By Emeka Alex Duru
Even out of office, former President Muhammadu Buhari does not seem to be done with Nigerians. He still carries on as one with grudges against Nigerian citizens for asking him to lead them. His haughty carriage and sense of entitlement indicate so. Critics may even be correct that he derives joy in seeing Nigerians suffer. That perhaps, explains why his eight years as President remain the darkest moment in Nigeria’s history in terms of development and other indices of nation building. Yet, he does not appear bothered.
He was in his element the other day, in telling Nigerians that he deliberately delayed removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, to enable his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, win the 2023 elections. Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, said he was being politically honest in taking the decision. APC would have been thrown out of power if the measure was implemented by his administration, Buhari claimed.
“We must be politically honest with ourselves. The Buhari administration in its last days could not have gone the whole way because the APC had an election to win. And that would have been the case with any political party that was seeking election for another term with a new principal at its head”, Shehu argued.
That is not correct and Buhari knows it. He is only being deceitful and intentionally provoking Nigerians. Leadership is about a leader being predictable by his followers. That is why candidates of ruling political parties anchor their campaigns on the policies and programmes of the departing administration and carry the people along. Trust deficit comes in the moment there is a disconnect between the leader and the people. That was the Nigerians had with Buhari while he was in office.
“My government set in motion plans to remove the subsidy late last year. After further consultation with stakeholders, and as events unfolded this year, such a move became increasingly untenable. Boosting internal production for refined products shall also help.”
Nigerians thought that Buhari was speaking for them in the explanation, but unknown to them he was incubating something else. He did not tell them at what point the variables he saw in 2022 changed. All that the citizens got was being slammed with extreme hardship following the subsidy removal from the first day of the inauguration of the Tinubu government. It had never been this tough for the country.
Since then, informed and sponsored commentators have been asking the people to bear the pains of the measures on ground that the subsidy regime was unsustainable and a huge pipe for siphoning the nation’s wealth by just a few. They may be right, but are curiously not offering much on the way out of the vacuum created by the measure. Since the announcement of the subsidy removal, a litre price of petrol has gone up from N185 to N500 or more in some parts of the country. In corollary, prices of basic items and services have risen. Virtually every Nigerian is presently angry. This is where the danger lies.
For Buhari to further mock them with nauseating tale on why his administration delayed the subsidy removal for the succeeding government, it amounts to adding insult to injury. That is not what the people need from the former President. He has had his time and mismanaged the country in many respects. He should take his rest and allow Nigerians manage themselves.
*Duru is a commentator on public issues
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