Buhari’s curious lamentation

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari recently required all his ministers to be aggressive in announcing the various achievements of his administration which had been lost on critical segments of the country’s elite population. The president was miffed that the many achievements of his administration were not acknowledged or appreciated by the Nigerian elite. He made these observations during a retreat held at the Aso Rock Conference Centre in Abuja. He told the ministers that they should be more aggressive in their proclamation of the administration’s various achievements and giant strides in order to stop the negative cries of members of the opposition which were threatening to subdue the administration’s voices of progress. President Buhari wanted the ministers to put whatever ailed them aside and blow their trumpets loud enough for everyone to hear.

Earlier, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, had highlighted what he called the achievements of the administration, beginning from its agriculture programme and the railway project that would make the citizenry enjoy easy access to critical infrastructure. The retreat was organised against the backdrop of the hike in the prices of electricity and fuel which had exacerbated the excruciating pains of Nigerians to the point of despondency. If the president expected that the Nigerian elite would understand the predicament his government was mired in, such expectations were readily dashed, as former President Olusegun Obasanjo issued an alert on the steadily growing resentment among the people. The former president insisted, quite rightly in our view, that the country had never been this polarised before, especially along ethnic lines. As a matter of fact, he boldly asserted that Nigeria was on its way to becoming a failed state.

Obasanjo’s position is in fact endorsed by the US Peace Fund which has ranked the country at the 14th position, along with Burundi Haiti and other unenviable states. President Buhari isn’t enthralled by the refusal of the Nigerian elite to accord him and his government the much needed appreciation for all the efforts being made to improve the quality of life of Nigerians, but it has to be said that many of these efforts are still in the conception stage. The expected delivery of a modern rail line is some light years away. The 100 million people who are expected to be lifted from the jaws of misery are still mired therein, hoping for a lifeline. The gains of the much touted agriculture programme are yet to be felt by the people. The prices of food items have skyrocketed, causing Nigerians untold misery. Nigeria, by the way, is the global poverty capital.

The slow, plodding style of the Buhari government certainly forbids excitement. And the falling value of the naira isn’t helping matters either. The truth is that the administration hasn’t found a way to reach its intended purposes yet, even if its intentions are wholesome. Economic realities have a way of scaring ambitious projects out of the drawing board, but success in planning and execution is an art that requires a lot of focus and attention, virtues which the government of the day is clearly bereft of.

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