If there is any group of
individuals who can manufacture shock, political punditry out of nothing, it is
the All Progressives Congress. They cried out that Jonathan was doing a
terrible job as President of Nigeria.
They said his inability to run the
Federal Government is the reason our country has lapsed into wholesale chaos.
He is the reason corruption decimated our population, turned brother against
brother. He is the reason our military became weak and our borders constantly
breached by Niger, Chad and Cameroonian gendarmes.
He is the reason our cities
have all lost power and we have reclined back into the dark ages. He is the
reason why thousands of wild dogs/Boko Haram roam our streets and rip our
children apart. With democracy being an institution where we worry about how
many people ‘agree’ about certain things, APC must be concerned that Nigerians
are actually seeing that Buhari is not the messiah we need.
When I wrote that Nigerians
shouldn’t celebrate Buhari yet, a lot of his sympathisers reached for my scalp
with all types of derogatory vocabularies. Now, just a couple of days into his
regime and even before the flag is hoisted up the pole, the same people have
started singing the same old song that he is too slow. Just like in the time of
Jonathan. Why am I not surprised? When I talked about Buhari’s age, they said
presiding over the affairs of a country is different from being a bricklayer.
Why is Buhari now wishing he was younger? What has “changed” him? Didn’t he
know his age before “borrowing” money to acquire the form to contest for
president?
Listening to APC and President
Buhari’s excuses of just being in government for only few weeks is like
watching a doctor on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ pounding on a patient’s chest until
another doctor has to pull him off and say, ‘Sir it’s over!’ That’s what I want
to say to President Buhari. Sir, it’s over! We are tired of having president
with excuses. You didn’t give us these excuses in any of your campaign
speeches. Nigerians, it’s time to move on! There will be other disasters. There
will always be presidents with excuses.
The president will cut down the
cost of governance. He won’t have as many ministers and advisers like Jonathan.
How is approving the appointments of two media aides with the same job
description cutting down the cost of governance? What is the difference between
a Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) and a Special Adviser (Media
and Publicity)?
The issue of applying the rule
of law in certain matters of state that demands immediate and urgent attention
is not why we voted for Buhari. For Christ’s sake, the country is in dire
straits. We are in desperate times as a country and as such, the streets won’t
accept these excuses. President Buhari shouldn’t be telling Nigerians that he
met an empty treasury. We want to hear of measures his government is taking to
recover the stolen funds. This government seems overwhelmed and confused
already like what we’ve had in the past.
He should also understand that
not having his cabinet in place at this point in time is dangerous. President
Buhari should know that he can’t govern this country alone. It will take all
hands on deck to get this country back on track. He cannot be the president and
the minister of defence and petroleum all by himself. He can’t be at different
places at the same time. Being the president of a huge country like Nigeria is
different from being the managing director of a business.
One does not “run” the Federal
Government. You can run a train and you can run your own small business, but
the Federal Government of Nigeria is bigger than the largest enterprises of
this world.
Equating any portion of the
Federal Government to a business stretches the meaning of metaphor. No business
is attacked by other countries or has to deliberately kill people, or has a
board of 469 National Assembly members, majority of which are trying to
bankrupt the company in order to make the CEO look bad, nor does any company
operate within transparency of allowing thousands of journalists to pore over
their affairs, or carry your opponent’s opinions as if they were facts, or
react to hundreds of lawsuits per day from its own employees, or thousands of
lawsuits per day from third parties. No private company is responsible for
accomplishing its mission within tens of thousands of laws that deliberately
operate against its efficiency.
No private company has a board
that authorises spending via commitment of financial resources and then
separately approves their payment or its equivalent debt. No business operates
from the need to pass legislation in order to change direction, or to
accomplish its primary objectives, (environmental safety, energy independence,
internet security, university research, election compliance, full employment
policies, taxation reform, anti-terrorism, healthcare reform, and intelligence
gathering).
No organisation has the responsibility to send soldiers to defend
its allies or be responsive to the impact that changed laws, policies, and tax
provisions have upon other nations, friend and foe alike. And finally, no
organisation is responsible for administration and enforcement of tens of
thousands of laws, rules, and regulations against millions of separate
entities.
Is President Buhari capable of
providing direction, implementing a NASS approved budget, prioritising and
recommending budget changes, negotiating legislation, submitting qualified
candidates for the courts, appointing and supervising staff and cabinet
members, including the joint chiefs of the military, and effectively
communicating volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous issues to the
Nigerian public? Absolutely, NO!
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