By Okey Ndibe
There’s a chance that President Muhammadu Buhari would have come
back to Nigeria by the time you read this column, but the fact that he had
twice postponed his return date encourages one conclusion: That the man is really, really sick. So, here’s a humane proposal
for the president: Consider handing in
your resignation letter.
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| *Buhari |
I’m aware that some
Nigerians still consider Mr. Buhari essential, if not indispensable, to our
country’s prospect of rebirth. To these, a suggestion that the man ought to
quit office must sound heretical – indeed seem like a prescription with a
dollop of ghastly mischief. But such people are grandly deluded. Concrete
ideas, not the cult of any particular personality, are best for a polity in
need of ethical rejuvenation. And two years of Mr. Buhari’s tenure as president
are adequate to demonstrate his paucity of ideas.
In place of robust
and organic ideas for transforming Nigeria, he has merely offered us
the pabulum that his reputation and goodwill are enough.
That idea, of the
transformative power of President Buhari’s supposed moral gravitas, is hollow.
What significant transformation have Nigerians witnessed, in any sector of
their life, in the two years of Buhari’s presidency? The so-called war on
corruption, Mr. Buhari’s best calling card, has failed to achieve the
conviction of one significant political figure from the recent past.
After all the
public drama of Dasukigate, what is the status of the case against former
National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki? If Mr. Buhari’s government has not been
able to prosecute Mr. Dasuki to date, is there much hope of his administration
making a noticeable dent in the war against corruption via prosecutorial means?
I don’t think so.
Worse, Mr. Buhari’s
much-vaunted crusade against graft has neither dampened nor discouraged the
appetite for corruption in Nigeria.
Police and customs officers still farm out on the road and extort bribes from
hapless commuters and traders. Under Mr. Buhari’s watch, the Central Bank of Nigeria and
other agencies corruptly handed out jobs to children and wards of the most
privileged. Elections are still fraught with fraud, with the police and army
rolled out to serve the ruling party’s partisan interests. Judicial processes
operate at snail-speed; lawyers and judges collude in using incessant
adjournments to derail justice. Mr. Buhari has done little more than yawn when
political appointees close to him have been accused of corrupt acts.
