Trust liability: Buhari, Tinubu and all of us 

We shouldn’t be discussing Buhari any longer after his glorious, relieving exit from our national life. Even if we would or should do that, I don’t think it should be so soon and it should also not be in the same breath with our brand new president, Bola Tinubu. The matter here is trust and I don’t think trust and the Buhari administration should go in the same discussion. The trust issues Nigerians had with the Buhari administration are not completely settled just because Bola Ahmed Tinubu has become the president. Nigerians today are currently oscillating between hope and expectation. They are hoping that ‘e go better’ and are also expecting that Tinubu would be that conveyor of that positive transformation of the country which Nigerians have so dearly desired. In their deep guts, they want a Nigeria that all the citizens would be proud of when leadership is the discussion. However, the experiences of the past as fed Nigerians by our recent political leaders have kept many Nigerians from exhaling in relief that there would be changes in this era of Tinubu. The Buhari administration made trusting politicians more difficult.

For instance, the manner through which President Bola Tinubu pulled the plug on petrol subsidy has not gone down well with millions of Nigerians. It shook the trust of many that we are in benevolent hands. However, they took it as a necessary bitter immediate step of a president that desires to make an impact and bring about positive change. To others, that “fuel subsidy is gone” pronouncement was the snag of May 29, 2023 inauguration. In all the contexts however, the vestige of trust they have in Tinubu as a leader has kept people restrained. They have forced themselves from losing it in numerous ways over this singular action. For those who have chosen to smile through the whimper, their contention isn’t anything more logical than the simplistic “fuel subsidy is a robbery by a few and Tinubu is right to have removed it.” Others in this group are quick to stop complainants from talking and advise that “we must bear the initial pain that would transmute to our imminent enjoyment.”

The proverb which did the work of verbal suasion in the South West area of the country has changed from what it was recently. The charge is no longer on the necessity to adorn the waist of our child with beads instead of the child of another person. Not again. We have adorned the waist of our daughter with beads. We have beautified our own and are awaiting the bountiful reward. However, after we adorned our daughter she, kind of, shot at us unexpectedly. It must have been an accidental discharge. It was a brutal friendly fire. Our persuasive proverb now is one beautiful saying tailored towards the virtue of endurance and its inherent benefits. Now, we hear: Títa ríro la a ko’la. Ti o ba jinna tán, yio di oge – tribal marks or incisions are acquired through severe pain. When it heals, it becomes a source of beauty and pride.

All these are mired in the hope that Tinubu would be better than Buhari. It is the contention in some quarters that, from the manner Tinubu has handled the fuel situation matter, it was a pointer to the fact that he didn’t believe that Nigerians went through hell under Buhari. Those with this thought think he has been way too high up there and so engrossed in the presidential election politics that he didn’t really know what the masses are dealing with. Otherwise, he would have put some measures in place before the fuel situation went the way it did. They even argue that he was only interested in hanging the price of petrol on the best podium for the proper commencement of the full deregulation of the downstream sector of the Nigerian petroleum industry. However, that doesn’t appear to be the true position of things because Tinubu himself also raised his voice in protest at some point during the electioneering campaigns. His cry then was regarded as the second Abeokuta declaration. He hit out at some unnamed (though not unknown) forces which had riled him and Nigerians at the lower rung of the socio-economic ladder. He spoke angrily about hoarding of petrol to debilitate Nigerians and about the ill-fated Naira re-design shenanigan. That time, he had spoken authoritatively that regardless of these obvious deliberate hurdles, there would be voting and he would emerge victorious. This scenario pointed to the thinking that Tinubu knew what was happening but at that material time, Tinubu was not part of what was happening. That scenario also nourishes the trust that there might be something for us in the Tinubu era.

But when we remember the huge trust, promise and hope that was Buhari; when we recall his early days as the government of “body language”, it is enough to cringe and fall into some despair. Yet, we will still manage to hold out the facade of ‘all is well’ and take strength from the expected healing of our tribal mark cuttings, and that we shall become a cynosure. But Tinubu was the harbinger of Buhari, who turned out to be a comprehensive failure, a disaster for our nation and a massive setback. The kind of setback isn’t just that he afflicted the nation, it’s also that he left a lot of mess trailing his government. That is where the issue of trust deficit comes in. If Buhari, with all the promise in those yesterday’s mantras of integrity, an unyielding champion of anti-corruption, a soldier with no-nonsense disposition and a man of austere means and qualities could leave us in such a mess, should we trust a Tinubu with his political guile and sagacity? Would we not be dribbled… again?

Governments inherit assets and liabilities; positives and negatives. One of the huge liabilities or negatives inherited by Tinubu is trust. There is hardly any kind of trust in Nigerian politicians. This trust deficit transcends levels in our political field. It is regardless of the level at which you play. He has come in as president at a time Nigeria is still writhing in the pain of a vicious rape by the last administration. To begin the process of recovery from this, we need to carefully nurture trust which is in very short supply at the moment. Tinubu should provide it but with additional psychological pampering which would aid a faster healing process. Do we have that yet? Have we seen that yet?

Well, it is trite in Igboland to say e jigi ùtútù a má njó ahia (we cannot determine how the market day would end just by the morning lull). It is indeed not such a good thing to denounce the entire day because of the missteps in its early parts. Tinubu must greatly reduce the trust deficit Nigerians have in our politicians. Trust liability is so alive and smouldering. If Tinubu cannot clear it, he must bring it to a manageable level. He needs Nigerians and he must show Nigerians that he would ride with them. He must also act fast.

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE 

• Tinubu in closed door meeting with Nigeria Governors

• Tinubu swears in new SGF, George Akume

• Biafra is non-negotiable ― Nnamdi Kanu

• We used chattered aircraft from Ethiopia to unveil Nigeria Air ― MD

• ‘Time is right for new project’, Karim Benzema speaks on why he made Al-Ittihad move

• Alia nullifies last-minute appointments, recruitments by Ortom