Immediately President Buhari won the last presidential election, I set an agenda for him, as an effect of my many years of experience within the context of nation building. I told Mr. President that every President who served before him betrayed the public trust. And without it being restored, he would have a bumpy, bouncy and potholed ride. I told him that in a few years, most of those who voted for him would turn against him. Is it happening right now or not.
What did I tell him to do? I told Mr. President to bond with Nigerians by holding town hall meetings with them—moving from one State to another. And monthly nationwide broadcast wouldn’t be a bad idea. But since PMB got to power, he has only had one Presidential Media Chat with the good people of Nigeria and most of the time he spoke to them; he did so while he was beyond the shores of Nigeria. Today, when Nigerians truly want to hear their President speak to them, they would need to wait till he travels abroad.
Mr. President’s latest New Year speech reflects one thing: He is too far from those he is being paid to serve. There is an obvious wide-gap between the streets and the seat of power in Abuja. And it is very lucid to even the blind that those who are on his team are not doing a good job. I appeal to PMB to leave Abuja and do a nation-wide tour and rub minds with the people he was elected about three (3) years ago to serve. Nigerians are disappointed, angry and hungry!
In addition, I still do not understand why the Fulani headsmen crisis that has become a harrowing and irksome pain in our national-neck did not deserve just a mention in the last speech of Mr. President. The good people of Nigeria were expecting President Buhari to talk about it and possibly educate them on what his government is doing about it to solve the problem once and for all. Maybe in the days to come, Nigerians would get to why know the crisis that has sent many of our people to early grave and destroyed farmlands was pranced.
One thing our Presidents still do not understand is that—Nigerians are sick and tired of listening to pour out New Year speeches. We have listened to fifty-seven (58) New Year speeches and we do have little or nothing to show for those speeches as a people. Take for instance, as a citizen who has rights, I do not want a President who only talks to me yearly. A President is supposed to be a father and no father would talk to his children once in a year. On the condition that President Buhari talks to me every day, he is not doing me any favor. He is only doing what is expected of him as a father. Communication is the blood of leadership and when there is no communication, leadership is dead!
Also, President Buhari was elected in the year 2015 to father the whole Nigeria, not a part of the country. He is duty bound to love all of us equally. We all should have his equal attention. As a matter of fact, he is expected to put folks of other tribes above his own tribe, so as not to send out the wrong signals. Every tribe in Nigeria must see him as their father. Since 1960, Nigerians have been yearning for a President—who is truly a father. A father who is not sectional. If this can be done, then the long betrayed public trust would begin to be restored.
The latest presidential gaffe is worth mentioning here too. It is shameful that some dead people were given some appointments. And I expected the presidency to treat the gaffe with an apologetic mien and move on, but the government of PMB derives pleasure from throwing the dirt of their malfeasance on their victims—the good people of Nigeria. But what those in government do not understand is that Nigerians are both compassionate and intelligent people. And being in the corridors of power doesn’t mean that a Presidential spokesman is wiser than the entire citizens of our promising country.
For the umpteenth time, if the discreditable issue of appointing dead people into boards and duplications—that is still trending on social media dies down without some folks being fired, then I would completely conclude that our dear PMB is not truly in charge of their affairs of our nation. And if he wants to make an enduring history, he cannot afford bungling people on his core-team. On the 1st of January, 2018, every right thinking Nigerian was actually expecting Mr. President to announce that his cabinet members would be completely overhauled real soon, but we were all disappointed when the status-quo was maintained by President Buhari. Remember, a weak team makes even a strong leader appear weak and an incompetent team makes a competent leader appear incompetent. A president cannot perform better than his core-team.
This article was published on Thecable on the 3rd January, 2018
