By Rotimi Fasan
In
describing the Muhammadu Buhari administration as dumb I do not wish now to be
understood as referring to what many commentators increasingly call the
administration’s or, in fact, the president’s cluelessness (Is it not amazing
that this administration has so quickly frittered away its goodwill in less
than two years, to the extent that it’s now being described in the same
unflattering register as the Goodluck Jonathan administration?) Buhari,
Osinbajo and Adeosun.
Rather
than commenting on the frustrating missteps and ineffectuality of this
government, my focus here is on the widening wall of silence that the
administration has chosen to erect between itself and the Nigerian people. It
is a needless and useless wall that will ruin whatever very modest gains can
yet be recorded for the administration- if it knows true sovereignty lies with
the people.
The
Buhari administration has rigidly stuck to its gun in its irresponsible failure
to communicate with the people of this country and keep them in the know of
important activities in government circle. Whatever are the immediate
inconveniences this stance could mean to sections of the Nigerian people,
whatever may be the pains being presently endured by some Nigerians (such as
the beleaguered people of Southern Kaduna) as a consequence of such willful
hostility from leaders of this country, the government in the long run stands
to lose far more than any section of the Nigerian population.
It’s
not given to many to have the boon of a second chance. But Nigerian leaders
randomly take such chances for granted without any hint of an awareness of it.
We’ve seen this tragic cycle repeat itself in the lives of our leaders and
occupants of public offices from the lowest position in the land to the highest
offices imaginable. Given a second or even third chance in some public office,
they go on to repeat the very errors and scandalous performance that marred
earlier opportunities, making them forgettable footnotes on the pages of
history.
Provided
he has the sense of history to measure his own conduct and appraise his
government’s performance, President Buhari would one day look back and regret
his failure to connect with the people by building on the goodwill that ushered
him into power. For this he has nobody but himself to blame. This is a
self-inflicted but entirely avoidable wound that is right now festering and
worsening the relationship between the government and the people. It’s in this
sense that I have described the present administration as dumb, that is mute
and lacking the ability to speak. The detail that needs to be restated,
however, is that this government’s muteness is not a congenital defect.
It is
rather a clear case of hubris, a demonstration of an authoritarian disposition
within a democratic context. It is no more unavoidable than it is natural. It
would seem then that President Buhari feels affronted by differing opinions and
would rather not have his authority questioned in the manner permissible in a
democracy. His dismissive silence, which looks sullen in every particular, is
the only way he could get back at those who ‘disturb’ him with their ‘noise’,
unsolicited and annoying demand of explanations to actions he would rather take
without being held to account.
At a
different time, and in a less tolerant dispensation (say in a military
dictatorship), he would have had those irritants demanding explanations and
answers to questions thrown into jail, it seems. Buhari’s lack of communication
is therefore either a show of arrogant disdain and/or a cover for his own
inadequacies. It seems more the former than the latter. Either or both ways,
it’s a big thumbs down for him. The correlate of his behaviour, however
unlikely it may seem given the apparent difference of disposition in the
subjects, is to be found in Donald Trump’s blustering swagger which finds
expression in verbiage on twitter and elsewhere.
The
alarming thing now is that in addition to being dumb, the Buhari government
simultaneously appears deaf. It dances only to its own drumbeats and listens to
no other views or opinions no matter how well-intentioned. This takes us back
to 1984 when as a military head of state the man and his deputy, Tunde
Idiagbon, did what they thought right without reference to what others had to
say. Then Wole Soyinka described them as deaf men on whom he would not waste
his time. Ibrahim Babangida whose government would supplant the Buhari regime
called the man and his deputy rigid and unbending.
Their
departure was not mourned in spite of the euphoria with which they were
welcomed only twenty months before. Right now, not many Nigerians seem eager to
cut the Buhari regime any slack any more. The time they were prepared to make
allowance for the obvious shortcomings of the government seems over and the
government must either sink or swim on its own terms, especially now that its
silence communicates its all-knowing stature.
Time
was when people complained that the government was not communicating to them,
preferring to make overtures of peace to it and seek its attention. Now people
are taking their fate in their hand by doing what seems right in their sight.
Thus, if Buhari would not say anything about the southern Kaduna killings by so-called islamists and
herdsmen, Christian religious and ethnic leaders are urging their followers to
defend themselves with arms. Reverend fathers advertise their readiness for
battle by posting social media photos of themselves holding arms.
Since
the president chooses to be blind to acts of corruption within his immediate
circle, breaking his silence to defend his acolytes and even sending letters on
their behalf when it suits his purpose, Nigerians are responding by questioning
his integrity and writing off his anti-corruption claims. In over one week
since Buhari and his minders chose to say next to nothing about the health
condition of the president, Nigerians have been very resourceful with ‘wicked’
rumours of his death and incapacitation in a manner that the government has
found both unsettling and disconcerting. It’s now left to the government to
choose what option works best for it- either to dance to its own tune by
ignoring the people or carry them along.
One
hopes this government learns one important lesson from all this: Power is a two-way
traffic- it impacts on both the rulers and the ruled. Somehow, the reactions
from the people have got the government responding even if in panic, resorting
to arm-twisting and state-terror tactics. At this point it must realise it’s in
very dangerous and slippery territory. It’s the path to dictatorship which
history teaches us bodes no good for a democratically elected leader. This
government must either retrace its steps now or the fate of a failure
ultimately awaits it.
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