The result of last year’s presidential election made some Nigerians sad and sorrowful; and some jubilant and excited. For those who fell in the latter category, the anticipation of the Change windstorm was not swivelled around compensating one man or a few agenda-driven persons. It was about a change hoped for in the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
For those who have dwelled in the path of everything bad and anomic about government, the result was a triumph. For the people resident in the slums of Yenagoa and Oloibiri, and the impoverished people living in the hamlet of Imesi-Ile, it was a perceived victory. For the disease-ravaged hapless Nigerians in the huts of Chibok, the helpless aged men and women in villages of Abakaliki, and the physically handicapped but mentally alert in the caves of Bukuru, it was a breakthrough. People from the hamlet of Ogoni whose rivers have been polluted by oil exploration, whose lands have been seized, and oil is stolen daily also had expectations that the Change would bring its beautiful dividends to their doorsteps. They are still waiting; and I hope not longer than necessary.
From the outset of his administration, it was palpably putative that President Muhammadu Buhari was unswerving about going it alone in packing his cabinet strictly with his personal human preferences that he believes would deliver change. Recent events have reinforced the narrative. Mr. President ostensibly may no longer be counting on major collaborations with men and women on whose back he rode to power last year.
That was the core of the corroborating complaint of his wife, Aisha, who recently spun a wild and public accusation that men who shed blood and sweat for her husband’s election as President have been pushed into obscurity and oblivion. Plum slots in government, Aisha said, were given to men who came out of the blues.
Moneybag who financed Buhari’s campaign and foot soldiers who shouted on the roof top around Nigeria to get him elected were mostly men unknown to him. They were new friends who assumedly have completed their assignments. New friends, they say, are silver; but old friends are gold. Buhari has chosen to go for the gold. But Aisha thinks it’s an error. She believes her husband, politically, is going into the gutters. Whether she is right or not, we will soon find out at the turn of Buhari’s first term.
Is Mr. President charismatic or enigmatic enough to wield power across Nigeria without the unwavering commitment and support of some influential and affluent regional principals? What is all this sidelining strategy about? Is it to consolidate power as we warm up for 2019? Aren’t some of these “trusted hands” meddling and muddling moles in an APC Government?
What I am hearing is that a few men who were not qualified to participate even in ordinary consultative meetings before the election now give orders and commands about what ought to happen in Nigeria and the party. These are men, according to some APC stalwarts I spoke with, who tore up and trashed the list of ambassadorial nominees from state governors and party men across the nation replacing it with their cronies. These men are members of the reigning cabal in Nigeria.
Can a sitting governor’s nomination be over-ridden by replacements from these men? Now, we know it’s possible. How much does the President know about the process of appointments of men and women in his government? That is the billion dollar question. An inside source I spoke with in the Presidency during the week debunked that theory. “Mr. President has once said that if he will not be consulted before commissioners are appointed by state governors, how come they expect him to consult them when he makes his appointments”?
Quibbling APC apparatchiks are now asking this question: “Did Mr. President say this before the election?” But taciturn Buhari says little. He said not much during the campaign. Nobody held him to vast landscape of promises, I was told. The preoccupation of the incompatible APC fusion-of-the- furious was to get rid of Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP from Aso Rock. The mission was accomplished. Now, Buhari may have subtly conceded unconstrained and infinite power and authority to his old pals he’s known for decades to the chagrin of party aficionados.
I was reliably told that it was the cabal that determined that within the next 90 days or thereabout, there must be a major cabinet reshuffle, the outcome of which will have an appearance of a city rattled with an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. A South-South strongman whose contribution to the election of this President was immense, will fall prey. He’s been penciled down for removal. Two ministers in neighbouring South-West states will be done away with; one of them was said to be ‘redundant’; and the other never enjoyed his Governor’s support from the get-go. He has provoked a few controversies. The reshuffle, I heard, will cause a major shift in political dynamics as politicians begin to position themselves for 2018 and 2019. I will not be surprised if these will be some Christmas gifts for some and Christmas grins and groans for others. Is the slot for Minister of Finance going north? I will not be surprised if that happens too. There is a special interest of the cabal in that vicinage.
Mr. President, I heard earlier this year that you read my opinions. Whatever it’s going to take, please, just fix Nigeria! Rebuild our infrastructure and infuse cash into the system. Do not only fairly fight corruption, fight for reconstruction of abandoned major highway projects too. Let there be light; and let there be a return of life in the society. That’s what Nigerians want; and that’s all they care about. Although my hope is fainting a bit about the country, I can still sight some rays, though they may be dimming.
A friend asked this question on my social media forum: “So, what do we do? It seems as if Buhari lacks the intellectual capacity to govern Nigeria at this time. It takes more that anti-corruption fight to lead a country as vast with different needs and to deal and relate with the complexities and realities of a global economy and how it interconnects. We really have entered a one-chance (bus) this time”. I responded thus: “If it took Thomas Edison 1000 tries to invent light, we have to keep trying until we get it right”. Nigeria must and will get it right; and hopefully soon in this dispensation.
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