THE NATION
It’s the end of one year and the beginning of another. In the past seven months, we have had the Buhari presidency. Predictably, his is probably one of the most important presidencies in the history of our country. So where do we stand today? Buhari started his bid for the presidency with a big promise of change. His credentials for change were good and impressive. Moreover, the circumstances made him supremely believable. Most of us Nigerians were simply embarrassed to be ruled by a presidency that had become a byword for lack of thinking, planning, doing and achieving. So when Buhari with his history of opposition to corruption stepped on the scene, most of us were ready to believe.
Today we can say that we are not disappointed. Buhari does sincerely hate and despise corruption. He consistently demonstrates that through his rhetoric and his actions. So what do we expect from his war against corruption? He waged war against it before as a military dictator but the barons of corruption raised up another military dictator to boot him out. Today he is fighting corruption as an elected leader of a democratic government. Can we expect better results than before? Of course we hope so, but the facts in front of us tarnish that hope somewhat. The barons of corruption are still very much at work and are achieving a measure of success against Buhari from various directions. Manifestly, they have recruited the National Assembly as their allies. They are also using the legal system to resist the Buhari anti-corruption agenda. They are evidently determined to maintain their position and the benefits accruing therefrom. So it is beginning to look to observers, that the role of Buhari in the war against corruption in our country may be only that of a forerunner. He may be the man who will re-awaken the awareness of the importance of anti-corruption as well as invigorate our hope that corruption can be beaten. Meanwhile, what the future may hold in store is that a young passionate patriot may somehow step into the presidency and proceed to do for Nigeria what Jerry Rawlings did for Ghana. That is gather the richest, the most recalcitrant and the most influential barons of corruption and line them up before a firing squad. It would appear, unfortunately, that nothing less will rid this nation of the scourge of such deep rotted corruption in the high places of our land. If that is what our future brings, we must not forget, then, that there had been a man called Buhari who inspired us never to give up the fight against corruption. That seems likely to be the heritage of Buhari in the history of our country.
On the economic front, Buhari has stepped into the presidency at a most difficult moment. Since about 1970, Nigeria’s rulers have built Nigeria’s whole economic life on the assumption that crude oil will forever pump floods of revenue into our national coffers. Building on that assumption, they progressively neglected other resources of our country. They also systematically distorted our federation, accumulated all power and resource control in the hands of federal government and took away from our states all capabilities to champion and promote development in their domains. Ultimately they have turned our states into beggars, ever waiting for doles from federal government. They have turned governance in our states into merely taking financial allocation from Abuja and dispensing it. The result is that poverty has been enthroned in our lives. Education has collapsed in our state schools. Our youth is mostly alarmingly unemployed and un-provided for, our infrastructure has largely collapsed and our communities have deteriorated abominably. It is good to have a man of Buhari’s sincerity at the helm of affairs, but what can he achieve since the foundations have been so fearfully destroyed?
We can all see that he faces serious challenges to needed action. One major challenge is the steep fall in the price of crude oil and the resulting revenues therefrom. From about $115 per barrel in mid 2014, oil is now selling for about $35 per barrel. Under the pressure, the naira is now declining precipitously – from about N180 per dollar just a few months ago to over N280 now. Inevitably, Nigeria’s borrowing capacity in the world is eroding out of hand, and so we must ask, what is the possible road ahead?
Another challenge facing Buhari is one stubborn feature of our country’s political tradition. One section of our country insists on controlling everything in line with the system created by the British for us at independence. As we can all observe today, no matter how Nigerian-minded Buhari may be, he is still somewhat subject to the demands and expectations of the Arewa North. We saw this in his appointments into the non-ministerial positions in his presidency. After appointing northerners to almost all positions, he made the unfortunate statement that he had appointed only the persons known to him. Of course we know that Buhari is aware that his duty as president is to seek the best from all over the nation to fill such important posts. The feeling in other parts of the country is that he did so to satisfy the powerful Arewa North voices. Most Nigerians also believe that the way his party, the APC is being treated is also because he is trying to please the Arewa North. It looks as if certain forces are seeking to sideline the APC in the making and management of this presidency. And that is certainly not good for our country. Our system provides that a political party will put itself, its agenda and its candidates before us to vote for. After we have so voted, we are supposed to expect that the party will be fully part of the whole package of governance. The duty of our president is not merely to govern by the day, it is also to ensure orderly progression and growth to our future as a country. Operating the system as it is provided for in our constitution is critical to our future as a nation.
Moreover it also appears that it is because President Buhari must yield to a section of our country that he is not responding at all to repeated demands for the restructuring of our federation. The demands come in daily from all areas and he has studiously abstained from touching the subject. Yet, restructuring is the key to a lot of the problems that we face now as a nation. To revamp our economy, we must now have a federation in which the states and their governments are dynamic centres and agencies of development. That means that we must show respect to our nationalities in the making of our states. It also means that we must redistribute power and resource control to give considerable power and capability to our states. This will also greatly advance the fight against corruption. Unfortunately our Arewa North leaders have consistently opposed these measures. Some of them have threatened to start a war rather than allow a disruption of the status quo. Most sections of Nigeria are saying that the status quo is untenable and President Buhari must respond to that. Some are even going as far as to threaten trouble for our country if these measures are not taken. Our President cannot continue to ignore these voices.
President Buhari has earned himself many sincere friends across Nigeria. A decent man like him who so sincerely despises corruption deserves our respect and support. Therefore those of us who respect and support him must urge him to muster the courage to do the best by our country. That will make us very proud indeed.
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