As Nigeria marks its 61st year as an independent nation from British colonial rule, “I am for everybody and for nobody” may be the worst broken promise made by any Nigerian president.
During his inaugural speech in 2015, President Buhari promised to unite us. But instead of unity, he now divides us. Not even in the civil war era was Nigeria this polarised and sharply divided by politics, ethnicity and religion.
President Buhari on his inaugural day declared that he “belonged to everybody and belonged to no one.” That statement is perhaps the worst broken promise by any known Nigerian president since the birth of the country. A recent opinion poll indicates that 64 per cent of Nigerians believe the President is the direct opposite of his pledge to Nigerians. They believe the president belonged to his tribe and to his religion. They believe his loyalty is to the Fulani and Islam and that he has scant regard for the well-being of the Nigerian nation and her constitution.
I am saying nothing new. To accuse the President of incurable nepotism is to say the obvious. A lot of people have spoken about this and against this too. Many fair-minded people, even from the President’s tribal affiliation, who love this country, who love the unity and diversity of this country, have spoken against the president’s deliberate Fulanisation of Nigeria just like they would have spoken against any attempt to either Igbonise or Yorubanise Nigeria.
Our beauty and our strength are in the diversity of our population and this is what this president is missing. His inability to belong to all of us is the reason this country is in turmoil.
Nigeria is dangerously sliding into a failed state due to the president’s broken promise. His lopsided appointments, especially in the higher cadre of governance and our security, which give preference to some sections of the country over others, is what is fuelling the anger of many ethnic champions and all other self-determination groups. Despite criticisms in this direction, the President remains unmoved.
For instance, while all the federal roads and social infrastructure in the South East has collapsed, making transportation of people and goods difficult if not impossible, the president is borrowing money to fix roads and railways in the Republic of Niger where he claimed to have cousins and relatives. We are here suffering because we aren’t relatives of the president. He doesn’t belong to us and we don’t belong to him. He has by his own actions pitted the Fulani against the rest of the country.
In his first visit to the United States, President Buhari tried to justify the rationale for his flawed and vindictive nepotism. In his view and mindset, which shocked the entire democratic world, he expressed that it would amount to injustice to administer same treatment to those who didn’t vote for him and those that voted for him. Since the South East didn’t vote him, the population in the region should not expect much from him. At best, they are sentenced to die and rot on earth.
In all my life, I have not seen a president that is so embittered and angry, in spite of a landslide victory. Such corrosive politics is not how to be a good president, but unfortunately this misguided notion became the hallmark that defines Buhari’s presidency from 2015 to date. While the country is being destroyed, while we die and rot on earth, the politicians are busy arguing about how to fraudulently win the next election. The Northern Governors and elders are arguing from the North, while Southern Governors are busy with themselves arguing from the South. None is thinking of how to build consensus and reach compromises on common issues, which is what politics is all about. The President, who ought to show leadership, is less concerned because our rancorous talking over our heads suits his agenda.
Need I further emphasise that his incompetent decision-making has created a series of disasters and in many ways an absolute disaster. If the President wants to change his style and unite the country, he has the power as the most powerful democratic president in the world to do so. The survival of Nigeria depends on him. May be someday before he leaves office, President Buhari will belong to all of us.
His inability to unite us is just one of his many broken promises. Maybe the worst nightmare I have seen in my lifetime is the level of insecurity in the country. Nigerians are no longer safe at home or outside their homes. They are neither safe in the city nor in the villages. As I write this article, news came in that Dr Akunyili, a fine gentleman and husband of late Prof Dora Akunyili was shot dead by unknown gunmen just a day after he received an award on behalf of his late wife. News also came in that Senator Ewuga was kidnapped and a certain Air Vice Marshal Smith Sikiru kidnapped in Lagos. Also, in the news was the killing and beheading of a certain young man by a rival cult group who used the beheaded head of their victim to play soccer. The murderers didn’t mask their faces because they know they are above the law and there is no law, no order and no justice.
Buhari, in his inaugural speech, promised to restore law and order. He promised security of lives and property, which by the way, is the primary purpose of any legitimate government. He assured us he would lead from the front. His media aide gleefully announced that a new Sheriff is in town and that crime has taken flight. Years later and instead of restoring law and order, we have a president conquered by unknown gunmen, banditry and insurgency. No part of Nigeria is safe. Instead of rallying the country against foreign invaders, the president took sides. He wants us to give up our ancestral lands to ruthless invaders who killed our people without mercy and helplessly raped our daughters and our wives. It’s not possible that we can live side by side with these people because that means slavery for our unborn generations. What’s the worth of our lives? What’s the value of our freedom from the British if we cannot live in safety as free men in our own country? Buhari’s litany of failed promises is the reason the country is in an unending war against itself.
During his presidential campaign, he promised to grow our economy beyond what it was. He blamed our woes on corruption and clueless leadership of former President Jonathan. Then the naira was exchanging for N160 to $1. Then a bag of 50Kg rice sold for N8,000. Fuel pump price was N87 per litre of petrol. Then there was corruption. We were ranked 136 out of 180 countries.
We considered life difficult and had hoped that President Buhari would turn things around. We trusted him and elected him president only for him to run the economy aground. As I write, the naira is exchanging for N580 to a United States dollar, N780 to one British Pound; fuel pump price is N170 per litre of petrol; the price of a bag of rice is N32,000; a bag of cement is about N4,000. Our debt profile has risen from $9bn in 2015 to $34bn and we are still borrowing. No one is asking how we are going to pay; instead we are borrowing to service debts.
Due to bad economy, people are suffering untold hardship. The death rates are escalating because of one man’s too many broken promises and incompetence, which has become absolute catastrophe. Under his watch, our corruption perception ranking index is the worst we ever had. On a sub-regional basis, we were among the worst performing countries in West Africa, second only to Guinea-Bissau which was ranked 165. In Africa, we are competing with places like South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia.
How we shall survive this peril remains a mystery. But somehow, I want to convince myself that there is hope in the horizon for Nigeria.