NIGERIA'S HEADACHE: BUHARI'S PANADOL
FACT: No Magician has ever contested for the post of the Nigerian President, Buhari is not a Magician. We voted for him because He told us that He is serious and ready to take Panadol for our collective headache for the next four years. We do not expect miracles and wonders from him either; He is not a miracle worker. Simply put, the opportunity cost of Buhari is the alternative forgone of Jonathan.
Jonathan didn't promise us miracles and wonders either, He promised us uncommon transformation, the kind that will make him the best President Nigeria has ever had. Rather than transform our lives as promised, He developed a symptom that eventually consumed his presidency. The goodwill He enjoyed at the beginning of his presidency suddenly diminished within a twinkle of an eye, Jonathan's handlers were always busy looking for who to pick up a fight with, the symptom later developed into Jonathanmiasis – a condition of incompetency aggravated by the inability of the sufferer to see beyond his / her nose.
For us, common sense revolution (apologies to Bola Tinubu) has displaced uncommon transformation; we achieved what the Egyptians achieved at Tahrir Square through the ballot box because we were tired of the five-person-presidency model (apologies to Obasanjo) of Jonathan's administration, a government of committees committed to doing nothing. The outgoing administration failed to realize that when the shadow of a tree is bent, we straighten the tree and not the shadow. The administration joked too much with matters of urgent national importance and by extension took the joke too far forgetting that the day of reckoning was near. Whatever was left of the Jonathan's government was rubbished by the Orubebeic display of the nuisance value of Elder Orubebe (a supposedly elder statesman) in front of the cameras.
The change we yearn for is here- the change that rendered transformation orphaned. While hoping that the change has come to stay for good, President Buhari needs to be reminded that the Nigerians Jonathan inherited is not the same as the one being transferred to him on the 29th of May, 2015; especially the youth. We are impatient but reasonable, we are no longer dormant, politically we are hyper-active; we are now a force to reckoned with. Our congratulatory trekking is a manifestation of zeal, commitment, honesty and above all, a manifestation of our joblessness. Unlike what it used to be, all we want now is a shift from 'them to us'.
Change for us goes beyond the dictionary definition as the Lexicographers didn't have Nigeria in mind when they were defining change. We want a change that can displace and outclass transformation, a change that will put transformation and Transformation Ambassadors to shame, a change accompanied with speed and direction for speed becomes irrelevant when direction is unknown. President Buhari should please run a presidency that we will be proud of, the presidency that will become the bench mark for subsequent administrations, the government that will truly represent the change we yearn for, if not; we will not hesitate to start the change the changer mass movement. Buhari must prove beyond every reasonable doubt that He is capable of taking Panadol for our headache with his words and actions for the next four years.
***Oyede Saheed also known as High-Chief Humanbeing writes from Ota, Ogun State.