Buhari: time to run

The president has to activate his ‘faster mode’ if he is to make any serious impact this time around

President Muhammadu Buhari is at it again. There is absolutely no reason why he should not have formed his cabinet by now. It is over four months since February 27 when he was reelected and exactly one month, yesterday, since he was sworn in for a second term of four years. So, what is he waiting for? One can only hope he is not travelling along the familiar route that he travelled in 2015 when it took him almost six months to appoint his ministers. If he was that late in coming up with a team because he was relatively new in government, maybe we can pardon that because even if we don’t, it does not make any difference now. It is needless throwing away the knife when it has already cut the child’s hand! I remember I advised the president in 2015 on the need to hit the ground running.

I remember doing countdown for him when he was six months in power. Many others did same; but it did not seem the president was swayed enough by whatever arguments we propounded for him to act fast. Yet, it was the president himself who inundated us with the gargantuan task ahead; he told us that he did not know that the havoc the immediate past Goodluck Jonathan administration did was much as he later found out.

Just as it was in 2015, so it is even now. It does not seem President Buhari has realised the need for urgency. When, the other day, the president said he was aware that he was being called ‘Baba go slow’ and promised to improve on his speed of governance, I was somehow happy; happy in the sense that at least the message got to him. It is not in all cases that such messages get to the leader concerned. It probably shows that the president is in touch with the independent media; particularly the opposition elements because those are the ones with the audacity to call him such names. There is nothing wrong in calling a spade by its real name instead of referring to it ambiguously as a farming implement. We have so many farming implements!

On June 7, 2015 I wrote on this page that “within the next few weeks, one expects that the policy thrust of the new government would be crystallising. And that “already, nine days are gone out of the four-year tenure. That is how time flies. So, President Buhari should know that the ball is now in his court. He has talked the talk; he should walk the talk”. I least anticipated what eventually happened. That is to say, I never expected that the president would not name his cabinet until November, about five months later. That June 7, 2015 article was titled: “Leading Nigeria aright”.

About six months later, precisely on November 29, exactly six months after President Buhari was sworn in, I also wrote to remind him that his government had only 42 months left. Titled “42 months to go!”, I had said, inter alia: “With six months already gone, those asking for President Buhari’s policy direction obviously have a point. Government, like an aero plane, needs a compass. Otherwise, ministries would be working at cross-purposes and ministers will be singing discordant tunes. Beyond that, there must be yardsticks with which to measure the government’s performance.”

Regrettably, President Buhari seems to be travelling the 2015 trajectory. If President Buhari takes his mind back to 2015 when he took over, he would understand that the issues that led to the Goodluck Jonathan administration being fired remain as ever. Under Jonathan’s watch, some 276 schoolgirls were abducted from their hostel in Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014.The economy was in ruins, with all kinds of corruption and allegations of corruption flying all over the place which the then president lacked the will to tackle. Power supply was terribly low, despite the then president’s promise to ‘dash’ Nigerians his generator when, hopefully his government would have fixed the power problem. Despite the improvement in power supply now, I am cock sure the former president still needs the generator because he has been used to 24/7 power supply ever since he dropped the chalk as lecturer, with either his home state of Bayelsa or the Nigerian people settling the bills. The Oshodi-Badagry Expressway has remained chaotic as a result of the activities of articulated vehicle owners who have one thing or the other to do at the Apapa Ports which had also remained shambolic long before the Jonathan era. Education, to paraphrase the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti , is “disorganised patapata”(completely). Health nko? The same thing. We can go on and on.

So, just how far has the Buhari government addressed these problems in its first four years? The government may be giving itself pass mark. Unfortunately, that cannot fall within its precinct. It cannot mark its own script. Virtually all of these problems still remain with us. No one expects corruption to be wiped out of the country within four years. But then, when the generality of the people see the battle as selective, that is targeted mostly at the opposition party members, there is a problem. President Buhari did not help matters when early in the day, he could not take a decisive decision against Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) , who was alleged to have fiddled with money meant for cutting of grass in refugee camps. The president gave the go-ahead (an unnecessary green light where the anti-corruption war is structure and not personality-driven).

If school girls were abducted under Jonathan, some were also abducted under President Buhari’s watch. We have in mind the 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years old kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, in Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State, in the northeast part of Nigeria. The difference is that whilst the Jonathan government dilly-dallied on the abduction of the Chibok girls, Buhari’s government moved to secure the release of more than 100 of those kidnapped in Dapchi. It also got many of the Chibok girls freed. But that is not to say that Boko Haram is dead. While the government and its security agencies keep saying the sect has been degraded, it keeps on recording surprise attacks which have also led to loss of many lives and caused many to be displaced and take refuge in underfunded largely unhealthy refugee camps.

The security problem is compounded by herdsmen who have now found kidnaping a pastime. The point is that whilst they initially restricted their activities to the north, many of them have found their way down south, and are being joined by undesirable elements in the south to perpetrate the crime. The economy is still in the woods. Whilst the exchange rate appears to have stabilised somehow, the rate remains too high for comfort. What this tells us is that we still import more than we should. Here, petroleum products take a chunk of the forex. Agricultural products like rice and other items keep draining the available forex. Yet, there does not appear to be any clear direction on local refining of petrol. It is as if the government has placed all its hope on Dangote Refinery. Our four refineries remain as comatose as ever.

Without doubt, this government has done a lot by fighting the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to the point where they have been forced to accept the imperative of prepaid meters as a way of putting an end to crazy bills that has left Nigerians at their mercy. Electricity supply also seems to have improved. But this cannot be felt unless and until it is sustained. About 19 years ago, Ghana celebrated one year of uninterrupted power supply. I later learnt, rightly or wrongly, that they once celebrated five years of same. This has not been sustained though, but the point is that they made that feat at a point. Let’s even do three months of uninterrupted power supply. We’ll clap for the government.

Look at the Oshodi-Badagry Expressway. If care is not taken, the Buhari government would leave it worse than it met it; if it continues to behave as if it is in control of time. The road has witnessed many inspections by everybody that matters, including the president, yet there is little done.

So, just what am I saying? I am saying that President Buhari has to add speed to his style of governance. It is not for nothing that many Nigerians refer to the president as ‘Baba go slow’. That he has not appointed his ministers till now, clearly one month after he was sworn in, and four months after winning reelection does not inspire hope that things are going to be significantly different this second term. Yet, most of the country’s challenges ought to have been solved as early as yesterday. To wait till eternity to understand them, or plan to tackle them, does not show a deep appreciation of their effects on the people who voted the president into power.

Baba, please go fast. Fast does it. And if you are fast already, then faster, please. Perhaps faster does it!