By Lucky Ofodu
One word can be aptly used to appraise President Muhammadu Buhari’s
one year in office: discontent. Nigerians are thoroughly disappointed by the
turn of events. The President and his party the APC had promised so much, but
so far fulfilled so little. The economy is in bad shape. Power is in bad shape;
the naira in bad shape; inflation is on a steady rise. The Chibok girls are
still in captivity. Let’s not mention the unprecedented fuel scarcity because
doing so leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It has been a litany of woes.
There is a feeling of general discontent across the land.
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| *Buhari |
I do not expect the president to mark his one year in office with
the same grandeur and panache that ushered him into office because the truth be
told, he has not lived up to expectation. The President knows that Nigerians
were better off before he came to the scene. They have been inflicted with a
lot of pains this past twelve months. What is happening now seems a repeat of
what was, when Mr. President ruled as a military head of state in the early 80s
when Nigerians were made to queue in the rain and sun to buy beverages like
milk, sugar, oats and the like, which they hitherto could buy from the shop
next door. If nothing is done, sooner we will queue for food and possibly air.
Part of the problem is the fact that the president has surrounded
himself mostly with yes-men and propagandists. The latter are those
misinforming and making him see nothing, absolutely nothing good about the
Jonathan administration. As a result, the president is in a hurry to change a
lot of things, and in the process making mistakes. He forgets that while
everything may be possible, everything is not expedient. For example, the sack
of Vice chancellors and the dissolution of governing councils of federal universities
which he apologized for. There are some others. These mistakes tend to have
deeply divided Nigerians along ethnic, religious and political lines.
These propagandists in the last one year diverted the attention of
the president from the core issue of governance which is to better the lives of
the citizenry. They pushed him to go after political opponents in the name of
fighting corruption. This is all Nigerians have heard in the last one year
without any tangible result. No one is saying that those who looted the
country’s treasury should not face the consequences. No. what is being said is
that it ought not to have become the only focus amidst so many other challenges.
Besides, it ought not to have been targeted at political opponents only. After
all, many of those shouting ‘change’ and ‘corruption’ today, were in the
opposition party holding very exalted offices for years before decamping only
recently to the ruling party. How come these persons are not investigated and
prosecuted. Or does cross-carpeting to the ruling party make one corruption-
free?
