BY O'Femi Kolawole
There is this funny but true story I was told some years back by someone close which I believe is relevant to a time as this as President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration marks its one year in office and Nigeria, her 17th year of uninterrupted democratic governance. The pastor of a particular church, the story goes, had asked one of his female members, a middle-aged Yoruba woman, her experience attending his church after about a year of doing so.
To woo and attract new members to his church, the Pastor’s evangelism team usually goes to people living in the neighbourhood with an apt message: “If you want a change in your situation, join our ministry. Our God will do you good.” As would be expected, people joined the church expecting a change in their condition. The woman was one of them.
Elated at the opportunity, she poured out her mind to the Pastor. She replied him: “Pasto, a o ti i ri ayipada, a o ti i ri koko o.” (Pastor, we’ve not seen any positive change, or any main thing o.) The Pastor was obviously embarrassed at the feedback from the woman. But he wanted the truth and got it!
On May 29, 2015, when President Buhari was sworn in and inaugurated as Nigeria’s President and Commander-in-Chief, there was much joy across the country. For a fact, it wasn’t just a personal victory for a man Nigerians had rejected on three previous occasions in his attempts at becoming the country’s President, it was also the fulfilment of a people’s dream to vote out former President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the PDP, for 16 their years of bad governance and waste. For Nigerians, it was good riddance to bad rubbish. For the country, it was a new beginning.
However, discerning Nigerians knew that Buhari’s ascendancy to power was buoyed not so much by his competence to tackle the myriads of Nigeria’s problems but more by the propaganda of his party, the APC, which was highly effective and efficient as the same man, once riled and rejected, was gladly embraced by Nigerians, young and old, rich and poor, educated and illiterates alike. Buhari’s APC government was what they wanted and had gotten. Everyone was happy. At last, change had come or so it seemed.
Unfortunately, that was then!
Now, one year after, Nigerians are sad, angry, disappointed, depressed, confused and feel short-changed by this change. Ask an average Nigerian today, and he will most likely tell you that his personal economy was better last year under Jonathan than it is now under Buhari’s government. With increase in fuel price, and government officials and party chieftains habitually reneging on promises, Nigerians can’t yet see, feel or experience the change they were promised. What they feel is that the government lies to them, deceives them, and continues to take them for a ride!
For President Buhari and the APC, I believe it’s simply been an unimpressive run this past one year. It’s been 12 months of excuses and lamentations on why they cannot do what they promised Nigerians they were going to do.
However, the point must be quickly made clear. This is no defence for former President Jonathan, a leader, who, like many others before him, combine the good, the bad and the ugly, but whose moral recklessness and deficiencies are certainly in a different world of its own! For a man who allowed corruption to fester terribly under his watch, despite the achievements of his government compared to his predecessors, he will secretly continue to bemoan his fate for the type of overall stewardship Nigerians believe he offered the country despite their uncommon love and loyalty showed to him in the 2011 Presidential elections. But sorry, I digress.
I believe the signs that Buhari may not really live up to the high hopes and expectations of Nigerians started showing right from the beginning of his Presidency.
If there was anything Nigerians expected President Buhari to quickly do on assumption of office, it was in publicly declaring his assets as promised while campaigning for President. As a candidate, he had also told Nigerians who wanted the total eradication and annihilation of corruption in governance that he would make his ministers and appointees to also declare their assets publicly. They believed every one of his words. They trusted him. They voted him.
Alas, what did the President do? He prevaricated on the matter. He did it reluctantly, and that was even when his government was about 100 days in office; and only after much pressure and demands from Nigerians for him to do so. But even at that, it was only partially; withholding more useful information to the public in his shocking declaration of having N30 million in his bank accounts among others when he’d earlier told Nigerians he took a loan to purchase his form for the Presidency primaries of his party.
Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, would later inform us that the details of the President’s declaration would be made public once it was verified by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). Till date, the government is yet to do this. I believe Shehu’s defence then was only to calm the public and sweep the matter under the carpet. Nigerian, be wary, very wary of leaders who delay in fulfilling their promises, even very simple and easy ones. If you continue to trust them absolutely, you do so only at your own peril!
One would have also expected that the President, after assuming office, would have tried his best and used everything at his disposal to woo the people of the South-South and South East who overwhelmingly voted for Jonathan to his side. But he spectacularly failed to do this. Why he chose this path, only the President and his advisers can tell. It was a bad mistake.
By choosing to appoint mostly Northerners into his kitchen cabinet for instance, Buhari disappointed Nigerians who expected our President would have risen above such ethnic colourations but would instead have gone for the best in whichever part of the country or the world where he could get them. Because actions speak louder than words, Buhari is another President who gives no damn, even if he didn’t openly say so, like a former President we know.
While some people point to our national football teams for instance and argue that no one really cares if all members of the team come from a particular part of the country so long they are able to get us victories and trophies, there is no disputing the fact that having an all-inclusive team gives a sense of belonging and justice to all.
As if this was not bad enough, Buhari made matters worse when he suggested in an interview he granted to a foreign media organisation that sections of the country which didn’t vote in the 2015 elections shouldn’t expect any serious rewards or patronage from his government like other sections which did. For these unpardonable slips, when historians lambast him, Buhari will have no one but himself to blame.
Ever ready in condemning terrorist attacks in foreign countries like France and Belgium, Nigerians waited and waited when devastating terrorist attacks were carried out by Boko Haram here at home yet there were no condemnations by the Presidency or words of sympathies and consolation to the affected victims.
The five months delay in appointing ministers and the eventual appointment of those who really didn’t blow the minds of Nigerians, thus leaving them wondering why the unnecessary and costly time-wasting by the President; Buhari’s failure to put together a sound economic team of people who know their onions to work on fixing Nigeria’s economy clearly now in recession; the shameful handling of the 2016 budget and the scandal around it; as well as the consistent demarketing of Nigeria and embarrassment of Nigerians by the President, not in the least bothered about the downside, the terrible damage he is doing to brand Nigeria around the world; his government’s disobedience to court orders, the killing of over 300 Shiite Muslims by the military under his watch and his silence on the matter till date, all come together to form some of the unimpressive acts of this administration.
One year after coming to power, the Buhari government has also done little or nothing in infrastructure development. Meanwhile, Nigerians were once told N3 trillion has been saved in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the Central Bank. Later, another government official said it was N2 trillion yet another one stepped forward to say the government is broke and this is why it can’t do anything. Broke, yet N2 trillion was recovered and could not be put to use to stimulate activity in the economy?
Although the economy came second as a section in the number of achievements itemised in a list of “75 achievements” of the Buhari administration released to the media by the Presidency over the weekend, I believe it’s the area where it has disappointed the most.
One can go on and on but the main fact must not be missed. The Buhari government, so far, has generally been unimpressive. And it’s obvious the APC prepared little for governance when it asked Nigerians to vote it into power. Like the woman who told her Pastor the bitter truth of her experience attending his church, Nigerians also can’t yet testify to have seen any main achievement from this government or feel a positive change in their lives one year after. This is the truth.
But it is not all bad news. Most Nigerians can attest to the fact that the Buhari administration is serious about its anti-corruption war. If the PDP had not been voted out of power, Nigerians may never have known of the wicked and demonic looting of the country’s wealth by officials of the former ruling party to the tune of billions of dollars, money which could have turned Nigeria to a better place for us all if well used for the common good.
I also believe there is genuine fear among politicians now that they can no longer continue to steal as they used to do. Even civil servants, bankers and businessmen who help make looting easier now know they will answer for their crimes someday. In his fight against corruption, President Buhari has also set a precedent which will help Nigeria forever. Future Presidents will most likely go after looters of our money. This is a good one.
In security, although Boko Haram has been considerably decimated, militancy in the Niger Delta has resurfaced including the demand for Biafra in the South East while the kidnapped Chibok girls haven’t been rescued as promised despite that two among them have been found. This is even as the murderous herdsmen problem remains a critical challenge.
However, we can still hold President Buhari to his word when he said in his first year anniversary speech on Sunday that the government is committed in its efforts to fixing Nigeria and trust there will henceforth be no more excuses.
In conclusion, although the administration and the way it goes about its business gives little room for confidence in its abilities at turning the economic situation of the country around, more so that it hardly takes responsibility for anything and is superb at giving excuses for not fulfilling promises, even a very simple one as telling Nigerians how much looted funds have been recovered in the government’s anti-corruption war so far as the President had promised to do on May 29, I pray it is able to rubbish this pessimism as it enters its second year in office and succeed in changing the narrative before 2019 so that Nigerians can have a better story to tell concerning Buhari’s overall scorecard and ultimately our beloved fatherland. God bless Nigeria.
Kolawole is an award-winning Nigerian journalist and author. You can reach him via ofemikolawole@gmail.com. SMS Only: 08033983499. Twitter: @ofemigan