BONN, Federal Republic of Germany. ‘Still Waiting For The Real Buhari Nigerians Voted For (1)’ By Temple Chima Ubochi.
We all know our duty better than we discharge it (John Randolph)
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there (Lewis Carroll)
A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there (H. Stanley Judd)
I didn’t want to do this; only that I’m irked when things start going wrong. I wanted to allow President Buhari enjoy his honey moon, as long as things are moving, even slowly. But, here, a week after his inauguration, things are so static that I must “grumble”, because, that’s not what Nigerians bargained for by electing Buhari. Buhari is supposed to show us that he’s a serious human being, who’s ready to turn things around immediately without excuses. If he doesn’t know what to do, there was no need for him to have asked Nigerians to elect him. I hope President Buhari is not telling Nigerians, by his attitude, that the first time he ruled Nigeria, that it was Tunde Idiagbon who was pulling the strings, while he took only the glory.
I wanted to give President Buhari time to settle down, in office, before discerning whether he’s delivering the change he promised. It’s still too early to judge a president who was inaugurated about a week ago. But, I expected him to hit the ground running from day one, after his inauguration, having about two months after the election to decide who would serve in his government, because, as he promised during the campaign period, he intended to start tackling Nigeria’s numerous problems from day one. But, lo, the real Buhari who was elected is missing; the Buhari we have now is still the old Buhari who seems clueless. Infact, the President has confirmed what so many of us have been complaining about from the beginning that this man, Buhari, has no plan or programme for Nigeria. Almost a week after taking over the government, this man has left everybody guessing what he plans to do, who his staff, ministers and other appointees would be. We know that it’s not yet too late, but, a serious fella, as president, would have appointed few helping hands by now.
Buhari is only giving excuses, and a friend of mine wanted to know how “someone who prepared for an exam for almost two months would enter the exam hall to say that he forgot his biro at home”. It was just the same case of Obasanjo recommending a way forward for the Buhari’s administration in governing a new Nigeria. We read that Obasanjo, through his think-tank group, examined critical areas of the economy and submitted a review to Buhari. The group which was launched four months ago under the Centre for Human Security of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library examined five key areas of education, power, the economy, security and infrastructure. Many people have advised Buhari to throw the report away, because, “a person who failed an exam can’t advice another person on how to pass an exam he himself failed”; a failure can’t lead another failure. Senator Rowland Owie said: “Wonders will never end! How can Obasanjo who allegedly wasted eight years in government pursuing perceived enemies, and tried to ruin the legislative and judiciary arms of government in Nigeria; wasted $16 billion on power and not a single kilowatt of energy was produced, destroyed Aladja Steel, Itakpe Steel, Ajaokuta Steel, NITEL, just to mention a few FGN parastatals, now begin to advise Buhari”. How come that Buhari, elected about two months ago, still doesn’t know what to do to form a government as quickly as possible?
From what’s going on or not happening, many people are asking if Buhari really wanted this post or he just decided to try his luck without really being serious about ruling and solving Nigeria’s problems. It seems that people just pushed Buhari because they wanted a northerner to be the president. Remember that in 2011, some northern leaders promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Jonathan, and they carried out the threat by empowering Boko Haram, but, unfortunately, the monster, they created, is out of control and about to devour them also. Now, Buhari has taken over, he’s seeing what President Jonathan saw all these years. Now, Buhari travelled to Niger and Chad, looking for a way to rein in the monster they empowered for political reasons. It is one thing to criticize from afar, and another to solve the problem when called upon to do so. Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmad Coomasie, a former Inspector General of Police, and the Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), in boasting how they sent Goodluck Jonathan to Otuoke, told Nigerians that the decision, on returning of the presidency to the North, was taken since 2012, and that “there was nobody, in the north, that went against the ACF stand”. Because the north decided to take over power since 2012; that was the reason, despite all President Goodluck Jonathan did to appease the north, it remained an ingrate. It shows that there’s nothing good one does for an ingrate that will be appreciated. President Jonathan achieved a lot, more than any other former president or head of state of Nigeria so far; and most of what he did were in the north, to the detriment of his own region and the other regions too, all to win the heart of the north, not knowing that the north can’t be pleased, that all it wanted was the political power.
The crux of this article is not to criticize for the sake of it, but, to point out that nothing is happening in Nigeria. There’s no government yet in Nigeria. While the president travelled to Niger and Chad and will be heading to Germany from there, the vice president would have been in South Africa for the World Economic Forum for Africa (WEFA) going on there, but, the trip was cancelled at the last minute, and the advance party, dispatched ahead of Osibanjo’s visit to South Africa has returned to Abuja. President Buhari only appointed Mr. Femi Adesina as the Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu as the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity), and Mallam Lawal Kazaure as the State Chief of Protocol (SCOP), and that’s all. No one knows the difference between Adesina and Shehu’s jobs. The president has failed to appoint his key aides, about a week after his inauguration. Most of all, The President has no Chief of Staff, so nobody knows the President’s daily schedule and itinerary, as it’s a Chief of Staff’s responsibility to arrange the President’s day-to-day activities. There is lull everywhere, more especially, at the presidency, and that’s a mess.
The problem I have here is that a President, who planned travelling outside the country as his first official duty, should have at least appointed a foreign minister who should have accompanied him. How can a president be travelling to three countries without a foreign minister, even a designated one? Buhari knew of this trip to Germany, to honor the G-7 invitation, since about two months ago. So, if he was serious, a foreign minister should have been nominated by now, but, there has been none till now, unless he has someone already, who he is keeping doggo. That’s the problem: I have repeated it that “a leopard will hardly change its spots”, in that Buhari still thinks he is a military ruler, and that he can operate as a “one man squad”. That’s not possible in a democracy. That’s the reason he asked the senate for permission to appoint 15 Special Advisers, who will assist him to carry out his functions as President without adding the names of the appointees. The senate approved the request without asking questions, because, nobody wants to antagonize a president who claims he is bringing change to Nigeria. What if some of those who would be appointed queer his pitch (spoil the business for him)?
The new president is taking Nigerians for granted; he campaigned, promising to do things differently, but, after he was elected, he started saying different things. He promised, during the campaign period, that he will live up to his role as the president from the first day, but, after winning the election, he asked Nigerians to exercise patience, as the change he promised would take time before coming. He promised to declare his assets publicly if elected, but, now, he failed to do so. What he did, with the vice president, was to submit their assets declaration to the Code of Conduct Bureau without immediately making them public, promising to do that at a later time., Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, a constitutional lawyer, said it was compulsory for the president and his vice to declare their assets publicly. In his words: “that is where credibility starts. I have no doubt that he will make it public because that is where credibility starts. That is where Jonathan started losing credibility. The late Umar Yar’Adua forced him to declare his assets in 2007, reluctantly, he did it. But when he was his own man, he said he does not give a damn and that is where he started sliding down. So, Buhari has no choice, it is absolute for himself and Osinbajo if change and credibility are going to be sustained. There is no other way out, so I expect in the next 24 hours or so that we would know what their assets are. He should apply it to every other appointee of his regime, not just himself and Osinbajo, it is compulsory and absolute.”
As Buhari is discovering now, things are not always as easy as they seemed: Despite the fact that Buhari was once a head of state, he under-estimated the problems of Nigeria and how to tackle them. That was why he campaigned as if he knows all the solutions to Nigeria’s problems. But, when he won, he went to Aso Rock to meet President Jonathan, and their one-on-one meeting took more than four hours, because, the enormity of Nigeria’s problems was more than what Buhari envisaged. He never knew President Jonathan had such a mountain of problems to tackle. Now, he will be facing those problems, and it seems he is getting cold feet already.
Remember that I am writing this article to point out that Buhari should have nominated a foreign minister to follow him around, since he has decided to be a “tourist” president. President Muhammadu Buhari will attend the G-7 summit which comes up in Berlin, Germany, from June 7th to 9th, 2015. The Germany visit will be the third country he will visit, since his inauguration, as he visited Niger and Chad on Wednesday and Thursday, 03 and 04 June, to discuss security and terrorism issues. I found it a bit disturbing that a president just inaugurated about a week ago, would jet out of Nigeria to stay away for more than four days. Buhari seems confused; he doesn’t know what to do, and the north is trying to hijack the government after others worked hard for Buhari’s election. Understanding the northern agenda here would help us to know why Buhari is still indecisive till now. Nigerians are in for a bumpy ride, if what we are reading plays out that way. While others were sleeping or rejoicing that a new government has taken over in Nigeria, Buhari and some northern leaders were busy planning on how to make the new government a purely northern one. The jiggery-pokery northern leaders are at it again; the same people were those who promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Jonathan in 2011. I want to put everything down verbatim first, before analyzing them in the concluding part of this article:
“The details of a secret meeting between newly sworn-in President Muhammadu Buhari and some northern leaders have been revealed. The meeting took place at the presidential villa on Saturday night, 30th May, 2015.
These northern leaders told Buhari not to make the kind of mistake Dr Jonathan made by not massively developing the Niger Delta.
They said he focused on the transformation of the entire country, believing that he (Dr Jonathan) will secure a second term in office to massively develop Niger Delta.
They asked Buhari to treat the north, mostly north-west and north-east like every day is his last day in office, citing the long absence of a northerner at the helm of affairs.
An insider and attendee at the nocturnal meeting, who demanded anonymity, squeaked to Elombah.com that the northern leaders made eight demands from Buhari, including:
1. Appointment of core northern Muslims in to key positions in the country.
2. Extra financial support for the 19 northern states.
3. Amnesty for Boko Haram, so that it would be an avenue to empower northern youths.
4. To establish a world class petroleum university in Katsina state.
5. To build another refinery in Kano state.
6. To pay off Tinubu and Amaechi for sponsoring his campaign, so that his presidency can be truly a northern presidency.
7. To place Ankio Briggs and Asari Dokubo on DSS watch list, seize their passports, because they can turn the Niger Delta region against his presidency.
8. And lastly they asked him not to honour the gay agreement between his party (APC) and the western countries.
Sources said: Buhari agreed to try his best in the first seven demands, but he is not so sure of the last demand which is the gay agreement with western countries; because he is scared they would fight him, destabilize his government, and possibly edge him out like they did to Dr Jonathan.
The meeting had in attendance, Governors El Rufai, Aminu Masari, Abdulahi Ganduje of Kano, and Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina respectively.
Others are Atiku Abubakar, Ibrahim Coomassie, Adamu Ciroma, Yusuf Maitama Sule, and Muhammad Danjuma Goje (Elombah).
