Can we still trust the president?

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” – Thomas Jefferson, former American president 

Almost a year into his democratic administration which was heralded with much hope and expectations last May, President Muhammadu Buhari, more than any other Nigerian President, is gradually unfolding himself as the most deceitful leader to have been voted into Aso Rock especially on the basis of the campaign promises made. Looking at the performance and character of his administration so far, I can confidently declare today, and with all sense of responsibility, that Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), have successfully hoodwinked Nigerians into believing they have solutions to the problems confronting our country. Alas, the truth is they don’t!

Yet they carry on with pretence, giving the country false hope about their capacity and capability to deliver. My dear friends, brothers and sisters, and fellow Nigerians, I am sad to inform you that we have been swindled. Sincerely, I think we have been sold a fake for an original!

One governor you know, whose guts a lot of people hate, consistently says we have been “419ed” and that Nigeria has entered “one chance” with this APC government. While the governor’s open theatrics sometimes make no sense and ridicule the high office he holds, I wholeheartedly believe his words make sense. And this is the sad reality whether we want to admit it or not.

And why do I think so? For many reasons!

Now, a little personal explanation. I’m someone who often wants to give people the benefit of the doubt before making my conclusions on them. And while I have had cause to criticise President Buhari in the past, I had done so mildly. But daily, the President is confirming with his words and actions, that dispassionate Nigerians can no longer trust him or give his government the benefit of the doubt.

But first, I want to enjoin the President’s die-hard supporters and his party’s apologists to cool their tempers and patiently hear the hard truths before they start the name-calling like many of them are ever ready to do whenever the Buhari government is being constructively criticised by those who have no other interests but the overall interest of Nigeria at heart.

To start with, the administration was slow in taking off. Sorry, very slow in taking off. Yet, its party told us they were going to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, we are all witnesses to what happened. That was clear evidence they were ill-prepared. It was a very dangerous signal sent out by the government. But I’m not sure if we caught it. Well maybe we were trying to be patient and give the government opportunity to settle down. Some of its officials even told us it was going to take time to clear the mess that the previous PDP governments created in the last 16 years. We decided we would give them the benefit of the doubt hoping things would change for the better. Almost 10 months after coming to power, we are still waiting for the positive change. They failed to seize the moment and didn’t realise the fierce urgency of the job at hand.

Like my Pastor, Dr. James Akanbi, often says, “preparation is preparation.” A student or teacher or leader or preacher who fails to prepare and plan has already set him or herself up for failure. Such fellow cannot deliver when opportunity comes, or shine and manifest for his generation. I think this is the case with this government. I put it to the Buhari government and its agents that they clearly didn’t plan well become coming to power. Nigerians gave them a job to do but they didn’t give the job the utmost preparation, attention and sincere commitment it deserves.

Honestly, I will confess that it is with a very heavy heart that I write this article today. I am sad. I am angry. In fact, I weep for my country. As I type these words, time is 12:30am. But I can’t sleep. Why? It’s about the latest news from the government, another evidence of the fact that we have a deceitful government in place. Why, for God’s sake, does the Buhari government just take pleasure in telling lies?  Just why?

You are asking what again? President Buhari, in an interview he granted Aljazeera which was aired over the weekend, made it known that Nigeria has joined the Saudi Arabia-led coalition of 34 largely-Muslim countries to fight terrorism. Other members of the coalition, if you don’t already know, include Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Turkey, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, the Palestinians, Comoros, Qatar, Cote d’Ivoire, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, and Yemen. It is that group which President Buhari has now committed Nigeria to.

Yet, this is the same government that barely two weeks ago informed the nation through the President’s Senior Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu, that Buhari had turned down the invitation to be part of the coalition during his recent trip to Saudi Arabia.  Within two weeks, the President made a U-turn and a volte-face; sadly there was no courtesy of duly engaging Nigerians on the matter and carrying them along. How low can a government fall? How disrespectful can a government be? How more disdainful and contemptuous can a President take his citizens?

Why on earth would the President not consider the issue more seriously and even carry out wider consultations before committing Nigeria as a member of the coalition more so in a pluralistic country as ours with strong ethnic and religious sentiments that we are yet to overcome? Does the President realise this portends danger to the peace and security of the country?

Sincerely, when some Nigerians insist President Buhari is pursuing a hidden agenda of the North to Islamise the country, an action like this give their allegations some weight to any independent-minded observer. By saying something today and saying another thing tomorrow, the Buhari government may yet get the award for the most-lying administration ever in Nigeria’s history with its propaganda machine being run by Lai Mohammed, Minister for Information.

Yet, the signs were very clear abinitio but we chose to ignore them. Before coming to power, Buhari condemned the number of aircraft in the Presidential fleet promising Nigerians he would reduce the number if voted into office. Till now, Nigerians are still waiting for him to fulfil the promise even though this was something he could have sorted out within the first three months of his Presidency if not even in the first month. He said his ministers would have to declare their assets publicly. Have they done this? Even his own, didn’t we just gloss over it with the several questions handing around it for a man who told us he took a loan to buy his form to contest  the APC Presidential primaries?

And the hopes of some youths who voted Buhari trusting his government would give them N5, 000 monthly handouts have also just been dashed irrespective of how some of the spokesmen in the Presidency want to spin it!

The various scandals around the 2016 budget has so far brought monumental embarrassment to Nigeria and effectively showed that this is not a government truly serious at reducing the wastage of our national wealth going on in Abuja at this time of dwindled oil revenue and economic downturn. Again, the President hardly takes responsibility for errors of his government. Rather than admit the buck stops at his table, he keeps passing on the blame to others. Meanwhile, the Buhari government still wants to spend more money on the State House Clinic far above all the teaching hospitals in Nigeria combined. Now, what is that?

For me and my household, we have been lied enough to by this government. We have been deceived and bamboozled enough. No more.

Ha, God Almighty, our heavenly father, why do we have leaders who raise our hopes and expectations to high heavens in Nigeria but eventually dash them to the ground without any shame or remorse? Oh Lord our God, what are you teaching us in Nigeria that we still haven’t learnt to comprehend for so long thus hindering the true change we all want to see in our fatherland?

Moreover, critical matters affecting the nation are also often left unaddressed for days until they are almost spiralling out of control. The fuel queues have returned; for how many days now? Or have they disappeared in your neighbourhood?

And despite the seriousness and the gravity of the Ese Oruru case, for instance, the President, as the father of the nation, didn’t even feel such abduction and the debasement of the girl-child in our country deserves his attention and condemnation. Or is such very serious issue with diverse implications for the unity of Nigeria not deserving of his Presidential comment? However, if you ask me, I think the President was only being himself. When Interior Minister, Dambazzau was involved in a public shoe-shining controversy earlier in the year, any comment or reprimand from the President at all? None. Absolutely none. He saw nothing wrong with Dambazzau’s conduct even though his party, the APC, promised us change; a change Nigerians expected would also include how ministers and government officials conduct themselves in public.

This is also a President who takes delight in announcing major policies of his government outside the country as if this is the appropriate and sensible thing to do or foreigners are more important than Nigerians he is leading. This is a President who carries on as if he is all-knowing and all-wise. This is a President that de-markets his own country and calls his fellow citizens criminals. Our hospitals can be transformed to world-class, and Nigerians would no longer need to travel overseas for the best medical care but we have a President who believes there’s no need to show personal example and there’s nothing wrong for him going overseas to see his foreign doctor for treatment.

The Buhari Presidency isn’t even up to one year yet but I have a gut feeling its scorecard at the end of the day is already being written now. In his “My Covenant with Nigerians,” what items therein can President Buhari and the APC confidently say have been delivered almost one year into their Presidency?

Yes, monies are being recovered from looters. But who says these same funds are not in some ways being looted by his own  people in government even now? Yes, Nigerians already know that a good part of the funds spent by the PDP for its 2015 Presidential campaigns came from places it ought not to have come from and our national wealth were wickedly transferred to private accounts in the most terrible greed that could ever be exhibited by leaders anywhere in the world and visited upon their people. However, has Buhari dared to probe the sources of the funds for his own party’s campaigns? Or the funds APC used for its own Presidential campaign didn’t also come from allocations from states controlled by the party? He who comes to equity must always come with clean hands. As far as I’m concerned, Mr. President has so far not done this.

That is why, henceforth, I want us to be clear and settled on the character of this government. It’s a government that promised Nigerians change but changed its promises. It’s a lying government. It’s an unreliable government. It’s an unpredictable government. It’s a confused government. It’s a disrespectful government. It’s a duplicitous government. It’s a government that believes it needs no rigorous dialogue and engagement with Nigerians. If you ask me what I think, I think Buhari is the real Maradona President. I feel we concluded too early on the gap-toothed one at the hilltop mansion in Minna.

Now, I agree it’s morning yet for this administration but I think the morning also sometimes shows how the day would be.

However, despite the lamentations, for the sake of our country, for our sakes and the sake of our children and children’s children, we shouldn’t give up hope. True, the PDP betrayed our trust and the APC as a party has also already started doing so. But as we wait and look out for the real patriots and agents of change beyond those currently pretending to be so, I believe this government can still be helped to achieve something concrete for the 3 years and two months that yet remain in its mandate. But this again is only if it wants to be helped and is willing to find a way to reach out to those it believes can help it deliver.

If the government wants to keep groping in the dark, I don’t think we should allow it. As Nigerians, we mustn’t keep quiet. We must continue offering our advice and suggestions. We must keep putting them on their toes. Eternal vigilance, like Thomas Jefferson famously said, is the price of liberty. I will add that it’s also the price for good governance. We must keep goading them towards living up to the promises they made when they begged us to vote out the PDP and vote in their APC. We must all help this government; every one of us, individuals, businesses and organisations, professional unions and bodies, religious groups, civil society organisations, and indeed, every strata of the Nigerian society. By doing this, we not only help ourselves but also our beloved country. I want to rest my case here this week. God bless Nigeria.

RIP JAMES OCHOLI

There is no doubt that the death of Barrister James Ocholi (SAN), the minister of state for labour, his wife and  his son in a ghastly car crash on Sunday is a sad and tragic loss not only to the late minister’s family but to our country as a whole. I commiserate with his family, the Ministry of Labour and the Federal Government. A man of many parts, Ocholi, for those who knew him well, was a likeable personality who always wanted to make a positive difference. It’s certain the Buhari government will miss his contributions. May the souls of the departed rest in peace. Meanwhile, for the living, we can’t be too careful on our roads. Friends, caution is the word. God keep us all.