on us. The APC has a lot to do to change Nigeria for it to reclaim its place in the comity of nations. Transforming the country is not going to be easy, but President Muhammadu Buhari must start from somewhere. We are an extremely impatient people; we want quick fixes to problems. This is why many of us have come to see the president as being ‘’too slow’’.
We want him to do whatever he wishes to do fast because the time is short – he has only four years in the first instance – to deliver on his promises to change Nigeria. By Sunday, he would have spent the first of his four years, leaving him with three more to go. What has Buhari done in the last 365 days? Has he delivered on his change deal? Has anything really changed? The president’s loyalists will quickly point out that things have changed. They will tell you that things are no longer the way they were in the last dispensation. What they are saying in effect is ‘’it is no longer business as usual’’.
But his critics will say ‘’it is all motion and no movement’’. They will insist that ‘’nothing has changed’’ because the lives of the people cannot be said to be better than before. They will also point at the economy, noting that rather than improve, it is still haemorrhaging. They will refer to the high exchange rate, the fuel price hike, the erratic power supply and unemployment. All these were inherited problems, no doubt, but the critics do not want to hear that. To them, the issue is ‘’what has changed?’’ and they are quick to always add the clincher ‘’is this the change we voted for?’’
This may not be the change we voted for yet, but it is better than where we are coming from. Things are hard today because they have to be so before they get better. In the last dispensation when there was money, what did the administration do for the country? Nothing. The leadership allowed the country to go to seed, while lining the pockets of a few. The government was more concerned about itself than the people. The welfare of ministers and their aides mattered most. That was why a minister could be gallivanting around the world in a charter flight under the guise of working for the country. What did all those flights yield? Nothing, but pains and debt for the country.
We went through hell in the past in the hands of successive PDP administrations. If the people are today impatient with the Buhari administration, the government should try and understand how they feel. Once bitten, they say, twice shy. Former President Goodluck Jonathan pretended to be a good man and we gave him all the chance in the world, but what did we get in return? The Buhari administration must bear with the people. It should listen to their cry for the good things of life early in the life of the administration. The president is no stranger to how tough things are. He once wore the shoes like us and his being in power today should not distance him from the people.
Things have become tougher under him because he has to correct the ills of the past in order to take off well. This is for those who understand; many do not. These people do not understand why fuel price had to go up from N86.50 to N145 per litre after several months of scarcity of the product, which during that period they even bought for as high as N250 and above per litre. They also cannot understand why power is still unstable despite the president’s promise to tackle the problem frontally. They want to take the president for his word, but the reality is otherwise. They keep asking themselves how long they have to bear these pains before the paean. Their songs of triumph will surely come, the president assured the nation a few months ago.
He said then that he was aware that people were complaining that he ‘’is too slow’’. He told his party members to tell us that he still has three years left to deliver on his election promises. We need not remind him of those promises. He knows that there is suffering in the land, with many workers going for months without salaries. As a caring father, he came to the aid of many states to pay salaries, but that gesture seemed not enough. Many states are still owing their workers. What about fuel, power and security? The president knows that these are issues he must address to remain in the hearts of the people after winning their votes in the last elections.
At his inauguration last May 29 while reviewing the state of the nation, he said : ‘’At home, we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problem’’. That was not all he said. On security, he said ‘’we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all innocent persons held hostage by insurgents’’.
Two of the girls have been found, raising hopes that others may also be found soon. It will enhance the Buhari administration’s image if all the girls are found. But, a better way to launder the administration’s image will be to ensure constant fuel and stable power supply. With that, Buhari would write his name in gold. He has only three years left to do that.
