Buhari, Nigeria’s future stuck in limbo under your stewardship 

BY AMIRU HALILU

Your predecessor, former President Goodluck Jonathan, ran his government like a ridiculous ineffectual clown and he is gone. His contribution towards the destruction of our beloved country Nigeria was immense. Certain ethical presuppositions were shared among Nigerians about how your own government would be run. For that reason, it was our collective assumption and thought that yours will be different from that unforgettable amateurish government.

Forlornly, just like your predecessor, you are now running yours like a loose inferior me-tooer who has no clue of the essentials that made-up able and skillful stewardship. The pain your gross incompetence is inflicting upon every part of the nation’s populace is immeasurable. Even those who still admire your old-school style of inept-leadership now truly believed and confessed that you are doing great harm to the nation’s future, and it’s glaring to every discerning mind that you are completely out of the picture as a Commander in chief.

Former President of the United States Barack Obama was a black-haired young and debonair before he came to power. But when he took the oath of office and started feeling the pressure and begins to shoulder the burden of the office, he started going grey and he completely went grey before he left the office. Because the undertakings and the burden demanding by the office of any sensible, exuberant and serious commander in chief who is not just an ordinary occupant of the office are too arduous for anyone to look handsome while in the office.

You are occupying an office which requires a political spirit, true sense of service, character and zeal to change the fortune of this complex nation. Unfortunately, you have been displaying a very low-spirit, and you have not deployed any sufficient skills and experience in the art of governance since your assumption of office. You only proved to be habitually unlearned and ideologically lame. How well those who govern represent those who are governed is the capacity to steer society. Regrettably, you lose control of that steering mechanism.

Though, you had already confessed in your first tenure that age wasn’t by your side meaning you lack the energy and the wherewithal to work things out, improve the situation and make life better for Nigeria’s populace. Yet, you scale-through the 2019 election because Nigeria is a nation of 200 million clowns. Today, the nation is plundering in the abyss of uncertainty because you unburden yourself of the moral responsibility attached to the office.

Anarchy is prevailing for the reason that the entire system is crumbling. Northern Nigeria turned into zone of deaths and terrorism, while the entire nation ceased to be a human habitation but degenerates into a brutally dangerous jungle. Under your watch, Nigerians lose that distinction which differentiates man from beast. Many women are crying-out for being raped in their matrimonial bed and in presence of their husbands in your home state Katsina. Bandits have taken over many villages across the northern region; they have turned the villagers into their ATM machine where they usually come to extort money at will.

According to media report, 43 farmers were slaughtered by the Boko Haram terrorists penultimate week. That’s one of the gruesome scenes we have ever witnessed in the nation’s history. But your senior special assistant on media and publicity Malam Garba Shehu said the farmers didn’t get clearance from the military to go to farm. Anyone with an ounce of sympathy will say: This is a contemptuous display of crass and arrogance, and a statement of a government that is so clueless and helpless.

Why such gruesome murders keep on reoccurring is really a thought-provoking question any morally-correct government should be asking itself. Going back to the drawing board and tweak your initial failed ideas, plans and security strategies should have been a matter of priority rather than issuing needless condolences and irrational child statement by your proxy. You should concentrate on treating the causes of these acts of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and so on than treating the symptoms.

“Poverty is the worst form of violence,” says Mahatma Gandhi. And where the people are dumb and discounted poverty exists. The social conditions which are the main spur to these acts of cruelty are yet to be properly addressed by your insensitive government. The extreme destitution shows the world that the nation is in the hands of an immature ruler.

Therefore, no amount of propaganda or sermonising will completely eradicate this abject penury and the pangs of hunger and thirst. The only antidote to this menace is action not reaction to these problems. Should you invest the energy you invested in your reelection bid in securing the nation, it’s my humble opinion that you would have overcome half of the nation’s challenges.

Your bad economic policies subjected many Nigerians into constant agony. Your promise to address the inequality — the driving force behind the extreme destitution remained a mere mirage. Ninety-five percent of the nation’s resources still go to only five percent of the nation’s populace; while only five percent of the nation’s resources go to ninety-five percent of the nation’s populace. As a consequence, the country has now become a slumbering elephant, all trunks but no movement.

John F. Kennedy was right to say that: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

Amiru Halilu writes from Kaduna and can be reached through [email protected] or @AmiruHalilu