7 questions Buhari must answer at media chat

I can imagine the happiness on the faces of Nigerians  – both ‘honest’ happiness of his fans and the ‘resentful’ happiness of his foes – when President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Tuesday that he would hold his first presidential media chat on Wednesday.

For a president who has too often been accused of revealing his biggest moves to foreign rather than Nigerian media, his spokesman, Femi Adesina, must have advised him to prepare for a barrage of questions, especially as this is his first media chat in seven months of presiding over the nation.

In no particular order, below are seven questions Buhari must have answered for this media chat to be considered worthwhile, by the end of Wednesday:

WILL SUBSIDY GO?

Buhari was asked this question ahead of the presidential election, and he gave a neither-here-nor-there response; he had to get into office first and study the state of affairs before making a decision. Now, after seven months in office, he has nothing to fear, at least not an election to lose. Today, marketers are not importing fuel, owing to huge subsidy debts, and filling stations are selling the commodity for N200/litre – more than double. Then tomorrow, there is an announcement that pump price has been reduced from N87/litre to N86.50. Are we deregulating this oil industry and paying more for the commodity for starters, or are we sticking with subsidy and readying ourselves for frequent scarcities?

WILL BOKO HARAM END IN DECEMBER?

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, will not like to hear this question, but does he have a choice? December was Buhari’s self-set deadline for ending insurgency in the north-east. Lai has recently been making the distinction between Boko Haram the insurgency and Boko Haram the terrorism, suggesting that the war against the former has been won, while only the latter persists. Unfortunately, he didn’t make this distinction when this December deadline was being announced in the early days of his regime. And, in any case, the question is not his to answer. Buhari must be willing to tell us if, over the next 24 hours that make up December 2015, there will be guarantees of no further bomb blast.

WILL JONATHAN BE PROBED?

If you have followed the revelations of embezzlement, diversion and mismanagement of state funds involving key officials and allies of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, you must have wondered if the man who ran that administration would himself be invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). No need to wonder anymore; tonight is the night.

WILL NAIRA EVER RISE?

We were promised before this election that everything would be done to strengthen the naira – even that a naira would someday equal a dollar. But only two weeks ago, the naira traded at 276 against the dollar at the parallel market, which was its lowest value in 42 years! The president hasn’t hidden his aversion to naira devaluation, but is he about to change his mind just yet? And if not, what are the long-term strategies for strengthening our currency?

WILL WE CONTINUE TO RELY ON OIL?

The Nigerian economy is experiencing one of its most trying times; states are broke and workers are unpaid, the federal government will have to borrow to fund the 2016 budget, the private sector is hit as well. All because of the fall in the price of one commodity that we have stubbornly built our entire world on. We never expected Buhari to have created an alternative to oil in less than a year, but is there a plan? And has it taken off?

DOES CBN STILL PLAN TO NAME THE LOOTERS?

We have heard it too many times; there are people who stole Nigeria’s money in the past and they have been secretly running to government, returning portions of their loot. Buhari said as recently as three weeks ago that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would soon name these guys, but there has been silence ever since. Is that really going to happen?

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO DASUKI – AND WHEN?

Supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will kick at the mention of this question during the media chat. This is a democracy and a president shouldn’t constitute himself into a court of law. But an alleged N300billion fraud in arms procurement at a time of insurgency in the northeast is as big as any public-governance dirt. Although Buhari has already said that Dasukigate culprits are going to jail, expect that question to recur so long no one is in jail yet. And when Nigerians say “what” will happen to the accused persons, the president must know that they actually mean: “when” will whatever happen to them. Justice is a typically slow process in Nigeria, and no one knows how long the trial of Dasuki and co will last. So, when will we know those who are innocent and those who aren’t? And those who belong to the latter category, when will justice exert itself on them?

Seven pm is the time!