It’s a bug that preys exclusively on leaders or those in positions of leadership! Another description: The antics of groveling sycophants who manipulate the detachment imposed by leadership, constantly feeding such individuals with only what they want to hear, even such threatens the well-being of the individual invariably.
Because leaders are lonely, those around them exploit this fact, even to the hilt, offering a leader only what sounds good, not honest counsel. It is an overwhelming mischief because no one wants to provoke a king with honest counsel and risk rebuke, including the corollary forfeiture of perks that go with unfettered access to leadership.
But because of his experience and age, it is legitimate to assume that President Muhammadu Buhari is immune to this bug that has destroyed leaders with good intentions. Given our humanity and the foibles possible within this latitude, the possibility of a good man(or woman), succumbing to desperate mischief becomes another legitimate assumption.
Nigerians do not doubt the sincerity of the president’s love for the counry because at every forum, including his maiden trip to South Africa where he addressed compatriots resident there, he was emphatic that he would never allow the sacrifices of heroes past to go in vain. There is no better re-affirmation of confidence than this so that much is well-established.
However, other Nigerians, including this writer, also have a legitimate reason to worry given the president’s stated lack of faith in restructuring the country; his declaration of not being favourably disposed to the idea regardless of the overwhelming opinion of Nigerians to the contrary as contained in the National Conference Report of 2014.
The number one citizen is aware of dangers inherent in engaging public opinion with contempt because pretending otherwise will simply magnify allegations of investment in a huge and futile political hypocrisy which ridicules the change mantra of the administration.
Am still feeling serenaded by the president’s speech in South Africa, regaling compatriots with why it would not be fair to those who paid the supreme price to protect the country’s unity. But re-structuring will make Nigeria more efficient and discourage institutionalized indolence where states vibrate each month end in the scramble to rush to Abuja for their share of the national cake.
With efficiency, vibrating will become an option since each unit can leverage on areas of comparative advantage that are ignored. And do so at their own pace as was the case during the First republic when most things worthy of consideration in the country were achieved. Even if the president dismisses my optimism as dangerous heresy, he can not question the altruism of his running mate in the 2011 presidential election and Presiding Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who is emphatic that his former principal risks achieving nothing without re-structuring the country as demanded by citizens.
Like other patriots Bakare believes only through re-structuring could fundamental constraints undermining genuine national development and cohesion be addressed. ‘Indeed, the summary of our assessment of the entire framework of governance and public policy is that without re-structuring, this administration may achieve little or no significant and sustainable success’, he said in Lagos in his annual state-of-the-nation address.
In other words, after all his professions of love for the country, without re-structuring, this basically-wayward toddler would drift on for another four years without sense of purpose or momentum as we have done for decades now. According to Bakare, Nigeria has a choice to bump on, as it were, in avoidable vacillation which has sabotaged real growth for decades.
The president can reject this ugly fate by confronting reality with courage, not despair, fear or suspicion as suggested by some. The fear that re-structuring is synonymous with disintegration is expected reaction or resistance by profiteers from the prevailing decadence. It is mischievous and a betrayal of those who bear the consequence of the enduring fear of doing what is right.
Reluctance to interface with dynamism and purpose-driven growth from re-structuring is understandable resistance to meaningful change. Having accumulated obscene profit from prevailing decadence, profiteers feel threatened by a more workable alternative. The lie that re-structuring is synonymous with disintegration is cheap blackmail to fortify the enduring plot to keep the country retarded.
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