Buhari and Verdict of Posterity

Niyi Egbe writes about the eight-year regime of former President Muhammadu Buhari with a verdict that the administration performed below people’s expectations.

It’s over 100 days since ex-President Muhammadu Buhari left office as Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed forces. Probably no Nigerian leader enjoyed as much goodwill as President Buhari when he started off as civilian President in 2015.

His selling point was No to corruption.  He didn’t appear ostentatious and indeed, was quite modest. Hardly were there reports of fiscal corruption traceable to his person.

This anti-corruption disposition endeared him to people. For many, he was the true face of the leader that Nigeria needed.

For the Northern Talakawa or plebeian he was Mei-Gasikiya – the truthful, righteous person who keeps his words.

Nigerians rewarded him with endorsement expectedly higher in the North during the 2015 and 2019 elections.

Nigerians started getting disappointed when after an uncomfortable wait, rather than have professionals that would deliver some good to the nation, he recycled largely old hands as Ministers. He also hardly made needed changes unless hounded.

Sadly, it is to Buhari’s discredit that the parliament had to enact a law which makes it mandatory for future Presidents to announce their ministers in 60 days after being sworn in.

We also remember his being ill for about six months while in office. It generated so much concern especially with requisite tax payers money expended on his treatment overseas. There were ugly sides to getting the nation to cope with a sickly President. Some scandalously cooked up narratives around a mysterious look alike called Jubril from Sudan claimed to be ruling the nation in his stead! Luckily, he later got well and settled down to business.

There were disappointing sides of the Buhari leadership. Appointments were divisive and were largely in favour of the North. Most appeals to him to have every part of the nation justifiably have a piece of the action fell on deaf ears. In particular, he seemed to have an axe to grind with the East. Painfully, he would defend his punishment of Ndigbo with explanations that they also denied him at the polls! The development ignited much angst from the East. Painfully so.

The disenfranchisement catalysed dissonance and stoked the fire of restiveness by separatist agitators. Most Easterners simply lost faith in the union. They saw no future in the nation. Some unfortunately made matters worse and have descended to the present ugly violent agitation and the overwhelming sit at home orders.

President Buhari tried to placate the East by delivering the much awaited 2nd Niger Bridge which he for exigencies of time didn’t physically attend its inauguration even when the people directly benefiting from the bridge in unison named the bridge after him.

There were other bright sparks. There were quite a number of infrastructural development. To his credit, he constructed several rail lines. He delivered functional Lagos – Ibadan standard gauge rail lines in record time. The railway modernization development story cut across several parts of the country.

It is also to President Buhari’s credit that he attempted carrying out reforms in the energy sector. He decided to supervise the oil sector directly. His reasoning for taking that decision could have been that as a former Petroleum Minister, he would know where the shoe was pinching and would plug loopholes.

During his Presidency, oil revenue plummeted to an all-time low which was a major economic management challenge.

His administration must, however, be commended for initiating oil sector reforms. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was privatized, he achieved parliamentary endorsement of the Petroleum Act, and like his predecessor canvassed removal of fuel subsidy, the first challenge being managed by President Bola Tinubu.There was the huge challenge of taming the Corona Virus which shut down the globe and plummeted oil prices. Twice the nation slipped into recession but bounced back. To his credit, there was visible infrastructural development. Lagosians will remember him for the concrete paving of the Apapa – Oshodi – Lagos – Ibadan tollgate expressway which was fortified with massive iron network.

The Lagos – Ibadan express way which he inherited as the grave yard of several lives, unattended to by the Obasanjo regime, feebly attended to by the Jonathan regime, was virtually completed by his regime. Travel time on the road got reduced by over half. More important, motorists now travel safer, the road is largely no longer easily seized by robbers.

It is also to his credit that he insisted on growing the food the nation consumes internally. To encourage consumption of local rice, he had to shut borders and got the Central Bank to support internal food production. The strategy paid off, but for challenges of insecurity especially in the northern, eastern and middle belt farmlands, Nigerians now relish eating their home grown rice in unprecedented quanta.

Two issues namely insecurity and corruption dogged the Buhari regimeregime. He inherited rising insecurity involving bombings, murder of untold number of citizens and kidnaps. Criminal elements infiltrated the ranks of his Fulani herder kinsmen. There were rising cases of invasion of places of worship and countless incidences of kidnapping.Islamic fundamentalists in the names of Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa terrorized the citizenry.

Inhabitants of axis of these mindless attacks hardly went to bed with their eyes closed.

The worst of such attacks was the cold blooded attack of St Catherine Catholic, Owo, Ondo State. The terrorist attack of Owo came across as a retaliatory response to the forefront roles of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State in mobilising his Western Nigeria contemporaries to set up Amotekun a regional vanguard to checkmate activities of marauding forces of evil in the face of failure of central government security agencies to adequately provide protection.

Nigerians were shocked and disappointed about Buhari developing cold feet in checking criminal elements who had infiltrated his Fulani kinsmen who had become merchants of evil and kidnapping. There was hardly any part of the nation that didn’t record cases of kidnap and cold blooded murder by some base minded Fulanis. His condemnation were largely delayed and lame.

He was clearly ethnocentric and protective of his ethnic grouping at the expense of the larger nation. Instead of heeding suggestions that Fulanis settle and embrace cattle ranching, he sought perpetuation of the nuisance and inefficiency in free ranging animals and thus, the attendant farmer -herder clashes. He thought of setting up Grazing reserves which the rest of the country resisted. His regime did so much damage that now, it will take wisdom to wholeheartedly trust the Fulani especially over their hegemonic tendencies again.  President Buhari got to the seat of power campaigning against corruption. Unfortunately, the initial strange phenomena of animals swallowing monies, people burying monies in pits and cleverly stashing away money in a myriad of brilliant ways waned. At the twilight of his administration, there were scandalous stealing of humongous sums of money. Buhari’s top government officials fed fat while the President characteristically looked on while the country burnt. The level of official meddlesomeness was high to the extent of some of his ministers contemplated contesting the Presidency. They paid huge sums as deposits to buy forms to the chagrin of an economically challenged citizenry. Most of them had embarked on subtle campaigns only backing down when they realized that a bird in hand was greater than that which in the bush.

At the twilight of his administration, there was heat on President Buhari from different fronts. He had sown the wind through currency change and was reaping an unexpected whirlwind. There was anger in the land and justifiably so. Never had Nigerians had to suffer as much from an uncoordinated policy. It appeared a crime to spend monies they rightly owned.

The Presidency’s mission to frustrate money bags from buying positions hurt the innocent. It hurt the electoral chances of the ruling party. At a point, the candidate of the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, cried out that he was the target of the policy. The attempted currency swap was simply nightmarish, the pains excruciating. So bad, that it took a Supreme Court intervention to save the nation.

At about the same period, there was an unprecedented fuel scarcity in an election year. Unthinkable in an election year!

Towards the end of his tenure, there was a perfidious campaign by twisted minds to extend his stay in office. They explained that the political tension in the land advised a prolonging of his government beyond the May 29th deadline, so as to “fix things up”.      This, in their view could be engineered via a quick re-enactment of the famed “doctrine of necessity”! Fortunately for the nation, the man from Daura was already overwhelmed by the demands of office – a great weight on his gangly aging frame. He also promised decorum and self-censorship after leaving office. Buhari said in case the pressure becomes unbearable, he would seek solace in neighbouring Niger Republic. Throughout his stay, he ensured a close rapport with Niger Republic and its leaders.

Actors quit when ovation is loudest. Not with Buhari. He left when due in the mid of the citizens wailing over fiscal policies gone awry. The attempt at Naira change cum nationwide fuel subsidy appeared to authenticate the claim by some that Buhari’s eight years in governance was a wasted one. Of course, he got afraid of the verdict of history. Posterity would be impartial in delivering its verdict.

-Egbe writes from Lagos