Buhari’s leadership and the future of Nigeria

Even before his election in 2015, I suspected President Buhari will be challenged in terms of performance given his antecedents, but I never thought things would be this worse. He promised us change but we never realized how quick changes come. In six years, he successfully altered Nigeria.
This is not about me being prejudiced or partisan. His fellow tribesmen and party members are equally frustrated by his leadership style, and especially his inability to make useful decisions for the good and future of the country. He has been unable to address fundamental problems such as insecurity and unity. His frustrated allies are too frightened to speak out for fear of being censured. On Channels television, his Transport Minister was too scared to offer an opinion on the Fulani herders crisis that is unsettling the entire nation. Likewise the national leader of his party has remained mum on the same issue.
If only the President knows what his own men say behind him, he will just walk to the nearest mic and camera, address the nation , thank the suffering people of Nigeria for their endurance, offer his resignation and bid the country farewell. Nigerians have sacrificed, we have suffered and we have endured. We are exhausted and frustrated. However, It’s not too late for him to give us some measure of comfort by doing the right things.
Let’s begin with two basic points where President Buhari has failed Nigeria. That’s Unity and Federal Character: The president, no doubt inherited a politically polarized nation. The election that brought him into office was highly divisive. The country was split to the middle. The North supported him overwhelmingly. The South West kind of supported him, while the South East and South- South voted against him.
In the light of the above, one expected him to see the cracks in the unity of the country as one that must be fixed. Find out why the South voted overwhelmingly against him, fix the problem and win them to his side. Also given his background as a former military General , an institution which symbolizes our national unity, one would expect that the unity of the country will be guarded jealously. Instead we are constantly reminded of what Mao Zedong famously said: ‘Political power grows from the barrel of a gun’.
The Bible underscores the importance of unity, strength and the needs of the nation where it instructed, ‘Finally all of you , have unity of mind , sympathy , brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind.’ 1 Peter 3.8.
At his inaugural speech, when he told an expectant nation that he ‘is for everyone and for nobody’, people were left with the impression that he is going to be the president of the North that voted overwhelmingly for him and the South that did not vote overwhelmingly.
But, it didn’t take long for him to show his true color. In an interview during his first trip to the United States, he told his audience that he belonged to those that voted for him, that those that gave him five percent of their votes should not expect to benefit from his government. The audience was shocked.
As a man with his own divisive agenda, he became emotionally glued to his ethnic tribe. 90% of all strategic appointments were given to Northerners, with the South East completely excluded. The bizarre argument of his bootlickers was that, South Easterners didn’t vote for him and therefore need to be punished for backing the wrong candidate. The systematic profiling of over 40 million South Easterners and excluding them from governance is the most dangerous policy undertaken by any administration in the history of Nigeria. The consequence was that all the gains made after the civil war at reconciliation were overnight erased, and the country is worse for it.
Also related to unity is the issue of Federal Character. The constitution established the Federal Character principle to safeguard unity in our diversity. This means that the government should never , under any circumstances favor one ethnic tribe of people or religion over any other tribe or religion. To do so is both immoral and illegal.
We are taught that we are one Nigeria, that we are all citizens, that we are all human beings , that we are all created by the same God, that we are all equal, that every one of us has a right to equal treatment by our government, that we have a right to equal protection by our government, that we have a right to be treated the same, that it is immoral to segregate treatment based on tribe, tongue and religion. Equal rights are enshrined in our constitution and guaranteed by our constitution.
But under Buhari, all these are observed in breach. What we have is northern privilege. You must be a Northerner to head any strategic position. You must be a Northerner to get to the top of your career. You must be a Northerner to merit anything. The worse is that under the regime, crime has identity. Whether you are arrested or investigated and how you are punished depends on whether you are a northerner or southerner and sometimes influenced by how you pray or the language you speak. Laws are made and enforced to keep Southerners in check.
We are in a perpetual state of war with insurgents with whom our leaders are playing ping-pong. We risk famine because farmers cannot go to farm due to the violent activities of Fulani bandits and herders from mostly outside the country. When they attack villages and cowardly kill women and children, they are negotiated with. When they abduct school children , they are paid ransom. When they openly bear AK 47 riffles which they use to kill, kidnap and rape , we are told they have rights to bear AK47 by the same government that wants to take away your hunting rifle. When herds of their cattle destroy an entire crop for the season , you are left to your misery. The herders and their cattle are untouchable because they belong to the privileged tribe in power.
We are told the bandits are faceless and cannot be proscribed yet the bandits grant press conferences in the name of Miyetti Allah claiming responsibilities for mass killings and the President remained their grand patron. We are often told the bandits are foreigners, yet the government is anxious to give them amnesty. We are told that the military can’t reach their hideouts inside the forests, yet when it’s time to negotiate with them and transfer huge pellets of dollars, the government locates them with ease. They are never held accountable for their heinous crimes. This ought not be
In the midst of all the turmoil that we now face, I will urge all the oppressed people never to lose faith for nothing that is evil lasts forever. If evil lasts forever, Hitler will still be around waging wars and killing people, likewise Benito Mussolini ,Idi Amin Dada, Pol pot and Emperor Bokasa.
Fellow citizens, I understand and share in your frustrations. I know they don’t care about us. They don’t care about our sufferings. They also don’t care about our tears. Still, we must not allow ourselves to be pushed into making rash decisions. We must not pick fights against each other and begin to kill each other.
If we remain united and patient, and consistently look up to heaven, we shall overcome. For God has said these things to you ; ‘That in Me you may have peace . In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart : I have overcome the world.’ John 16: 33. Like a blanket over the globe , He has overcome it all. So, shall we overcome this evil all together and build a nation.