By Muazu Jibril Muazu
The declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the 2015 presidential polls in what was widely accepted as free, fair and credible election, is a situation of interest to history and a test of evocative power play, as well as a understanding of the political terrain that Nigeria has witnessed in recent times.
It appears that Mr. Buhari deployed all available tactics to ensure that he won the primary and secondary elections.
Courage, endurance, fearlessness, doggedness and above all self-sacrifice, are the qualities required of any progressive leader. A leader who cannot exhibit these qualities in their fullness would not be able to lead a nation.
To President Buhari and his cabinet, much have been given in five-year; of us, much is required.
Mr. Buhari established and showcased himself to Nigerians as a symbol of determination, integrity, honesty, patriotism, resilience, dedication, stoicism and transparency, as they say, but he is lacking in spirit. Because it is by spirit that a man serves.
Let us not mince words here: the Buhari administration has failed to bring Nigeria out of the woods, not anywhere near in capacity to deliver Nigeria out of the woods. He has failed to rise up to the expectations of the good people of Nigeria.
In five-year, Buhari has turned a blind eye to Nigerian law, disrespected the judiciary, ignored every electoral promise and embraced nepotism as standard procedure in leadership.
This is quite perilous.
On December 10, 2014, Mr. Buhari was reported to have said that, he would govern with constitution and rule of law. “I will honesty govern Nigeria in accord with the constitution and rule of law.” Could he be now said to be governing with the Constitution and rule of law?
Similarly, on February 26, 2015, he said, “On corruption, there will be no confusion as to where l stand. Corruption will have no place and the corrupt will not be appointed into my administration.” Is this administration not seeding and initiating another level of corruption? Is this administration free of corrupt people?
On March 26, 2015, Mr. Buhari said, “…if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria. We must not allow Nigeria to die…” But where are we heading to in this regard, presently?
What about the trial of the corruption cases involving former public officials – Babachir David Lawal and Oke Ayo; Adulrasheed Maina; Abdulrahman Danbazau, the former minister for Internal Affairs; Kano State governor, Adbdullahi Umar Ganduje; and the case involving the chief of Army staff, General Yusuf Buratai – among others?
Nigeria is chronically sick at the moment!
What did Mr. President do in the case of the officials who annually pad the budget or divert monies into their private pockets, and loot resources such as the Global Funds?
Whatever happened about the allegations made by Abdulmumin Jibrin on budget padding?
What about the incessant looting of humanitarian assistance funds?
What did Buhari about defending his purported intergrity and unimpeachable character in the case of the N500 million bribe out of the MTN fine that his late Chief of Staff was alleged to have helped himself to?
What about the trial of the corruption cases involving former public officials – Babachir David Lawal and Oke Ayo; Adulrasheed Maina; Abdulrahman Danbazau, the former minister for Internal Affairs; Kano State governor, Adbdullahi Umar Ganduje; and the case involving the chief of Army staff, General Yusuf Buratai – among others?
Also, on May 29, 2015, Buhari promised not to encroach on the duties and functions of the legislative and judicial arms of government. Has he kept this promise?
The president is routinely part and parcel of conspiracies against the legal process, in the selection of the leaders of the two chambers of the National Assembly.
How can one expect rationality when those in the control of power and the economy at every level did not get into position on the basis of merit? Nigeria is being destroyed daily by desperate politicians and sadistic criminals.
Equally on May 29 in 2015, Buhari said, “It is a national shame that an economy of 180 million generates only 4,000 MW, and distributes even less.” How many megawatts of electricity has he produced in five years in office?
Politicians are just fooling Nigerians, time after time, through lies and convoluted reasoning. And this was testified by the current minister of Power.
Talking about national identity, there are no Nigerians, except those in public office. And, these old crop politicians are bound to conceal their nepotistic propensities. Most Nigerian politicians are narcissistic, egotistic and egocentric.
Buhari, the purported less compromising man, is the soul, the spirit and the building block of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). This party has chronically underperformed in government so far, in relation to the proclamation of CHANGE it had set out to achieve.
The APC’s poor performance so far has been widely attributed to its chronic disorganisation and the crises within its ranks in many states, arising from acrimonious primary elections.
This administration lacks focus, as demonstrated by the absence of good government policies on education, electricity, healthcare, security and industrial development. Even though it has done fairly well in the area of agriculture.
After the 2019 elections across the country, people have felt cheated in their strong desire for change, which has come to naught. The culture of impunity, bad governance, deception and inciting political statements has become the order of the day.
The political landscape is increasingly becoming intolerant. We have become polarised ideologically and politically. Today, we see counter-directives between federal government and state government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This explains how we are disconnected from the trajectory of governance. We, the people, have been systematically edged out of the governance equation.
Therefore, the current situation, alongside the COVID-19 pandemic and the unwitting spread of paranoia by some media organisations, could provoke social revolution, unless measures are taken to improve people’s lives and conditions.
There are a lot of anticipated changes that the nation is hopeful will take place.
The education system is in desperate need of reform. The issue of electricity, healthcare, as well as the protection of lives and properties, insensitivity in governance, insincerity and injustice in politics, all need to be curtailed.
Nigeria has a lot of potentials waiting for the right leadership to harness. We need forthright leaders to move the nation forward.
May God see through these trying times. And may God save us from us!
Muazu Jibril Muazu is a public affairs analyst from Kano; Email: muazumj@gmail.com
