When I dropped my pen last week, I did not envisage that two major events would answer the questions raised in the article better than the Nigerian and foreign technocrats had done. I never thought a close evidence of the “no one in control” stance of some critical officers close to the centre of power in Nigeria could manifest so soon, at a time loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari are at their wit’s end, trying to justify why an albino can, conveniently, be called a white man by Nigerian standards.
Many of the respected apolitical professionals that sought to explain why the cleverly crafted Change slogan, which pooh-poohed even some statistically verifiable achievement claims of the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration, must give way for a “Change the Change” position, struggled to convince me that in 2018, we are still technically 10 years behind in socio-economic matters.
It is more painful that even apologists of the Buhari administration would now have to design a more stupid blame game to explain why the same cataclysms that led to the sudden but expected ouster of the Jonathan government are now kicking hard against the anticipated saviour at the eleventh hour
According to them, until Nigerians refuse to be hoodwinked into believing that a book can reliably be assessed by its cover, the country may never witness genuine ‘Change’, driven by captains, who appreciate the real meaning of the word. And as long as winning elections is continually tied to the influence of the amalgamation of atrociously distended private purses, successive governments, no matter how sincere the lead actor may be, will continue to tackle corruption on the pages of newspapers.
Some have argued, and may be correctly too, that the current administration cannot completely wash itself clean of the proceeds of corruption, in whatever form, because the President could not have singlehandedly funded the 2014/2015 capital intensive Change campaign regardless of the N27.5 million bank loan he secured to pay for expression of interest and nomination form, as well as the N54 million reported to have been donated by ordinary Nigerians and other support groups. But this should not, in any way, tie the General’s hands when it comes to critical matters that could determine his rating after this time out.
Knowing the President well enough, close associates, who would not want their names mentioned, insist that members of the President’s kitchen cabinet are pursuing a cause completely different from his, and may eventually turn him into the enemy of those who once truly loved him. This set of advisers, they claim, would easily tell the President that it is morning in Nigeria when the Nigerian Television Authority is airing its 9pm news. “As long as they would be able to perpetrate their dastardly acts irrespective of the dent this may cause on the President’s image, they don’t care. Such people also surrounded Jonathan; but by the time he realised this, it was too late,” a top official in government told me.
It is so sad that Nigeria, which seemed all set to take sure steps, even if painful, towards economic revitalisation with the celebrated combination of integrity and professionalism that the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket put across, has stumbled many times over in the absence of a specific results-oriented development plan.
It is more painful that even apologists of the Buhari administration would now have to design a more stupid blame game to explain why the same cataclysms that led to the sudden but expected ouster of the Jonathan government are now kicking hard against the anticipated saviour at the eleventh hour.
Just about the time the President was reiterating, in Yola, his 2015 pledge to fight corruption and insurgency to a standstill, and declaring that good progress had been made in that direction, the international world, on the one hand, and terrorists, on the other, were puncturing his claims with long nails. How? The latest Corruption Perception Index released, last Wednesday, by Transparency International indicated that corruption was getting worse under an administration, which came into power on the strength of its campaign against “unrestrained corruption” during the Jonathan era. Nigeria was ranked 148th, out of 180 countries as against a position of 136 in 2016. Ironically, the ranking improved from 143 in 2011 to 139 in 2012 under the previous government. It declined, perhaps at the peak of negligence, to 144 in 2013, but improved again to 136 in 2014 and this was maintained in 2015 even in the thick of political campaigns. How can one then explain the fact that a government that wants to be remembered for fighting corruption to a standstill barely maintained the 2014/2015 ranking in 2016 and fell, flat on its face, by 12 places to the148th position in the year that the President is expected to make public his intention to run again?
Another blow is that, as I write, 105 girls are still missing, following last Monday’s attack on Government Secondary School, Dapchi, Yobe State by the dreaded terrorist group, Boko Haram. Like the President rightly said, it is a national calamity. But there should have been no place for such again, especially when the globally condemned abduction of 276 Chibok girls, by the same terrorists, during the previous administration, was a major campaign point for the All Progressives Congress. Yet, one may not be able to rule out a devilish political undertone to the sad occurrence. (The Chibok girls were kidnapped in 2014, a year to the 2015 elections; and the Dapchi abduction has also been executed in the year preceding an election year). Whatever explanation is offered for this unfortunate situation, I would join well-meaning Nigerians in saying, ‘Diaris God o.’
On a more serious note, however, my main concern now is: what will this government be remembered for when its two reliable case studies seem to be disintegrating at the point of establishing another campaign thesis? As expected, there have been a lot of comments for and against the Buhari administration with regard to the two issues at hand. Passionate supporters have queried the authenticity of the indices that formed the basis of the TI corruption ranking, while dismissing the Dapchi attack as a disaster that could have happened under any government. But critics and students of history have reminded them that the same Corruption Perception Index had been in use, and had formed the basis of analysts’ conclusion on the level of corruption in Nigeria, long before the Buhari days. The release of the Chibok girls, according to them, was also played up, prior to the 2015 elections, as a condition for considering Jonathan or his Peoples Democratic Party for another term. The last argument could be a lead to what I would not want to believe; that some devilish politicians could be playing politics with innocent lives!
Nonetheless, the picture, right now, calls for an urgent rethink of the perilous game called politics in Nigeria. Citizens must refuse to queue blindly behind candidates picked by either the APC or the PDP. Armed with their voter’s cards, Nigerians must be determined to kick out buccaneers disguising as statesmen and support a candidate based on pedigree and not ‘partygree’.
The clock is ticking, no doubt, but the current administration, previous ones, and indeed those to come, can borrow some words of wisdom, offered by the 47th Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, while condemning the growing insecurity in US schools. Calling for citizens’ support for keeping weapons of war out of the classrooms and off US streets, he said, “I said long ago that the most important thing anyone running for office has to decide is what they are willing to lose over. Not what they are willing to do to win. But what are they willing to lose over? … Is protecting our children’s lives worth losing over? …You’re damn right it is.”
With the current situation in which the hunter now appears to be the hunted in Nigeria, the President Buhari that I think I know would prefer to lose (election) over a decision to crush the toes of anyone blocking the rare chance of writing his name in Gold.
For now, Nigerians are watching.
