“I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.
– Barack Obama
Have Nigerians learned anything from their experience over the past eight years? This is the question that comes to mind every time stalwarts of the ruling All Progressives Congress attribute Nigeria’s current multi-faceted struggles to some unnamed cabal around the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Over the years, Nigerians have grappled with a mountain of existential challenges. Talk about poverty, hunger, insecurity, and a general state of despair. Yet, the past five months present two far more gripping problems, which justifiably trouble leaders of the ruling party, moreso with elections fast approaching.
The first is the scarce and expensive motor spirit known as “petrol.” Petrol is the most used fuel in Nigeria. Since the country presents its citizens with few options other than road transportation, most vehicles operate on this product. Just in the same way that generators powered by petrol are the mainstay of the electricity supply of 200 million people! When such an important enabler becomes scarce to an overwhelmingly poor citizenry, the ruling party must indeed worry about its electoral fortunes.
But there is a more serious problem. This is the fallout of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to redesign the country’s legal tender and discourage cash transactions as much as possible.
Politicians in every divide appear to agree that this is a masterstroke in Nigeria’s quest to curb money politics. Nigerians also believe that the policy would pull the carpet off the feet of criminals and corrupt elements who pile the currency in their homes from crooked sources and for less than noble motives. So, everyone across party lines agrees it is an important step in managing Nigeria’s economy.
Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said in January that 80 per cent of the 3.2 trillion naira in circulation as of October 2022, when it announced that policy decision, were in private hands. He also said 75 per cent of that had been in the banks by the end of January. So, it appears like the CBN was achieving some of its aim, except that access to the new currencies is herculean, even as the second deadline crawls in on us. Nigerians have become frustrated because they cannot withdraw funds from their accounts, while automated teller machines and many of the electronic applications of many banks have also not been functioning. Faced with their helplessness, the people have resorted to protests in several cities across the country. And on one or two occasions, loss of life has been reported! It is not a place a country like Nigeria should be. Again, everyone across the divide acknowledges this.
However, many people in the APC, including its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, see more than meets the eye in the situation. At some of his rallies, Tinubu expressed sadness at the situation with petrol supply and the redesign of the Naira, showing an attempt to sabotage the APC.
Governors Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State and Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State have also echoed the same. Both governors and many of their colleagues who met Buhari earlier in the week are of the opinion that some saboteurs around the President misadvised him, hence the situation at hand.
Maybe they are right! Like in every other country, there are very high stakes in Nigerian politics. People have vested interests and they invest themselves in pursuing these interests with all they have got, including misleading the President. The question, however, is: What does that say about the President himself?
Take petrol, for instance. Since 2015, Buhari has been the minister of petroleum. This choice was ostensibly to ensure that he curbed corrupt tendencies in the sector. Yet, Nigeria has known more trouble in this sector than ever before. The cost of subsidy, which Buhari once said didn’t exist, has increased astronomically, with the country‘s capacity to benefit from her prime export product diminished. But things could have gone differently had the President taken advice!
On June 21, 2015, Reuters reported that the Transition Committee set up by Buhari advised him to sell off the four refineries and end the subsidy regime. The report, headlined, “Nigeria’s Buhari advised to end fuel subsidy,” said: “the subsidy, which was revealed to have paid out more than $6 billion in fraudulent claims in 2012, is proving to be increasingly costly…”
Even Buhari’s first Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachukwu, expressed support for the disposal of the refineries. But again, the President, with nothing but the knowledge of having been a minister four decades earlier, overruled
A September 15, 2016, editorial titled: “Time to Sell Off the Refineries,” quoted Kachukwu: “Personally, I would have chosen to sell the refineries, but President Buhari has instructed that they should be fixed. After they are fixed, if they still operate below 60 per cent, then we will know what to do.”
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited says it spent over N4tn of unavailable money to pay subsidies for mostly unavailable fuel last year alone! Would yielding to advice in 2015 have saved us from these troubles?
One could advance this same argument for the Naira redesign. Since his early days in government, President Buhari has known the way he wants things done, and he only takes advice that conforms to his philosophy. Now, government officials will capitalise on this disposition by presenting and securing approval for policies that reflect his perception of government. It is therefore doubtful that anyone would get away with anything the President does not believe in. The President may, therefore, not be as unaware as it seems.
But perchance the President is manipulable, as is being suggested by some of those in his party. This must inspire Nigerians to ask themselves what they need in a president in 2023.
The people should recall that the strength of the Buhari campaign for the 2015 elections was his integrity, but how far has that taken the country?
That is not to take anything away from the President’s honesty; it is just to say that democracy does not run on integrity alone. A president will hobnob with thousands of men and women who are deft in the art of politics and will give him advice that could muddle up his clarity. Therefore, anyone who desires political office must come with more than a sparkling personality because a country needs much more to develop.
So, my question to Nigerians now is, “How much have we learned from the past eight years of the Buhari administration and those before it?” Are Nigerians now alert enough to put the experience of the past 23 years together in their choice of leaders in the coming weeks? Politicians will always be politicians; citizens must know this. But they must also know that the greatest power in a democracy lies with the people. As of 2023, the failures of yesterday should teach the people on how to do things better. If Nigerians repeat the mistakes of the past, it would be on the people themselves and not the politicians.
Credit: Niran Adedokun