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There is always advice for every President who wants to succeed, who wants to leave through the front door, who doesn’t want to run aground in the office. The first step is to assemble a Cabinet of superb quality, a team of strong managers with plenty of experience who can control the career bureaucrats and not become their captives. Second, appoint people who know how to build support in the legislature and the media. Having done that, the President can afford to leave the details of administration to them and concentrate on determining national priorities and directions himself.
Third, and perhaps most important, the President is also advised, in his best interest, and the collective interest of the nation and the people, to appoint men and women who will, at all times, give him unvarnished truth, then lay out the options and groundwork for decisions that he will have to make. Good performance or failure often flows from how the President is able to take all of this advice and effectively implement them. And you ask: Did President Muhammadu Buhari do this in 2015 and 2019? In 2015, we were all witnesses that Nigeria stood still for about six months before Buhari could assemble a Cabinet.
And when he finally did, it was nothing to cheer about. Only few had the shrewd intelligence, the drive and ability to get things done. We hardly could point at anyone of them who stood for fiscal responsibility, or an eye beyond personal interest to drive the president’s agenda to combat corruption, insecurity and grow the economy. Recall these are the three cardinal points he campaigned with. Perhaps Buhari just realised then that indeed, there is a huge difference between winning election and governing. You see, when ‘yesmen’ surround a President, you can only expect mediocre performance. That’s where the rain started beating this government.
If in doubt, look around All the President’s men, all you see are garrulous men, talkers and tacklers, men known for their demagoguery, men who always shoot from the hip, often patronising and arrogant, completely exhausted in their brains to give unvarnished truth when the tempers of the time require nothing but the truth. Only truth leads to real Change. Nigeria’s situation is made even worse by a President who is often aloof, lacking the authority to give instructions and see them carried out to the letter. That’s what the Commander-In-Chief means.
We want a better country, and that’s not something too much to ask for. As the scripture says, a wise person listens and takes more instructions. A man of understanding acquires skillful direction (Proverb 1:5). What could cause someone to reject good counsel? Pride. Proud people like “to have their ears tickled”(2 Timothy 4:3-4). Such people have an inflated view of their own opinion and worth. “If anyone thinks he’s something when he’s nothing, he’s deceiving himself”(Galatians 6:3). Without stretching matters too far, let’s look at some of the President’s men, how they are negatively influencing his decisions, thereby causing collateral damage to Nigeria.
Top on the list is the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. Since he assumed office at the behest of the President, Adamu’s over the top comments, his bravado, are as irritating as his conceit. Only recently, he said President Buhari “can borrow from here till eternity”. He told Trust Television that “it does not matter how much the President borrows to keep Nigeria running … after all the US, UK, France and Canada, take loans from the World Bank”. Does Adamu know simple economics, that binge borrowing has consequences, and can lead to economic disaster? What more ignorance can a man exhibit than this? Today, Nigeria’s debt stock is above N41.6trn. Buhari inherited N18.89trn in 2015. Figures from the CBN show that Nigeria owes the IMF, World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) $18.96bn. This excludes loans from China and other financial institutions. Currently, CBN lending to Buhari government has risen by 2,969 percent in 7 years. This is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. Yet, the President can ‘borrow forever’.
Another Adamu is in the ring. He is Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education. For sometime now, this man had ‘disappeared’ from the radar, for whatever reason, it was not clear. But when he ‘reappeared’ on the orders of the President to handle the impasse between government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), his comments have become as bizarre as some of the policies of the government he represents. Rather than make better things happen, this Adamu has made worse things happen. He said government would not concede to the demands of ASUU or pay lecturers for the seven months of non- academic activities. “If anyone will compensate students for time and resources lost, it’s ASUU”, he said. Can you beat that? This is defining truth downwards.
Now, comes Lai Mohammed, the cheerleader of demagoguery and doublespeak. On August 20, 2013, 20 months before APC acquired power, this is what Mohammed said: “No government worth its salt can afford to play with education, because it’s the path to national development. ASUU is not making any fresh demand beyond the agreement it reached with the government in 2009. Agreements are meant to be honoured, and breaching them comes with some consequences”. Things have come full circle now. Is this government without honour? It’s not unkind to say that, for Lai Mohammed, lies have become passé, nothing to be ashamed of. He’s a master of oversimplifying complex issues whenever it suits his purpose. His gaffes are too many. Early this year, he boasted that “Nigeria is becoming safer every day.” He claimed that this was made possible by the “effectiveness of the security forces, enhanced by the leadership of the President”. Days later, exactly on March 28, terrorists attacked Abuja-Kaduna bound train, killed tens of passengers, and took hundreds hostage. The terrorists are releasing them in piecemeal depending on how much the victims’ families are able to pay as ransom. That’s what hubris does to people like Lai Mohammed.
Every passing day, fresh facts emerge why this government that promised ‘Change’ has delivered calamity. It’s partly because of enfant terrible like Festus Keyamo (SAN), the junior Minister of Labour and Employment. Asked by Channels TV interviewer on the insecurity in the country, Keyamo said, “it’s only in heaven where there will be no security breaches. We are not in heaven yet”. He claimed that “Buhari has provided leadership” that Obasanjo could not provide as President. Keyamo said that APC after all, “did not promise Nigerians that there would be no insecurity, or security breaches, but that when such security breaches occur, there would be adequate response”.
He added a funny twist that “all the terrorists that carried out attacks in the suburbs of Abuja, had been neutralised”. Oh my goodness! With a man like Keyamo, who says our politics and politicians are not fun to follow? Add the President’s new in-law, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to this ill-mannered list of the President’s men, the question is: how low can we go as a nation? These men wouldn’t mind to be caught in a strip club if that is what it takes to defend Buhari’s abysmal performance. Surprisingly, such men are ever present in our pork barrel politics, because what they say is what the President wants to hear. And the time is fast approaching, when the President will look himself in the mirror, and ask: how will history judge me? None of the above- mentioned men will be there to answer the question for him.
