Buhari: Change makers on ‘honeymoon’ By Levi Obijiofor

buhari

Ever since Bola Ahmed Tinubu, leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), remarked that President Muhammadu Buhari deserved to go on honeymoon rather than be hassled by growing demands to lift the pace of governance, the public sphere has been dominated by animated discussion of the implications of that comment. In his earnest defence of the president, Tinubu argued intensely that Buhari deserved at least 100 days of seclusion and quiet space to focus on, brainstorm with himself, and formulate his government’s programme of action to deal with the immeasurable problems that confront the nation.

Those who defend Buhari claim the president doesn’t need ministers to excel in office. They say that, after all, Buhari has been performing extraordinarily very well with the negligible assistance of permanent secretaries and heads of departments. What a superlative argument!

If I were Tinubu, I would stand by that statement. Buhari deserves to be on a “honeymoon” because the task of rebuilding Nigeria in the face of the growing attacks by Boko Haram terrorists, the challenge of renovating an economy wrecked by disingenuous members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the task of fixing the rapidly depreciating value of the naira, require a long period of isolation and meditation by the president. Who can argue against Tinubu’s impeccable case for Buhari?

Since the key objective of Buhari and the APC during the election campaigns – the defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan – has been accomplished, it is proper that Buhari should take a break, a much desired rest to recover the energy he invested in the fight against Jonathan and the PDP. A man who created history by unseating a serving president in Africa’s most populous country should be congratulated and sent on vacation rather than deal with those heckling him with complaints about the sluggish pace of his government.

Let us be serious for one moment. At a time of national disillusionment fostered by 16 years of undistinguished political leadership by the PDP, it is odd that Tinubu, who headed the APC’s mantra of change, should relegate the serious business of governance to the back-burner by suggesting that Buhari needs a long period of nap before he can start to grapple with matters that require urgent and priority attention of the president. Surely, whether Tinubu’s statement was conceived to be figurative or literal, it did not fit with the current mood of the nation.

Tinubu’s statement has offended rather than mollified a restless and worried public. How can a public that has seen no significant change from the government, a public that has been demanding that Buhari must sit up to govern like a statesman, as he was packaged and presented during the election campaigns, be impressed with Tinubu’s sloppy comment? If the PDP destroyed institutions of government and left office with little or no resources to rebuild the country, as senior APC officials have claimed repeatedly, isn’t that reason enough for Buhari to commit to work hard during the day and night, rather than tender repeated and monotonous excuses why he should be seen as “Baba slow and steady”.

It is paradoxical for anyone to argue that Buhari must go on holidays when the nation is weighed down with problems of unimaginable magnitude.

If Buhari and Tinubu have been listening carefully, they would have heard the citizens yelling for redemption from the president because Buhari and the APC promised to deliver the nation from the financial lawlessness and endemic corruption entrenched by the preceding PDP governments.  In the past four months, the question has been asked frequently: when will the APC transform Nigeria into an El Dorado, that imaginary land where everyone shall wield and enjoy equal political power and wealth?

The longer it takes Buhari and the APC to start making a difference in the lives of ordinary people, and to get the economy that has been stalled since the beginning of this year moving again, the more likely the citizens will deliver a damning verdict against Buhari. The public is likely to view Buhari’s slow speed as evidence of the president’s inattentiveness to the welfare of the citizens. When people are hungry, you cannot alleviate their hunger through never-ending promises. Buhari has been promising everyone that his best is yet to come and yet there is nothing in the horizon to show when or how soon the long-expected change would arrive.

The national optimism that followed the election of Buhari nearly five months ago is fading fast. Everywhere you look, you will find forlorn faces. Everyone you talk to, the common narrative is that nothing is moving in the country because everyone is waiting on Buhari to constitute his cabinet and to roll out policies that will drive economic revival. Despite growing national cynicism about Buhari’s capacity to govern effectively and successfully, the APC leadership appears not to be listening. Everyone in the APC has been singing the same chorus about why we must see Buhari as the man ordained by God to rescue us from the penury and hardship imposed on the nation by the PDP. While there is consensus that the PDP years were clearly a disaster, there are also huge national expectations that Buhari can overturn the lethargic and corrupt practices of the PDP governments. Four months is time enough for the APC to start to show us the stuff of which Buhari and his dream team are made of. More action and less talk, please.

So far, the APC leaders continue to tell Buhari that it is alright for the president to take all the time, after all, President Barack Obama of the United States took as much time to constitute his government. No one seems to bother that Nigeria is in distress or going under.

Let me reinforce this point. Four months is certainly enough for the president to set up the full machinery of his government. It is pointless to argue that because it took President Obama four months or so to set up his cabinet, it is alright for Buhari to imitate the US president’s style. The comparison is worthless and illogical. Buhari should not see the United States as a template to be adopted in Nigeria.

What is okay for the President of the United States may not necessarily serve our national interests. There are many reasons why we cannot compare Nigeria with the United States. The US is far more economically developed than Nigeria. Politically, we cannot compare our institutions and parliamentary system with those of the US. While the US has more states than Nigeria, the US also has a larger population than Nigeria. Other indices in which the US performs far better than Nigeria are unemployment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). So, it is unwise for Buhari to make unnecessary references to, or comparisons with, the United States.

In an interview published in the Vanguard of 25 July 2015, the chairman of the APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, tried to justify why Buhari is deliberately slow in making crucial decisions, and why the APC is happy with Buhari’s performance. Odigie- Oyegun said: “… there is the need for us to be cautious, given the fact that this is our first experience in governance. There is the need to be careful given a totally different nature of our manifesto and the social welfare promises that were made to the people to be sure that those the president wants to bring in to execute these policies, which are dramatically different from anything we have experienced before, are also dramatically different, they understand what is required to be done, are passionate about what is required to be done and have ideas about what is required to be done. Once  prime appointments are settled, things will move. The issue of insecurity is being addressed, the war on corruption has started in various parastatals; the government is already very well on steam.”

With due respect, the APC chairperson has given the unbelievable impression that the party did not expect to be in government, that the party was suddenly thrust into power, and that the APC is just learning how to govern. That is appalling argument, to be quite frank.


Reader’s reaction

Re: Fixing the President’s inconsistencies

Levi, no matter how long a man hides his true essence, he would goof someday to reveal it in public. That informed what happened to President Muhammadu Buhari when he made the statement openly that he would dispense more of the national funds to areas that voted for him during his presidential election. And that was the same “saviour” who said at his inauguration that he was for Nigerians, no matter the level of their contribution to his emergence as President.

Buhari’s body language was exposed when he appointed service chiefs which showed a larger number of appointees coming from the North while the core southeast that voted massively for the PDP was completely marginalized, without a single officer from that zone considered for any service position.

Another area where Buhari showed his bias was the issue of National Assembly leadership election. Buhari reneged on his earlier stance that he would not meddle in the exercise only for him to dump his pretences later. And what was the reason behind the transfer of Boko Haram suspects from Maiduguri to Ekwulobia prison in Anambra State, if not for undisclosed reasons. So far, despite all protests and demands on Buhari to rescind the decision, he has maintained his silence and nothing has been done to reverse the order. What does a discerning mind make of his abuse of the constitution in his bailout of some states, whose governors should have been probed for mismanagement of state funds for failing to pay their workers’ salary. Buhari approved the bailout funds without seeking the approval of the National Assembly. The most disturbing aspect of his selective treatment of issues is the decision to focus his anti-corruption probe only on officials who served in Jonathan’s government. God save Nigeria!

•Lai Ashadele (layiashadele@yahoo.com) 07067677806

SUN

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