TheCable

BY ODUMEGWU ONWUMERE

In the name of progress, Nigerians are hearing uncompromising language from General Muhammadu Buhari that explains where progress went wrong. Three months are down in the government of Buhari and all that Nigerians have got is much talk about probe upon probe.

Persons like a Joe Biden had told leaders like Buhari that fighting corruption is not just good governance. But such leaders would not listen that such a fight is ‘self-defence’ and not a national defence. The only backbone Buhari has seen as an improvement of his type of governance is to probe, and not develop and empower the citizens.

Yes, Buhari has to be bold in national ambitions. But he left the first things for the last. He does not want to fight poverty, but corruption. Then one is forced to ask what he is expecting from people if more Nigerians are being impoverished everyday for three months now.

Subjugating people to poverty has shown the decadence of moral standards of this government. Probe is not laying a good foundation for good governance. Where is the change in character that will serve as fertility for a nourished base for reforms?

If this is the novelty that Nigerians were in expectancy from this government, then we are in the caves. Buhari portrayed at the early stage to offer peace and bring smiles to the faces of Nigerians; he used words of healing.

But it is distressing that what we are seeing are anger and resentment. His government is only bearing fruit of a fast runner without a definite destination. Nigerians no longer understand one another better, because of the ‘no-action-but-only-moving government, we have come to endure.

Today, there are economic and political barriers. This government is asking many questions than answers that Nigerians expect from it. Buhari feels that he can learn something while being loquacious, without asking questions.

Intelligent people ask questions in order to learn. Only gangsters do not ask questions. Buhari is making much assumption. He does not want lawyers to engage in cases of people he had already labelled corrupt. He forgot that anybody is innocent of a charge till proved otherwise by a competent court of jurisdiction.

Buhari has not indeed told Nigerians what he wants in this democracy. He is not communicating with Nigerians to express what he really wants. He is only exhibiting ultra misunderstandings, sadness and drama.

His government has become a big issue: Many people are now very disappointed by the strange language of authoritarianism he is showcasing with cycles of animosity. Some persons would say that three months is too early to judge Buhari’s presidency. Hooey!

Buhari is letting his teammates down. He boasts of making every shot. The great questions about Nigeria of the day will not be settled by means of Buhari’s many speeches just to score cheap political goals. The outcome of Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign is the spreading poverty that we can see characterising the country.

His anti-corruption campaign is claiming all of us in hardship and making us immune to suffering. Instead of signaling a broader crackdown on the governments before his democratic presidency, Buhari is being selective. He is making full stop on his probe on the government he succeeded.

Buhari said that he would give Nigerians good governance, forgetting that ‘good governance’ has no specific characteristics. Is probe the promised good governance? And if good governance is inclusive, where has Buhari included Nigerians in his government?

Buhari is just weak and does not understand anything about good governance concept. His snail’s pace about governance has called into questioning his presidency. One is yet to see stronger concepts in this administration, a fact that underscores Buhari as lacking the veto to evaluate the next-of-kin magnitude of various modules of governance.

This presidency thinks that in any classification, probe is that best ways political and economic institutions change; much less expand confirmation-based ways about how to completely sway this change.

It was Ban Ki-moon who was credited with the comment that sustainable development is the pathway to the future we want for all. It offers a framework to generate economic growth, achieve social justice, exercise environmental stewardship and strengthen governance. (But Buhari is thinking otherwise).

Buhari government is lacking in governance, administration, political and economic institutions. His government is not pro-people, but anti-Goodluck Jonathan government. Buhari is only maintaining governance, which is absolute good at Aso Rock, not even in Abuja, let alone, in other parts of the country.

Do these ideas by Buhari carry with them centralised notion form the Muslim philosophy? Buhari is finding this much-touted noise about probe enjoyable. And the worst is that many people have found this distraction of probe enjoyable. The shame is that this government has been unable to pinpoint where the successive governments might have gone wrong.

As if referring to Buhari, Pope Francis once surmised that “Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‘Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?’ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.”

Has this government not shown that it will not be a good one?

Odimegwu Onwumere, a poet/writer, sent this piece from Rivers State.