Buhari’s second coming

AS the sun finally set on the first four years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s democratic reign yesterday, some deplorable stories and incidents went unheard. In fact, today’s inauguration of the ‘people’s choice’, which is in a blink of an eye away, brings unusual worries to the minds of citizens who have been paying keen attention to the events unfolding in recent times. Almost the entire month of May, which sees off the current change-tagged administration of Buhari, has been characterised by insecurity, ranging from kidnapping to daylight robbery. Even with the widely open eyes of the nation’s commander-in-chief who once swore to protect the governed, the perpetual demon of insecurity continues to besiege the country. It is so sad that these unfortunate events leave victims with tormenting implications. Such or similar words as insecurity, abduction or kidnap, gunmen, bandit, robbery, and ransom are spread limitlessly across headlines of daily news since the month began. It is so funny that Nigerians, who were not familiar with some of these words before the month began, are now overtly over-tutored by the daily news.

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Though the troubles of the insurgency, Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen are not novel in the country, we hope the currently trending insecurity, precisely kidnapping, would not be another unvented fart in the country’s masquerade vest. Unfortunately, the country’s GDP, currently 2.0 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, is “easing from a 2.4 per cent expansion in the previous period and below market expectations of 2.1 per cent, mainly due to a steeper contraction in the country’s oil sector,” according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and as  reported on the Trading Economics (TE) website. The report added that, “on a quarterly basis, the economy shrank 13.8 per cent, after a 5.3 percent growth in the last quarter of 2018. It is the steepest contraction in GDP since the March quarter of 2016.

“The oil sector shrank 2.4 per cent in the three months to March of 2019, after contracting 1.6 per cent in the prior period.” Consequently, the oil sector accounted for 9.1 per cent of GDP compared to 9.6 per cent a year ago. Mind you, we import a large proportion of crude oil. It was reported on December 9, 2018 by Daniel Adugbo on ICIR, how this imported, not thoroughly refined, dirty fuel emptied Nigerian car owners’ purses because of the high quantity of sulfur contained in it that knocked down vehicles’ engines, produced thick emission of cars’ exhaust and denial of safe breathing of many Nigerians. This really questions how intelligently Nigeria is being led. For hard work not done smartly only becomes a very hard work with no tangible outcome; little wonder the Nigeria economy is in distress.

No surprise the president would assume the IGP’s loss of weight to be a result of hard work on security, when recently gunmen and kidnappers’ activities have worsened. To our dismal, that sum seems pretty handsome for unemployed Nigerians, who according to TE, “increased to 23.10 per cent in the third quarter of 2018 from 22.70 per cent in the second quarter of 2018. Unemployment rate in Nigeria averaged 12.31 per cent from 2006 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 23.10 per cent in the third quarter in 2018 and a record low of 5.10 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010.” If the FG is asked how unemployment is being tackled in the country, their response would possibly be “N-Power is doing a great Job in settling such issue.” Meanwhile, it is not enough a solution and does little in solving unemployment issue in the country, partly because those employed  in N-Teach, the most popular of  the National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIP), are only so for a very short time. Very soon, in a matter of two years, they would most likely become jobless again. Also, an undercover report by TheCable exposed the decay of N-Power and how billions of naira expended on it went down the drain due to lack of strict monitoring of some of the beneficiaries’ activities in their Primary Place of Assignment (PPA) where their absence was not noticed, because they “have found their way to beat the system in a way that fetched them side money.”

Must we keep depending on strategies that keep failing us and ruining the chance for a better and safer future for the country? How much diversified is Nigeria’s economy? How much secure is the country? Honestly, these are questions the  administration would leave unanswered. Truly, the IGP’s loss of weight with nothing worthwhile to show for it, the president’s health trips and four years gone without us smelling the promised ‘Change’ are partly because Nigerians and  their leaders dwell more on problems than solutions. Indeed, Buhari’s re-election has expressed the faith Nigerians have in his leadership, pardoning him for his failure to bring them change, although now promising to take them to the next level. There is very little we can do in assuaging the pains of insecurity. However, there is more we can do with our support and faith in him. If our decision is regretted, a Yoruba adage would console us and say ”Throwing a knife angrily away because it cut one’s skin will not heal the wound; the deed is done!” The cut we received from the knife would only make us more careful with it next time.

• Amusan writes in from the University of Ibadan via pekaamusan@gmail.com