BUHARI'S ANGER, DESTINY AND HISTORY.(READ)

May 29 2015 marked a watershed in the political history of Nigeria. Muhammadu Buhari, a Retired Major General and former military ruler of Nigeria was sworn in on that day as an elected president after four attempts. Buhari's destiny has been fulfilled. He is a very angry man because of the level of national corruption but history is waiting for him. Buhari trounced the former President Jonathan who was largely seen as weak and presided over what many perceived as the most corrupt administration in the history of Nigeria.


 Buhari's electoral victory was largely because of his anti corruption stance and his mega mantric promise to change everything about Nigeria for the better. He inherited a nation at its lowest ebb due to corruption, insecurity, broken down infrastructure, high level, unemployment, high cost of living etc. He promised the nation that he will inject fresh corrupt free ideas and personnel and change everything within a few months in office.

 Buhari literarily was going to be a magician. On that May 29th, there was a nationwide sigh of relief. There was a national feeling of pride as people felt renewed hopes, had high expectations and got assurances from their new revered leader that everything will change for good. The architects of Buhari's election were high on political aphrodisiac. They have conquered and were the new kings of the palace and kids on the block. Nigerians were in for a mega shift from a broken nation to a healed nationhood.

The beginning of Buhari's tenure was completely slow paced and characterized by name calling and blame game on the past administration. It was obvious that key Buhari actors were initially more interested in demonizing the old Jonathan administration and policies than laying out the agenda and programs of the new Buhari administration. It got to the mundane level of national discourse and continued cross fires between the two groups and their followers. This to my understanding rubbed off negatively on some of the goodwill the Buhari government came in with.

First negative flank for the Buhari team was when they announced that he will not declare his assets publicly as he promised severally during his campaign. This betrayal shocked Nigerians. Though Buhari much later declared his assets and made it public, the public relations error had been made coupled with the controversy that trailed the actual declaration. There is some remarkable change in the attitude of the Nigerian public servants and improvement in some public services not because the new government has put any single policy in effect. It's rather more because of people trying to do the right things for fear of being victims of Buhari's anti corruption anger.

Buhari made key and strategic high level presidential appointments which were totally skewed in favour of his ethnic group. Several other disadvantaged groups grumbled over this but where sharply reminded that past presidents did the same thing. One then wonders if indeed Buhari will fully practice the change he preached if he is falling back to the excuse that his predecessors did the same thing. It didn't take very long before the political class and the average Nigerian started complaining over the delay in constituting the president's cabinet. These were genuine concerns granted that Buhari was elected in March and have had enough time to put a team together. Buhari at some point muted the impression that having ministers is not necessarily important describing them as "just noisemakers".

 He also justified his delay with the explanation that he was taking his time to choose the best team who he promised would mostly be technocrats and untainted people to help him deliver on his promises. People saw with him and kept vigil with him. Most Nigerians were however disappointed when the lists of his ministers was made public after almost 5 months of wait. Many people claimed and rightly so that most of the nominees were neither technocrats nor the expected 'untainted' people. It was largely the same political operatives who have held the nation in chains for several years. Contrary to the expected competence criteria, many nominees came in on behalf of and through controlling favoured interest groups and blocks. This cast a serious shadow on Buhari's change mantra.

 Nigerians wasted no time in publicly voicing out their disappointment over Buhari's choice of ministers. Many had also expected him to attach portfolios to nominees forwarded to the senate as people wanted to march their qualifications with their expected portfolios. Buhari chose to do the same thing past administrations use to do negating his change platform. This invariably left the senate practically slightly moronic as to questioning of the nominees. It was a "one size fits all" confirmation process. The senate contrary to their own publicly stated stand to thoroughly grill the nominees, actually used the notorious "take a bow" slogan and approved many nominees without questioning them.

Almost every Nigerian has been affected either directly or psychologically by the vicious terrorist activities of the dreaded BOKO Haram sect over the years. Their orchestrated attacks and the apparent helplessness of former President Jonathan to end the scourge more than any other factor greatly contributed to his loss of the presidential elections. Buhari's campaign was very vigorous in labeling Jonathan a failure in this regard and practically gave Nigerians the unflinching assurance that he will wipe out BOKO Haram within one month in office if elected. On inauguration, Buhari made an audacious pronouncement about them and ordered the military high command to relocate to the North eastern Nigeria to wipe out the sect.

 Unfortunately, it appears the activities of the sect has increased and perhaps more people have been killed under Buhari's short watch than throughout Jonathan presidency. The result is that Buhari now sees that it is not as easy as it seemed during campaign. President Buhari has now resorted to reaching out to BOKO Haram for negotiations as opposed to wiping them out like he emphatically promised.

The fight against corruption appears to have actually been given priority as promised by Buhari during the campaigns. There are now very limited avenues for government sleaze. Some former governors and public officials have either been arrested or invited for questioning over their financial dealings while in office. What is not clear yet is whether the campaign will be all embracing or just targeted at operatives of the Jonathan administration which appears to be the position for now. Buhari has also made some appointments seen as questionable compensating certain people alleged to be corrupt or with pending corruption allegations or indictments against them. Buhari did this to compensate some of these people who either directly or through their principals or surrogates played strong financial or political roles in his election. This in the view of many Nigerians is against the anti corruption campaign impression created by Buhari.

While Buhari raised the hopes of Nigerians domestically, the nation's international profile also rose as Buhari has been given first level treatment by several key nations who have hosted him on state visits. It is however not clear when these trips will start yielding dividends for the nation either in terms of the economy, living standards or the security of the country or if indeed they will.
Several sections of the same international community also expressed concern at the slow pace of Buhari's governance and it seems to have also had some level of adverse effects on the country's economic ratings. The feelings is that while there has been many pronouncements from the government, there has not been any policy direction as all the components of governance have not been put in place 5 months after assumption of office.

One strong setback the Buhari government immediately encountered from day one is the dwindling resources due to the crash of oil revenues. However, the government has also saved huge sums of money by running government without ministers, Special Advisers, hundreds of their aides etc, whose salaries and emoluments ordinarily usually run into hundreds of billions monthly.
On the whole, there is a general shift in the impression and attitudes of Nigerians to government. People are afraid to run fowl of regulations. Even the president's body language and disposition now makes officials to work hard thereby making sure that unbroken infrastructure works within their capacities.

Buhari's anger is probably lifting Nigerians to another level. It may be his destiny to make Nigeria great again. But whatever happens in this his tenure, history will have a significant chapter on him. What I don't know for now is what it will say. God bless and keep us all.

This article culled from Barrister Ike C. Ibe's Facebook page, a Lawyer and a politician.