Fellow Nigerians, let me say categorically and emphatically that our
dear beloved country is dangerously haemorrhaging again and this
perfidious drift must be halted urgently before we all end up in
perdition. Anyone telling President Muhammadu Buhari that all is well or
that his government is moving in the right direction is either lying or
pretending like a rattlesnake. And there are many scorpions around
ready to mislead every government and move on effortlessly when things
fall apart. For sure President Buhari possesses the ability to move this
country in the right direction and lead us to where we want to be but
right now it is not happening and the soul of the people palpitates!
I’ve been on several television and radio interviews in the past one
week and the commonest question is on the performance of our President.
The general perception is that the change mantra seems not to be working
and the world is worried because of the importance of Nigeria in the
comity of nations.
I hope our President will get to see this
piece, read it and ruminate on the points I will raise. The Buhari
government has lost a substantial equity in just one year as I will try
to explain in the next few paragraphs. It must be noted that Nigerians
were happy with the election that ushered in President Buhari. Even
those who did not vote for him accepted him with unusual equanimity.
Those we expected to fight and throw tantrums simply vamoosed into their
bunkers. The expectations were high then but I doubt if enough effort
was put into seizing the momentum and translating it into a mass
movement that would have stood the test of time. It is not too late to
reclaim the moment.
The faith Nigerians had in the abilities and
incorruptibility of Buhari is mighty enough to move mountains. But
unfortunately, I think the government took many things for granted once
it took over the reins of power. The government mistakenly believed that
the support of the people was like several blank cheques which it could
cash at any point in time. The general impatience of Nigerians and
their desire for progressive action were never put into consideration. I
remember writing two memos to our President in quick successions, when I
realised that Nigerians were getting restless and restive, one of which
was the desperate memo that earned me an invitation to the Presidential
Villa for which I am so honoured and proud.
Still the government
did not respond appropriately to the yearnings of the populace. The
major problem is that the priorities of Buhari were never palpable to
the general public as everything seemed to operate in utmost secrecy.
This is probably a relic of the military days when surprise and
spontaneity achieved more. However, democracy is an open book and it has
become even more so since the internet turned the world into a global
information minefield. I’m sure it was assumed that the people would
never doubt or query the sincerity of a messiah. So there was no need to
provide any real information about the activities of government. That
was the first fallacy.
The second fallacy is that people would
give the President plenty of time to unfold his change agenda. One year
on, it is obvious that this has not been the case. President Buhari
should have moved faster once the people started grumbling about the
apparent sluggishness of his administration. The selection of his
cabinet was annoyingly slow and by the time it eventually came it had
evaporated into a deja vu. There was no element of surprise to elicit
major excitement. In fact, most people wondered why it took so long to
assemble his present team most of whom he could have picked in two weeks
or even before he was sworn in. The demystification of Buhari became
manifest from that moment not because the team he picked is not worthy
or creditable but because the interminable delay in making the choices
cost the nation dearly.
The next problem was that the
President should have moved to unite and unify the country immediately.
It was clear that the previous administrations had riven great division
into the Nigerian polity. A new beginning seeking to heal the ulcerous,
cancerous wounds of religious and ethnic disunity and disaffection was
required. However, starting with a war of attrition, it was obvious our
President would soon have his hands full. Not that some of the wars were
unnecessary but the timing and methodology should have been
meticulously weighed and analysed before launching into the requisite
offensive. There was a lot to learn from our nascent democracy. It would
have been easier to embark on some of these wars as a military ruler
that the President formerly was but not as a civilian leader which the
President now is. That realisation appears to have been missed by some
of our President Buhari’s advisers.
For example, while the war
against corruption was desperately urgent, it ought to have been known
that it was intricately and delicately tied to the economy. The need to
recover the looted funds as quickly as possible and use them to
reinvigorate the economy needed to be balanced by the need to do so
expeditiously and tactfully so that the main objective would be
fulfilled. My humble opinion and advice would have been to use the
carrot and stick method rather than the kill and go style that has now
exposed our economy to grave danger and imminent collapse. The angry mob
of Nigerians goading on our President has blatantly refused to
assimilate the magnitude of the resultant repercussions. But it should
be noted that those who feel frustrated about a rotten system can never
be bothered if the entire structure collapses. It is such acute
disillusionment that gave rise to the ascendancy of a Donald Trump in
America. It is the duty and responsibility of leadership to wear its
thinking cap well and rise above the giddiness of the baying crowd who
have nothing to lose and only wish to see the spectacle of blood flowing
without any degree of humanity or compassion for the impoverished
masses that they claim to represent. The same people who hailed Buhari
yesterday are the ones denigrating him today.
Once it was
impossible to generalise the war against corruption to engulf all
politicians tainted with corruption no matter their affiliation the
government should have requested for a blanket return of government
booty via negotiation with all public office holders. Those who failed
to take up this generous offer of recovery could then be visited with
the might and power of retributive justice. An example of when this
great opportunity was missed was when government unreasonably told
Nigerians they could no longer pay foreign currencies in cash into their
accounts. Perhaps government in its naivety did not remember that
politicians had prosecuted the last election through the almighty dollar
because it reduced the bulkiness of gratifications. Government should
have patiently waited for the dollars to come in, whether in cash or
not, before pouncing on the owners. Once that opportunity was missed,
the next was to discreetly stretch its tentacles across the world in
search of thieves and money launderers. Assets at home and abroad should
have been quietly traced for possible confiscation. This could have
been done without all the present grandstanding and hullabaloo. When you
hear the elephant stomping the ground behind you in a one directional
manner, you know it is time to run and hide. In this period when we are
celebrating the life and times of Mohammed Ali perhaps it is poignant to
say that you do not telegraph your punches rather you “rope a dope”!
Also,
the moment our President chose a military style of operation he should
have known that corruption would fight back with ferocity and velocity.
For example, once it seemed the former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan
had been marked for humiliation even demolition, I knew our President
was playing with the tiger’s tail and I sounded my note of warning.
Before we could say Jack Robinson, the Niger Delta avengers returned
with a vengeance and brought us back to our knees. Today our oil
production has plunged to an all-time low even when we had been
grappling with the nightmare of low crude oil prices. The Niger Delta
Avengers army seems ready to make Boko Haram look like child’s play as
they strangulate the economy, degrade the environment and decimate the
local population that they claim to be fighting for. Is this what we
need to add to our plethora of problems at this time? The answer is a
big NO.
The militarisation of Nigeria has become very
suffocating. Shiites are being killed in droves in the North West. Mass
graves have been identified and uncovered. The Biafra agitators are
being massacred in broad-day light and its leaders detained
indefinitely. Boko Haram remains a monumental menace to society despite
the extra-ordinary efforts of our military and Intelligence agencies.
The Fulani and or Libyan herdsmen have added to the conundrum out of the
blues. Different militant groups are now armed to the teeth. Trust me
these guys don’t look like they are joking. Nobody fights on as many
fronts as this government now seems to be fighting without risking it
all.
Many have argued that Nigeria should be restructured. It is
believed that its present configuration is too artificial. Most of the
States are no longer viable while some fringe or full-blown eccentrics
are asking for more. It is interesting that in the build up to
independence our leaders from the North, Southwest and East were saying
the same thing in different words. Nigeria is peopled by diverse
nationalities and any nation must recognise this diversity and give it
voice and room to flourish. A continuous denial of this fact can only
lead to self-destruction. One of our erstwhile leaders in his wisdom
foisted unitary system on us when we had successfully thrived under true
federalism. That was a mark of courage notwithstanding that it was a
totally flawed decision. Our President must find a similar kind of
courage to find and examine all the previous recommendations made during
different and various constitutional conferences and implement the
universal clamour for true federalism. There is nothing new under the
sun, as they say, our President already has a rich reservoir of
knowledge deposited in some government archives to reach the best
decision and modality that will achieve this end. My simple solution,
Nigeria must return to and embrace and practise true Federalism. Not
doing so is like pushing our luck too far and postponing doomsday.
What
is of utmost importance in calling for a political configuration that
will meet the yearnings of our people is the state of the economy. My
submission is that the economy will never recover in an atmosphere of
tension, uncertainty and panic. The Federal Government needs to tone
down the negative rhetoric about our country. That unfortunate moniker
of a corrupt nation that has been hung round our necks is dragging us
down and denying Nigeria the investment in its future that it requires.
Our President must make it clear that he is not the only saint in
Nigeria but that the majority of Nigerians are saints and he is the
leader who epitomises that. This is why he was chosen by the majority of
good and well-meaning Nigerians who want someone that would demonstrate
to the world that the generality of Nigerians are decent, hardworking
and honest and that it is a small minority of Nigerians that are crooks.
We must begin to walk away from our ugly past and work assiduously for a
beautiful future.
Every nation has lived through its
terrible moments but none ever cuddled the past forever as we now seem
to be doing. Nigeria is richly blessed with human and natural resources.
There is always a new dawn tomorrow and we must get ready for it,
embrace it and by so doing seize the initiative. There would always be
criminals in every society but we must never allow them to steal our
future or still dominate our narrative when we have so many great men
and women we can be proud of. Fortunately, we have a President that
stands head and shoulders above all else and he clearly leads the way.
He must now show it by moving at the fast pace that his country desires,
nay demands!
