THIS headline reminds me of a similar question that late Ronald Reagan asked American voters when he was seeking their mandate in the 1980 presidential elections. Reagan was the Republican presidential candidate against the incumbent president and Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter. Carter was seeking re-election. But, the odds were starked against him. American was in crisis. Despair appeared to have supplanted hope. Four years of a Carter presidency had come under intense scrutiny. America was drifting dangerously. A new leadership was needed. Reagan said he was the man to stop the drift and make better things happen again for America.
Very often, similar question is asked in every democracy, especially when the government in power seems not to have lived up to expectation. Such a question becomes inevitable when the present leadership has failed to provide solutions to the problems confronting the country and its people. It is a legitimate question.
With barely four days to mark President Muhammadu Buhari’s one year in office, it is relevant to pose the question to Nigerians: Are you better off now than you were a year ago before Buhari came to power? This is not rhetorical question. Neither is it a provocative one. This is because power for power’s sake is a dead end. Its reinforcing reward is helpful only when the party in power and the President are acutely aware that the office of the president is not a prize to be won. It is a duty to perform. That duty carries enormous responsibilities. It is a burden with so much expectations. Has President Buhari discharged that duty? We know that the argument on the other side will be that one year out of four years is a short time to adequately assess a government. That argument misses the point because one year is enough time for a serious government to lay a solid agenda of where it intends to take the country in key sectors by which stakeholders can measure its performance.
Sadly, what we see today one year on is not what we expected. From the day he triumphed at the polls over the then President Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari made history. His victory was historic in many respects: No opposition party has unseated a ruling party, and a sitting President. For Buhari, the March 2015 presidential poll was a triumph of the human spirit. Three times before now he contested the presidency,three times he lost by wide margins to three different sitting Presidents. But he persisted. He persevered. His fourth attempt was history. He defeated the incumbent President by over two million votes. That was remarkable. After that, we all looked forward to his inaugural address. There’s something special about Inaugural speech. It is an epochal event. Everybody looks forward to it. Among other things,it’s the unveiling of the President’s thrust of governance,his agenda in key sectors of the economy. It is on these thrusts that he wants to be judged. That’s where history will judge him when he leaves office. It doesn’t matter that Buhari is not an orator. Neither does he have charisma. But he cuts a cult figure in some parts of the country,in particular the North where he comes from. Outside Nigeria,he is perceived as a man of Integrity.
On May 29, 2015,he delivered arguably the speech of his political life. It was a speech that gave us hope. It renewed our human spirit of a new leadership sanctified by age and one who is kind,gentle and compassionate, one who might have learnt from his past mistakes and ready to make amends. One year on,many will insist that the “leopard has not changed its spot”, that Buhari of over three decades ago when he shot into our consciousness through a military coup remains the same. That is debatable. But, we can’t forget in a hurry key aspects of his inaugural address and other promises that lifted up our spirit. The most profound was the paragraph where he said :”I belong to nobody. I belong to everybody”. We knew what he was alluding to. It was an assurance that, as President, he would not be under the control, manipulation or blinding influence of any political godfather. He would be his own man. And as such we should hold him accountable for any action or inaction of his government.
And that’s exactly what this column is doing today. And that takes us back to his promises on his Inauguration day. He was not short on promises of some of the perennial problems we face. On the power sector,an area that is unquestionably the engine of the economy,hear what Buhari said: “careful studies are underway to identify the quickest, safest and most cost-effective ways to bring light and relief to Nigerians and the darkness and misery that have enveloped the nation since 1999”. Now, ask yourself:where is the light that Mr. President promised us a year ago? Are we not still in darkness and misery, perhaps far worse than when he came to power?
The plain truth is that Nigerians are going through worst power supply nightmare in history. As if to add insult to injury, electricity consumers are being asked to pay higher tariffs than at anytime in history. Fuel shortages have become something we seem to have come to live with. We are also yet to come to terms with the over 70 percent increase on the product. If we must give Buhari credit for keeping his word on the fight against corruption,we must wait till Sunday for full disclosures on the culprits who have returned their loot to the nation’s treasury. Keep in view that the President assured he would make public the names of the looters. . On insecurity,he may have tried in containing the Boko Haram insurgency.But the tears of the families of the Chibok girls still in captivity are asking that only the ultimate release of the girls will assuage their pains of the past two years.
The truth is that every government in power is judged by the success or failure of the promises that it made on assumption of office. It is not unkind to say that one area which the Buhari administration has compiled a more dismal record in one year is in the economy. Today,all indices that measure a vibrant economy are in negative territory.Inflation has reached double digit figure of 13.7 percent. This has exceeded the Central Bank ceiling of 9 percent. Consumer Price index has also risen too high according to figures recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics,thereby pushing up prices of food items beyond the reach of average Nigerians whose disposable income cannot be sustained by the present minimum wage of N18,000 per month. And workers’ salaries are not paid regularly. The states are living on bailout funds.
To be concluded next week
SUN
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