Just before the scorecard unveils By Olu Obafemi

IT IS probably a bit too early to begin drawing the One-year-in-office scorecard of the Buhari/APC government. Every discerning mind knows, should know, that the first year in office of any government, is usually devoted to mapping out and designing policies, programmes and strategies of gover­nance. In that understanding, the raging emotions and coun­ter-emotions making the round in our streets, towns and cities on government performance so far will therefore be regarded as cynical pastime or the self-indulgence of over-anxious crit­ics. But given the general euphoria and change-enthusiasm that greeted the ascendancy to power of this government, and the obviously worrying pace at which the government is delivering the promise of transformation, it is not a surprise that there are already palpable manifestations of impatience in the public domain. These have become evident from the growing regime of comparison going on regarding making choices between the last government that was thrown out by the electorate with vapid denunciation (there were those, even among the elite class, at the peak of their disillusion and an­guish against the government that went before, that said just any other form of government would be better than the gov­ernment in office).

Now, as the social conditions of Nigerians appear to worsen by the day, as manifest in the hardship indicators—the unend­ing but not un-endable fuel crisis in the country with pump-prices galloping by the minute from government’s official rate of N86.50 per litre to between N170 and N200 whenever and wherever available; the frightening devaluation/no-devalua­tion exchange transpiring between government and the CBN on the one hand and among economic purists and Nigerians who confront market realities, when every price of every article has sky-rocketed, judged against the dollar, even by hawkers and traders of every category, many of whom are yet to touch(feel the texture) and perceive the colour and smell of a five-dollar bill! Government people are at their wits’ end to find what explanation is best to offer to the growing anxieties and frustrations in the marketplace! The epilepsy ravaging the power-sector and the discordant tune of tariff hike which has begun to raise the adrenalin of Labour, especially at a time when the volume of electricity may have dwindled.

Yet, it is necessary to take a reflective stock of the situation in the country since May 29, and make hay slowly, in reaching conclusions as to the scale of performance of this government, in spite of the huge expectations of the electorate after a government that was adjudged as hav­ing massively failed to deliver, necessitating a change of government as was done at the polls. No doubt, the government, through its optimal­ly successful electioneering, and I consider the performance of the APC as one of the best and most strategic campaign operations (including through the media-traditional and social) that we have seen in this country’s political/elec­tioneering history, and especially since the First Republic. Change was the veritable vernacular climate of the country in the heated clime of electioneering between 2013 and 2015. The public on the one hand read the new govern­ment as one capable of bringing manna from heaven—of working wonders and evoking magic (never mine Kachikwu and his jokes with his press friends!—with immediate effect. With that kind of mammoth and madding eu­phoria, one year was too long to wait, it would appear. Even the cautious hints dropped by the government shortly after taking over, with re­spect to the overwhelming and gargantuan vol­ume of the problems inherited and that change was not going to be instantaneous, the ordinary citizenry was hardly listening and nothing short of rapid socio-economic transformation could bring appeasement. The evidence of the pos­sibility of immediate and momentous change was the succour and relief noticed at the begin­ning seen in the President’s body language, in his first One Hundred Days in power..

True, at that time, some would say even now, there was yet to be structured policies and strategies of governance that will provide envi­sioned framework of transforming the country, but it was observable that Buhari’s body mo­tions and body language had, unquestionably, breathed life and hope into the national mem­brane such that Nigerians had started to believe in the possibilities of national redemption and reawakening from the stupor and stasis that have characterized our national life since, in particular the sixteen years of civil democracy. A crucial aide of the President had graphically captured the nation’s forward flow before ac­tion thus: ‘without rolling the drums and tom-toms’’ the President had made intangible and ineffable impact on the nation, through his body language such that have jolted the entire nation back to quickness and liveliness.

This body language, evolving from the man’s reputation of integrity, discipline, hones­ty and transparency’, had brought positive and manifest upward mobility to the lives of Nige­rians in a short spell of governance. National establishments that had previously gone effete and comatose were revving back to life. I had further recounted this national uplift in my col­umn on Buhari’s One Hundred Days in power, quoting Femi Adesina that, when he remarked that, as a result of the remarkable personality impact of Buhari on assumption of office, ‘dis­order gives way to order. Chaos flees. Impunity is swept away, Laxity gives way to diligence, and people change their old, unedifying ways.’

This shock- back- to- life phenomenon reverberates through pervasive change of at­titude. This touchable attitudinal change had wrought concrete and positive improvement in lives and services, infrastructure and estab­lishment; in. electricity and refineries. Without lifting a finger, by Buhari’s own confession, the lighting situation had improved across the country as about 5000 Megawatts of electric­ity began to yield and provide illumination for our country. Billions of dollars were said to have been pumped into the power sector – by previous PDP governments –with a result of only shedding more and more darkness on the national landscape. The refineries which had not produced refined crude before had sud­denly started to supply refined fuel for national consumption; queues which had hitherto para­lyzed mobility and raised national discontent and mayhem since many governments ago, up till the anti-subsidy revolt during the Jona­than’s government, had disappeared like dark­ness at the un-rush on bright moonlight. The fear of Buhari and his anti-corruption crusade had (and I say still has) produced panic in the obscenely and opulently rich homes. Billions of dollars were said to be galloping back into the national coffers as their illegal keepers are making returns in fearsome panic, even as the anti-corrupt agents are revving their operational engines back to life.

Now, after the body language magic, and with the integrity intact, there is nostalgia on the land. There are serious and painful yearnings across the country—that it is time for those ini­tial fine happenings to wear a permanent gar­ment. There is still a great belief and confidence that the government can do it.

It is possible to attribute all of the renewed anxieties to a process of planning and design­ing enduring fundamental programmes—and the government has said the fuel crisis will end, even before this column gets printed—at least in Abuja and Lagos and the queues will soon disappear nation-wide. The President has also renewed his promise that soon, the power situation will improve and dividends of democracy through observable and felt de­velopment outcomes will hit the kitchens of the common man. The proceeds of the largely successful anti-corruption crusade should, if deployed directly or alongside the budget, should help government make true its promise to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians, which has reached worrisome dimensions. Added to this is the reassuring counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism battle, which the government is waging relentlessly to return peace t the land. The agreement to create ranches for herdsmen across the country, if concretely implemented by the Federal and state governments, should heighten the tenor of peace songs in the coun­try.

Before the score-cards for the first year in government runs out, greater succour should be brought to the lives of the electorate by a government which the people massively em­brace, built their hope on and have shown ap­preciable belief and confidence in..

SUN

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