Prologue: Buhari two years down

As the nation today (May 29, 2017) celebrates the second anniversary of the second successive transfer of power from one civilian administration to another, the people are also reviewing the wisdom – or lack of it – in the choice they made two years ago when they freely gave their mandate to President Muhammadu Buhari to head a government they believed would help right the many wrongs in their lives.

A great nation with limitless potential, Nigeria has been plagued with inexplicable depths of corruption, mismanagement, and general lack of visionary leadership.

Decrepit social infrastructure, epileptic power supply, weak or underperforming economy, insecurity and widespread indiscipline in public and private lives could all, arguably, be traced to corruption and impunity.

This naturally created a crying need for a disciplined leader with a strong grip on the nation, and the Daura-born general campaigned and rode to power (on his fourth attempt) solely on the strength of these.

Only very few people doubted his credential in fighting corruption; fewer still doubted his ability to restore sanity to the nation’s security situation – which had reached such an all-time low that a rag-tag army of Islamic insurgents routinely had the upper hand during confrontations with the military, killing civilians and soldiers alike, and, at the peak of the national embarrassment, waltzed into a federal school and carted away almost 300 female students!

These were some of the problems the taciturn but immensely charismatic general vowed to address. But two years after, how has he fared in meeting these expectations?

Indeed, measurable achievements have been recorded in the fight against insurgency. There are visible onslaughts too against corrupt government officials, and a lot of retrievals have been effected in this regard; but the modus operandi and the overall success of the campaign are now being called to question.

Many of his critics had doubted his ability to manage the economy, and the worsening state of the economy since he assumed office seems to validate that claim.

Spirited explanations that the seed of today’s prostrate economy was sown by the corruption and wrong policy decisions of the previous administration no longer impresses majority of Nigerians who had been prepped to expect a wholesome transformational change in every sector.

It would not be out of place today to say that the red-hot enthusiasm of majority of Nigerians who overwhelmingly gave Buhari his mandate has today almost altogether gone cold – not necessarily for lack of any achievement, but because the expectations far outstrip the achievement The harsh economic climate occasioned by the recession, persistent high unemployment, the double-digit inflation and the general lack of empathy by the political class who have continued to thrust their illicit wealth in the faces of famished citizens – and the seeming helplessness of Buhari’s government to rein them in – have all bred distrust, loss of confidence and even anger against him and his government.

From the outset, he had courted suspicion and, subsequently, stoked the people’s anger with the mode of appointments he made, which were perceived as unfairly skewed in favour of the North.

His near silence in the face of the several attacks by the rampaging Fulani herdsmen also ate deep into his credential as a national leader.

Eventually, his unrelenting critics began to see even his famed anti-corruption crusade from this same prism.

When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) began, with the federal government’s novel whistle-blowing policy, to discover (and recover) stupendous amounts of illicit funds at all the strange places, critics of the administration were quick to suggest that those discoveries were too surreal; some even suggesting that such monies were planted by the sitting government and its agents.

It appears every move of the government now, no matter how good-intentioned, is sneered at, and the ‘change’ slogan has gradually become a byword.

Even the release of scores of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok during his predecessor’s tenure has been subjected to similar snide remarks, with some describing it as a kind of Nollywood script.

But all things considered, the success or otherwise of Buhari’s administration in the past two years will and should be determined against his campaign promises and national priorities.

In his inauguration speech in 2015, he listed some of the things that would receive his primary attention: insecurity, corruption, and power (electricity) featured prominently.

“We face enormous challenges,” he said. “Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us.”

He did promise to fight corruption, fix epileptic power problem, end fuel shortages and restore security, among other things.

Obviously, these things are no longer where they used to be, but they are still far from where they should be.

But for his health travails (around which a lot of mystery has been woven unnecessarily), it would have been fitting to have the president face the people and personally give an account of his stewardship; what he has done with their mandate these past two years, and how far he has fulfilled his promises, or not!

People would have loved to hear him explain why and how the ‘no nonsense’ general they chose to lead seems to have surrendered his mandate to some people he chose to surround himself with.

They would have loved to know why, despite assurances, his human rights record still has a big question mark hanging on it; and why the general conduct of his government does not seem to be in sync with his ‘I belong to everyone, and to no one’ philosophy.

The Niger Deltans would have loved to know why the much-trumpeted cleanup of their region has still not materialised long after it was announced.

And, yes, the common man would have cherished an explanation as to why his meager income can hardly buy anything for him again despite the positive change he was promised.

What has he done in strengthening the institutions of state? What measures has his government taken to block the channels of wastage that had kept Nigeria’s economy in its prostrate state, and what gains have accrued there from? What has he together with his team done in laying the foundation for food sufficiency and job creation?

These are some of the questions Buhari needs to address with the commemoration of this second anniversary.

He is just half-way through his four-year tenure. He may yet end well and be remembered as the most impactful of all Nigerian leaders; but he needs to take hold of the wheel of state and avoid ending (as some have already declared him prematurely) as the worst Nigerian leader ever.