Buhari's First Year: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
As May 29th looms large as the 1st Anniversary of the Buhari Administration draws more nearer. This is the time to critically appraise his regime, one year after assuming office and it is definitely a bag of mixed blessings. The good is obvious to all. After a regime that institutionalized official graft and expunged the word corruption from the Nigerian Lexicon, the giant strides to arrest the tide of mammoth corruption that threatened the corporate existence of Nigeria is appreciated by most Nigerians who were nauseated by the blatant criminal enterprise of a regime whose favour pass time was looting the Nigerian State.
Now as they are made to face the courts and the public, the men who seemed larger than life who could bundle a helpless Principal into the boot of a car and take him to an unknown location for intense beatings, now appear petty and ordinary. This is one of the reasons Nigerians voted in Muhammadu Buhari and he has not disappointed us in that regard as he has shown himself ready to run to the ends of the earth in pursuit of Nigeria's mountain of dollars sitting idle in the accounts of these doyens of corruption.
The second good thing is the return of the Nigerian Military having been resurrected from the dead. Gone are the days of Nigerian troops fleeing the Theatre of war into Cameroon. Gone are the days when outright mutiny was the order of the day as troops turned their guns at their corrupt commanding officers. Now the whole world knows why the cankerworm called Boko Haram was allowed to fester for it became the cash cow that was feeding fat the pot-bellied Military elite.
Money meant to buy arms to fight Boko Haram was channeled into private accounts while our troops were left to die the death of a coward on the battlefield like canonfodder. Cometh the man, cometh the hour for Buhari had the temerity to sack those Generals who connived with Boko Haram to destroy the Nigerian State and now they are answering for their crimes amidst tales of how they hid millions of dollars meant for the Armed Forces in Indomie Cartons and Soak a ways.
And immediately after this bold move the tide against the insurgents changed and a semblance of peace and calm has returned to the North East. Next is the reintegration of Nigeria into the committee of Nations after years in the diplomatic wilderness. Due to corruption and misrule the whole world saw Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country hence an embargo on various trade was slapped on the nation.
The EU banned exports of Agricultural produce from Nigeria due to contamination and the bribery of quarantine officials who let through all manner of goods once a fist full of dollars is exchanged. The Western Powers placed a blanket ban on Arms export to Nigeria due to gross human rights abuses and their fore knowledge of the massive corruption being perpetuated by the Military brass. But now the EU ban has been the lifted.
The Americans have re-equipped our Military with sophisticated weaponry like the MRAP vehicles which has proven their mettle in counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq thus are the game changer that has led to the total decimation of Boko Haram forces. The best thing so far in this regime is the appointment of General Tukur Burutai as the Champion of this campaign.
The erstwhile Desert Fox has used his cunning and guile to defeat the once potent Boko Haram that assumed a larger than life status in the former regime who likened them to spirits and ghosts who couldn't be defeated. But unfortunately that is where the good times end. The first bad thing the President did was the unnecessary delay in appointing his cabinet.
These his fellow journey men weren't rabbits out of a hat thus there was no surprise name in his list of appointees that should warrant a six month wait. This stagnated the business of governance and hurt an economy that is so dependent of governments patronage. Next is the nauseating budget saga. Indeed the President should bare most of the blame for this.
The tales of padded budget mixed with missing budget could have been avoided if the President had peeled off his garb of trying to be a statesman and instead chose to play dirty in the mud like a politician. Indeed he needs to learn the art of political manipulation from the Grand Master, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The first mistake the President did was allowing a Saraki Senate Presidency.
At the time it was deemed a move to quell the influence of The Tinubu Boys in the House and ensure balance but alas that play has proved very costly. Saraki is akin to a chameleon, playing both sides of the fence, his role in the unending budget saga can not be mitigated against. And instead of sacking the Civil Servants behind the Budget padding he only just played musical chairs with their portfolio. Indeed this will only send wrong signals to a densely corrupt civil service.
Next on the list of bad is the fuel crisis. Indeed there was no escaping the unending fuel crisis for even the current measures are only a band-aid over a fun gating ulcer whose genesis lies in 16years of PDP rule that failed to build a single refinery despite collecting money from the Chinese to do so only to allegedly build one in Ivory Coast in the name of a former President currently enjoying exile next to his prized investment.
This is the level of decay Buhari and his Junior Minister/GMD of NNPC were faced with. And indeed policy was often times confused and disjoined. There was a clear lack of communication between the Government and the people hence a lot of avoidable mistakes occurred.
Without the services of an experienced media hand the reforms necessary to move oil sector forward will be truncated by revolt and distrust. The last NLC strike failed woefully solely because Nigerians trust President Buhari to do whats right for them. Lack of communication can quickly erode this trust.
The best selling point of this President is his honesty and sincerity thus the sooner we all know that. This fuel crisis will still rear its head until the Dangote Refinery comes online in 2018. That is the bottom line. Next in the bad is the economy. Double digit inflation.
Rising cost of everything from food to building materials is rampant as foreign exchange becomes as scarce as water in a desert while inflation marches on buoyed by dwindling oil revenue. And as the NSB has announced for all to hear we are officially in a recession no thanks to a delayed budget and disjointed monetary policy from the CBN. But where others see lack I see opportunity. An opportunity to diversify a mono-economy.
An opportunity to enhance exports and generate jobs against the old import era when even toothpicks and candles were imported to our collective chagrin. Godwin Emefile is not the man to lead Nigeria out of this well of recession for he is damaged goods having signed off on the looting of the treasury by his former Principal who sacked his predecessor for blowing the whistle on the Ex-President's gravy train. Emefile is a liability with a lot of conflicts of interest and a tone of excess baggage.
The sooner he is eased out of office the better. The Ugly are the new security challenges ranging from Niger Delta Avengers to the Ubiquitous Fulani Herdsmen. I said it repeatedly at the start of this regime that Buhari has one of two choices.
Leave Tompolo alone or take him on but be ready to face the consequences. And low Buhari chose the later and the rest is history. Tompolo the once touted poster boy of the last regime of how to be a good militant, earn billions via lucrative government contracts and then build one's own private army, has bared his fangs after being declared wanted. The nation is in dire straits as a horrific bombing campaign has reduced oil production from 2.7 Million BPD at its peak to less than 1.4 Million billion.
Tompolo must be caught and neutralist with the best way of achieving this is offering a 50 Millions reward for his capture. Indeed I doubt if his own mother won' t betray him for this princely sum. The rampage of Fulani Herdsmen is indeed appalling and condemnable.
Their actions should be nipped in the bud and the Government must be commended for capturing the perpetuators of the dastardly attack on Nimbo in Enugu State. But Agatu in Benue still lies in ruins begging for attention.
Only decisive force can end this menace. The President must act to end these massacres. Buhari's first year has been good, bad and ugly but he didn't come to see a healthy buoyant child but an emaciated malnourished country. He has his work cut out for him to nurse this baby back to health.
Usman Mohammed. Lapai-Niger State
07060815443 [email protected]