As we
approach the ‘half-time’ of Buhari’s presidency and government, it is worth
taking the time to take stock and carefully, and dispassionately, assess
exactly where we came from, where we are at, and where we expected to be at. It
is no use rehashing the usual mundane narrative of politicians destroying the
very fabric of our national existence and relevance. We’re past the time analyzing and/or rationalizing the very root of the rottenness in our political
and socioeconomic life. The time for asking questions about how and what got us
into the messiness that has become an albatross round the neck of our
collective hopes and desires as a sovereign nation, and united federal
constituents, is long gone. The time for serious answers has come. Nigeria is bogged down by an albatross of
corruption, insecurity, hopelessness, political disarray, and the incongruities of politics
and service delivery. Hyperbole this is not. Each and every one of us knows our history, and no
matter our individual political colouration, we know we are better than this
and we can do better than this, and do, we must..
So, before we come to any conclusions as to how our expectations of Buhari's two years in office have panned out, we should carefully consider our own level of expectations in line with the tons of promises made by the APC in the run-up to the 2015 elections. I reckon we, the ordinary Nigerians whose votes were being canvassed for, were unforgivably gullible in allowing ourselves to be herded like cattle into the political nirvana espoused by the APC. This herd mentality, I dare say, beclouded our collective ability to be sensible in discerning what was realistically achievable and which promises were the proverbial pies in the sky. Some may now come forward, triumphantly beat their chests and say 'I told you so', but no one should be fooled by such puerile show of triumphalism, because those kind of people had their own ulterior motive for the steadfastness and unmitigated bile with which they turned their noses up at the dizzying and dazzling array of promises. The truth of the matter is if the APC had made even half the promises they made in their electioneering campaigns, the outcome of the elections wouldn't have been any different. People just wanted a departure from the PDP's way of life.
All over the democratic world, political parties of all hues make desperate promises at election times. In all of human history, not a single political party in power, has gone on to fulfill every single promise made at election times, and to have expected so much of Buhari has been our Achilles' heel. However, all said and done, we fell under the spell of the APC mainly because Nigerians were sick to the back teeth of the blatant and unchecked level of corruption that pervaded the PDP's government of Jonathan Goodluck, such that we were more than prepared to change the trajectory and direction of our national travel. The unraveling of the level of inhumanity, culminating in the discoveries of unimaginable amounts of money stashed in people's houses, gardens, graveyards, and suchlike is actually a validation of our fury. All of these taking place in a country where access to adequate, and timely, medical care is an impossibility; education, an absolute shambles; unemployment figures, off the scale; infrastructural development, non-existent; salaries going unpaid for months, and pensioners unjustifiably, and undeservingly, dying in penury. A country in which social media is rife with arguments about the origin of 'gbegiri' and 'amala', rather than celebrate technological advancements and political solutions to the myriad of ills afflicting us! Is that the Nigeria to be proud of? Is that the Nigeria many in the diaspora aspire to go back to? Why are we so adept at shooting ourselves in the foot?
What could be more befuddling than the fact that Buhari, with his acclaimed intolerance to corruption, being blindsided, outfoxed, outmaneuvered and sideswiped by the corrupt cabal he so passionately and vehemently promised to eradicate? How many cases of corrupt prominent politicians and officials have been successfully concluded? It may be unfair to put all of these failures solely at Buhari's feet, but he must bear some measure of responsibility for the judicial fiascos that have so inauspiciously defined the corruption-fighting agencies like the ICPC and, more pointedly, the EFCC. They have blurred the line between prosecution and persecution.
Not only that. Even within his own whiter than white cabinet, there are unrepentant and incurable fraudsters and hoodlums that have been, and being, exposed with frightening rapidity. Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Federal Government is currently under investigation (the report into the allegations are due out today, incidentally) for defrauding PINE (the Presidential Initiative for the North-East), which was set up by Buhari to facilitate relief, and rehabilitation, efforts for IDPs. What could be more evil than defrauding desperately needy and helpless persons who have been devastated by Boko Haram, and most of whom have lost the little they ever had? Thank goodness, more than eighty of the poor girls were released over the weekend, but with over a hundred still unaccounted for, what more should concentrate the minds of those charged with their welfare and rehabilitation? Still, they loot the very funds that were set up to aid their resettlement. What of the inordinate influence of Abba Kyari has on the administration of Government in Aso Rock? Didn't even, Aisha, the wife of the President, decry the serial failures and insensitiveness of her own husband's government? What a conscientious, classy and brave woman!
The economy has nosedived, while the CBN woefully failed in its constitutional responsibility to promptly implement monetary measures to alleviate the human suffering and corporate discomfiture that resulted from the depression of crude oil prices. The Senate and the House of Representatives are populated by proven thieves, uneducated opportunists, clowns, downright incorrigibles, with a bunch of hillbillies, whose only qualification is their mastery of thuggery, thrown into the mix. You had a particular Dino Melaye sarcastically singing "A je kun iya ni o je...." in mockery of severe allegations against him! What a classic example of the perversion that our so-called elected representatives so effortlessly and perfectly embody! Oh, Nigeria! They are more of lawbreakers than lawmakers. States' Houses of Assembly are just there to rubber-stamp whatever the ravenous State Governor opts to do. Local Government Chairmen are appendages of their governors and serve no discernible useful purpose. The judiciary is obscenely infested with God-forsaken rotten characters whose only concern is the dollar, and truckloads of it. Openly and happily selling justice to the highest bidder, and screwing innocent citizens whose only 'crimes' are poverty and deprivation, foisted on them by the very injustice being perpetuated and propagated by the perfidious and venal judiciary.
Yes, the problems are too many and they run too deep. To expect Buhari to confront so many and so much in so little time is insanely unreasonable and patently unkind. However, Nigeria is made more moribund by Buhari's erraticism in application, lethargy in motion and confusion in thought. Right now, we are at a crossroads: Buhari is flailing, his health is failing and Nigeria is ailing. According to Femi Adesina, the President is now in London for follow-up treatments. We can only pray and hope that he gets well soon, both for his sake and Nigeria's because the hawks are circling and the sharks are plotting. The brigade of recreants are now making frantic moves to position themselves for the possible eventuality of Buhari's long-term indisposition. Prevarications emanating from Aso Rock are not helping matters. Why should the state of the President's health be shrouded in so much secrecy? Nigerians deserve, and expect, to know the truth about their President's health. Haven't we learned our lessons from the Y'ardua's soap opera of not so many moons ago? These are worryingly ominous and acutely depressing times.
All of these point to the sad reality that we are nowhere near where we ought to be; we are, as a matter of fact, a million miles away from the starting grid. The all-conquering Buhari has been reduced to an all-wavering Buhari and sadly, Nigeria and Nigerians are the losers. The slogan of 'Change' has been all but drowned out, but we must be careful not to fall back into the arms of the very evil cabal that brought us, in the first place, to this rather fraught moment. As the eminently erudite John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 - June 4, 2010) said, "Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be." We all have a responsibility to reignite the flame of change and prevent it from flickering and petering out. Our political differences, which incidentally are not based on any concrete readily identifiable ideologies, must not preclude our togetherness in the face of adversity, nor must they usurp our common resolve to face down the common enemy of our collective destiny. Some so-called educated and supposedly enlightened folks just can't see past the politics of hate, and deep down, they stand for nothing but pretend they care about everything. Silliness and pettiness must give way seriousness, and energy dispensed on working together to help improve our lot, and move Nigeria forward. It's time for us to detach parochialism from realism, decouple cynicism from sincerity, and be better educated and more mature, politically. This is at the very core of change, and I have never seen progress where there was no change. Change has to begin with the self, in an honest, deliberate and thoughtful manner.
There has never been a better time than now for us to stand up and be counted, otherwise what has gone on before would be a garden party compared to what may yet come as a result of our apathetic response to the perilous state of our national affairs, well-being and global relevance. I may be denounced as a wooly Pollyanna, but I make no apologies for having an unswerving trust in the readiness of Nigerians to rail, and rally, against any insidious attempt by the gross and contemptible goons that pollute our political ambience to make a U-turn to the politics of the past. We must map a new way to the future, conscious of the price of failure to do so in a timely fashion.
Herd mentality might have been our undoing in 2015, but that would be small beer compared to what would happen if we all became lemmings and fell off the cliff edge. Our collective thinking cap has to be slapped tightly on. History doesn't make men; men make history. If needs be, we must make the Arab Spring look like a picnic, make the Venezuelan uprising seem like a tea party, and make the South Korean riots akin to a peace conference! These are desperate times that call for desperate action. We must all play our part to rescue our country from the unapologetic troglodytes in the corridors of power. The torch of justice must be shone into all the nooks and crannies of our national life and the stain of corruption expunged from our social fabric once and for all. Yes, this sounds extravagantly fanciful, but it's certainly not impossible if the desire is real and the will is strong. We must shout in their ears 'JUSTICE IS BLIND', and chant in their faces, the uncompromising motto of The District of Columbia, "JUSTITIA OMNIBUS" (Justice for all)
We must draw strength from the ever-encouraging and sagacious words of a former POTUS, Harry S Truman (May 8, 1884 - December 26, 1972), "Men make history and not the other way round. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."
May the good Lord bless the beautiful Federal Republic of Nigeria and its extraordinarily resourceful citizens, now and always.