Enough of this Unending Blame Game

After former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had blamed ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party’s 16 years of “misrule” for Nigeria’s economic woes, the camp of President Bola Tinubu in the All Progressives Congress has shifted the blame for the current economic hardship to Buhari’s administration. As  Buhari’s loyalists are fighting back, insisting that the current administration is the cause of the hunger in the land, Ejiofor Alike writes that Nigeria’s leaders should end this cycle of blame game and resolve the country’s challenges, which they voluntarily offered themselves to tackle

On assumption of office in 2015, former President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) had elevated blame game to an art of governance, a culture that was alien during the 16 years the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power.

Rather than tackle the problems which they voluntarily offered themselves to address, the presidency under Buhari and the APC were busy blaming Jonathan until the economy plunged into recession.

At every opportunity, Buhari; his vice, Professor Yemi Osinbajo; the then Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed; the then APC National Chairman and former Governor of Edo State, Senator Adams Oshiomhole; presidential spokespersons, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina, as well as the other agents of the administration entertained Nigerians with the stories of how the PDP administrations did not save for the rainy day and how the administrations were enmeshed in “mind-boggling” corruption.

They justified their sometimes boring and irritating stories with “the need to know where we are coming from.”

Shehu even blamed Jonathan for Buhari’s failure to form a cabinet immediately after his inauguration.

Buhari was inaugurated on May 29, 2015 but formed his cabinet on November 11 of the same year.

Speaking on national TV, Shehu claimed that Jonathan did not give Buhari handover notes until 48 hours before his departure.

He said: “That President Buhari took 166 days to form a cabinet is absolutely untrue. It took him time to form a cabinet because the outgoing administration in 2015 did not cooperate with the transition committee.

“The president was given handover notes 48 hours to the handover of power and for whatever reason, the President at that time determined that two governments would not operate at the same time,” Shehu said.

But it was common knowledge that Buhari deliberately refused to hasten the formation of his cabinet, claiming in September 2015, that ministers were mere ‘noise makers.’

In an interview with France 24 TV in France, the former president said that the absence of ministers was not affecting governance.

Also contrary to Shehu’s claim, the then head of the Transition Committee, Ahmed Joda, had also in May 2015 said that the committee got all the cooperation it needed from Jonathan’s administration before the May 29 handover date.

Barely two months after Buhari took over, Oshiomhole, who was among the APC leaders working hard to ingratiate themselves with the key actors in the new administration, made a baseless allegation that a minister who served under Jonathan’s administration, stole $6billion.

He said the details were provided by United States officials during President Buhari’s visit to the United States.  Oshiomhole, who was still Edo State governor, was part of the delegation.

Those who complained about Buhari’s sluggishness and glaring lack of capacity to tackle the country’s problems were labelled “wailing wailers,” by Adesina, a spokesman of the administration.

But as soon as Buhari relinquished power, Oshiomhole made a U-turn on national TV, claiming that Nigerians are currently suffering from the “reckless policies” of former President Buhari.

Before Oshiomhole made the claim, a former governor of Ogun State and chieftain of the APC, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, had accused the ex-governor of Edo State, of insulting Buhari to curry the favour of President Bola Tinubu.

After Oshiomhole fell out with Buhari following his removal as APC national chairman, the former governor confessed that Jonathan actually left lasting legacies, adding that Nigerians don’t appreciate good leaders until they leave office. He admitted that he fought Jonathan out of office due to their political differences. 

 “You (Jonathan) left legacies even though I had cause to fight because it is politics. The legacy you have left, there is no successor who can afford to do less”, Oshiomhole said at the one-year memorial lecture in honour of the late Captain Hosa Okunbo.

In what also appeared to be a U-turn by the ruling party, the APC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said recently on ARISE Television that the problems being faced by the nation were generational and was not created by any specific administration.

Morka’s position was a dramatic departure that apparently exonerated Jonathan’s administration from the chants of the immediate past when the APC blamed him for all the nation’s problems.

Apart from Oshiomhole, some key members of Tinubu’s administration have also shifted the blame for Nigeria’s economic woes to Buhari’s administration.

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the inaugural Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting said the Tinubu’s administration inherited a very bad economy from Buhari with inflation at 24 per cent.

On his part, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, had lamented that the current administration inherited a bankrupt country from Buhari.

Vice President Kashim Shettima took the APC’s culture of blame game to a very ridiculous level when he recently blamed opposition elements for the food crisis currently ravaging the country.

Speaking in Abuja during the inaugural Public Wealth Management Conference organised by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu, said, “Those who could not get into power through the ballot box instead of waiting till 2027, they are so desperate. If this country can fall apart, as far as they’re concerned, so be it. We are going to resist them.”

He also blamed smugglers for the food crisis, citing the recent interception of 45 trucks of maize bound for a neighbouring country.

Smuggling has always been an economic challenge and it is the duty of the government to curb this economic sabotage, instead of lamenting and blaming everyone except itself.

Meanwhile, Buhari’s loyalists are fighting back as a former Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung has criticised the Tinubu-led government for consistently attributing Nigeria’s economic challenges to the former president.

In a series of posts on his X account, Dalung argued that if Tinubu’s administration devoted the same resources and effort used during elections and tribunals to tackle security and economic issues, significant improvements could be achieved.

Analysts believe that it is irritating, hypocritical and mischievous for the current administration to continue with Buhari’s administration’s culture of blame game by regaling Nigerians with the stories of how the immediate past created the current hardship. 

Indeed, the agents of the current administration knew Nigeria’s problems before offering themselves to serve the people, and had promised during the election campaigns that they would provide the solutions to the challenges.

Blaming everyone except themselves for these economic challenges can’t be part of the solutions to these challenges.