Our
own Muhammadu Buhari’s dawdling and dallying modus operandi as
President have lately come under rising and intensifying voices of
recrimination and denunciation. The voices are not just of those who
during the campaign wanted Buhari dead, or those who swore he would
never be President in their lifetimes, or those who just abhor him for
all he stands for or against. The disapproving voices are also coming
from many who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the President during his
trying and tiring odyssey of the presidential campaign.
Many
of us feel some urgency in our bones that the process of addressing
Nigeria’s flurry of failings and tizzies should have begun by now. All
we’ve had so far, in my opinion, is a lot of talk, and not much
commensurate walk. I have, however, decided to cut Mr. President some
slacks; watching to see when he will commence shaking off the elephant
of despair, disappointment and pain off the shoulders of Nigerians who
remain in distress.
I will not label Buhari’s
first 34 days as President a total season of trumpery and quiescence. To
ensure that I don’t lose my mind, I am trying very hard to believe the
words of my brother, Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, that of the truth, this administration is only in a
season of systematic and systemic sanitisation of the Augean stables. I
want to believe that we are only in that curve when the cesspool of
stench created by the immediate past administration is under the sharp
knife of radical exorcism. I want to believe that the words of promise
we heard during the presidential campaign that the President and his
deputy were going to hit the ground running is real. I want to believe
that Buhari is not losing momentum and he is far from hemorrhaging his
goodwill. I want to believe that the excitement, joy, hope, and
confidence that 15 million Nigerians expressed in this team during the
election are still intact. I want to believe that this President is
working. I am just wondering how a 72-year-old retired General, a
Professor of Law and two journalists without cabinet ministers can truly
rule over 170 million Nigerians during this interregnum. But I am
cutting my President some slacks; and I want to believe that he has the
magic wand to get it done. I’ll restrain, for now, from asking how.
The
concern of many Nigerians, however, is this: The appearance of inaction
and non-cohesiveness in the Presidency has suddenly emboldened those
who should bury their heads in shame and fear. Those elements are now
growing in fame and fervour. I am worried that those who should be
austere with words after a record decimation of the nation’s economy are
boldly running their mouths. I am disturbed that those who committed an
“attempted murder” of the Nigerian nation through wanton reckless acts
are now incredibly fiercely and audaciously loose in verbosity and
braggadocio. Those who should be quiet and playing the ostrich are now
louder than even when they were in power. Those who should be afraid of
the long arms of the law are the ones now playing the scarecrow. Did the
interregnal coldness pave the way for this?
While Mr. President
is soaking up the Augean stables with all manner of disinfectants, his
adversaries are daily gaining an upper hand thumbing their noses at him
from all angles. A state governor is dispatching tractor trailers and
hauling vehicles to perceived enemies’ homes disrupting their lives and
we are still busy with the Augean stables. This governor is throwing
threats of expunging those he deems “foreigners” from the state civil
service and actually carrying out the threat because they lend support
to the ruling party. When the Chief Security officer in a state is
creating an environment of insecurity, must he not be cautioned by
somebody? An accused former minister ploughs down into a court premises
with blaring sirens from an accompanying lorry load of armed police
officers; and we were all mute. Are these not part of the filthiness and
foulness at the Augean stables that must be cleansed?
When your
enemy asks for your left eye and you budge, he will soon come for the
right. When you give him the guest room in your house, he is coming for
the master bedroom. If you yield the master bedroom to him, he will take
over the whole house, and then you are homeless and powerless. How can
one fulfil destiny when power is lost? Why must I give the enemy an
upper hand when I was not created slow and sluggish? Those who openly
despise this President now have a leg up.
Strikingly, the
President submitted that he doesn’t want to interfere in matters arising
around him because he is a democrat. But is Mr. President more
democratic than democrats all over the world? Buhari will be in
Washington this month visiting Barak Obama; I’ll suggest he asks the
young man some questions on how to interfere without interrupting. To
interfere means to become involved in the activities and concerns of
other people whose work affect the results of your work because you all
work in tandem. Interruption is bad; but interfering is fair game. Mr.
President, there is a time to interfere without interrupting. If a
President does not interfere, he will be interloped and his visions
interlocked in the abyss of nonfeasance. Presidents all over the world
interfere in affairs that threaten to truncate their agenda.
Staying
neutral in politics or in life is like standing in the middle of the
freeway singing the Opera! A tractor- trailer will run the singer over.
This President must understand that the guys he is dealing with are far
from nice. They are men on selfish, self-centred missions all about
themselves. Mr. President, there is a time to interfere.
This is
one of the reasons why the President must interfere in matters around
him. Instead of standing up to the call-of-duty, there is now a
free-for-all taking place in the house of the President’s party. Has the
party changed its name from the All Progressives Party to the All
Pugilists Congress? Legislators are getting down-dirty fighting each
other, governors are fighting the party chairman, Chief Bisi Akande is
fighting some elements in the North who are also fighting back. Some
people in the Presidency are fighting Bola Tinubu who is still fighting
AIT about some unsavoury documentary. The President’s ADC is fighting
with the DSS who are fighting with the CSO. Meanwhile, Nigerians who
voted for them are still fighting for survival to beat hunger and
poverty.
The now fragmented APC team that we recognised as frail
and fragile in composition from the beginning is busy chasing shadows
and imaginary household enemies. Friends are now enemies and enemies
have become friends. There was a strong determination by party
apparatchiks to get rid of the immediate past President, but are the
same folk as determined to govern? Mr. President, it’s time to wake up
and show us some actions, Sir.
Nigerians said the immediate past
President was clueless; but some are already bantering that Buhari is
toothless. Cluelessness and toothlessness unfortunately are a double
jeopardy for a nation already in trouble. I think this President has a
lot of bite in him; but not until the man of might wakes up and acts
strong and swift, he may be considered toothless.
Today is the
34th day of Buhari in power, and I am sure that we will have ministers
when the Augean stables are completely disinfected. But Nigeria’s Augean
stables are full of filth; I hope it will not take forever to cleanse
because we don’t have forever!
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