In less than three weeks, it will be a year since Nigerians vengefully voted out President Jonathan for presiding over the pillaging of our country, confiscation of our patrimony, unleashing Boko Haram and Niger Delta insurgents on Nigeria and running a government of ‘delegation by abdication’; a president who was never really in charge. But nine months into APC administration, many are saying as against governance, what they see is creeping dictatorship and offensive indolence from a government of a party dominated by young and vibrant intellectuals from whom people expected nothing short of miracles.
The leadership of APC, an amalgam of the fine and the ugly, unfortunately underestimated the level of mischief of some of its members and the desperation of its defeated PDP opponent. Determined to destabilise APC, they embarked on a mission of creating a ‘Leviathan’ out of politically naïve Buhari. It was not an accident that it was a PDP stalwart, Shamsudeen Usman, a Minister of Finance and National Planning at different times that first reminded Buhari that the contribution of Tinubu and the Yoruba to his victory was over-exaggerated.
Suddenly Buhari who contested with Dr. Chuba Okadigbo as running mate in 2003 and lost; in 2007 with Edwin Ume-Ezeoke who after losing abandoned him to join the ruling party describing Buhari as ‘having no electoral value in ANPP’; and a man who contested with Tunde Bakare in 2011 and lost but won in 2015 using the APC platform was described as an asset to the party that made him president after his fourth attempt. PDP sympathetic newspapers lionized Buhari and demonized Tinubu and went ahead with crooked logic that Saraki’s treachery against APC was to protect Buhari from the overweening influence of Tinubu.
And when Pa Akande called attention to the despicable activities of some self-serving northern elite who love neither Nigeria nor Buhari, the conversation became bizarre. What do the Yoruba want, they asked on the pages of their papers. Suddenly we were told, Bukola Saraki, whose father not too long ago publicly admitted he was a descendant of Fulani migrant from Sudan, is Yoruba. Toyin, his wife we were reminded is also Yoruba. What else, they asked, do the Yoruba want in Buhari government in which Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a Yoruba man is the vice president.
Slowly and steadily, those who tried to frustrate the emergence of Buhari as president soon created a Leviathan out of him. Buhari, a man with heart of gold who learnt very little from intrigues of politicians in his ANPP days probably believed those who claimed they were protecting him from the overweening influence of Tinubu and APC. Lionised, he was to declare at his inauguration: ‘I belong to no one’. He went on to declare he was ready to work with anyone who emerged as leader of the National Assembly, thus shooting himself in the leg as that paved the way for its take-over by PDP men in APC cloak.
As against a think tank, Buhari like all oligarchs surrounded himself with short-sighted people who are more interested in protecting what they think the north is currently benefiting from our federation, the only one of its kind in the world where according to Soludo, ‘the centre doled out monies every month to Local Councils that are not accountable to it’. Surrounded by those subservient to him while distancing himself from the party oligarchy that can question him probably account for the paralysis or what critics describe as indolence. For instance, it took Buhari about six months to constitute a cabinet. And now nine months after inauguration, over 500 small governments that in reality drive activities of government are in the hands of PDP appointees who do not share APC philosophy. Add that to the fact that nearly all the chairmanship of critical committees of the National Assembly are controlled by PDP.
All the university boards with the exception of the 11 new ones where even the president’s recent intervention was mismanaged by his subservient kitchen cabinet are still in the hands of PDP sympathizers. Professor Jerry Gana who has been in government since 1984 who donated N5b on behalf of his unidentified friends to Jonathan’s re-election bid was in University of Lagos over the week end to pontificate. Omeri, Stella Odua’s deputy as chief mobiliser of Jonathan election, a man who worked hands in glove with the likes of Dasuki trying to sabotage the 2015 election was in government until recently. Even for its symbolism, people like Gana and Omeri ought not to be seen representing APC government of change.
It is probably because everyone is watching the body language of the Leviathan while governance receded to the background that accounts for the re-emergence of fuel queues, with independent oil marketers impetuously declaring on television that NNPC importation of 80% of fuel will not solve our problem because NNPC has no storage facilities, long after Nigerians expected Buhari to have ended such national embarrassment. It probably explains the inability of Dr. Kayode Fayemi of solid minerals ministry to act on the scandal that was the sale of Ajaokuta and call the bluff of some Indians currently holding the country to ransom. It is the only plausible explanation for why Fashola (the president foreman) think building toll gates and increasing electricity tariff take precedence over supply of prepaid meters or informing the public of the obligation of the 60 licensed Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to consumers after negotiating tax free ‘importation of gas-related machinery and equipment’ and bail out of more than half a billion naira with the last administration. And finally, it is perhaps why Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture has been going around doing the job of EFCC and that of the president’s Senior Special Adviser on Information, telling us the number of those in court facing EFCC charges and defending the president’s trips abroad instead of focusing on just the culture component of his ministry which has the potentials to generate billions in foreign exchange for the country.
It is apparent every APC member seems to have been bitten by the ‘Leviathan bug’. No one, including the party oligarchy has been able to look at Buhari in the face and tell him the truth. Must the President spend all his time travelling now because we have problem? Obama inherited two wars and a debt of 16trillion dollars piled up by his predecessors. He sat back at home and did the job. In our own case, our foreign debt is only about $10b. This cannot be a death sentence for a resilient people made up the good, the bad and the ugly that has stolen about $200b kept in already identified banks in the Middle East, Europe and Americas. Outside of Buhari’s first round of foreign trips to the US, UK, Germany and France to thank their leaders for their contribution to our peaceful transition, all other foreign engagements can be handled by our foreign minister whose name unfortunately few Nigerians can remember. And no one has asked the president why he needed more than nine months in office to fulfil his campaign promise of selling off the inherited Presidential Fleet of 10 aircrafts or convert them to form the nucleus of a national carrier and save the country of billions we lose to foreign carriers.
And what is the way forward since failure is not an alternative? I think Buhari needs help. Modern government is a science and democracy is a game of consensus and compromise where delegation without abdication has been found more productive than centralization which produces nothing but paralysis. Tinubu should tell the president the secret of his success in Lagos. Buhari should allow young people trained in science of modern government run the show while he provides cover with his integrity and honesty, virtues Nigerians know he has in abundance but which they are aware are not enough to make him a successful president just as they were not enough to win him the presidency during his first three attempts.
Credits: Jide Oluwajuyitan
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