By Emmanuel Onwubiko
As a young claretian who just got enlisted into the sacred vows of
chastity, obedience and poverty in the claretian missionary sons of Mary
of the Catholic Church in Utonkon, Benue State, my first shock came when
one of the formators told us thus: “May your ways be rough.”
I particularly didn’t know whether to say ‘Amen’ or to say silently like
the Protestants would say that ‘it is not my portion’.
I however swallowed the hard theological pill and affirmed ‘Amen’ just
like many other contemporaries chorused in unison.
In my quiet times however, I approached this formator, who is a well-built
young priest, and I asked him to please explain to me the theological
implication of that prayer which to me sounded very harsh.
He looked at my pretty innocent face and gave me a smile, saying that the
prayer meant no harm but that it was only a caution so we know that the
journey to the catholic priesthood is characterized by twists and turns
since all that glitter are not gold and that anything worth doing is worth
doing very well.
Well, I thanked him and went straight to my room but not without
reflecting deeply on the words he gave me.
But as we proceeded to the philosophy studies, I had an early encounter
with Socrates, the father of philosophy who stated that “an unexamined
life is not worth living.”
This sacred words of Socrates was further confirmed by Immanuel Kant, a
modern day philosopher who stated that “I think therefore I exists.”
With all the above experiences in mind, the saying therefore very recently
by the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari that his last four years would
be tough, did not shock me in any way.
As variously captured by the media, President Muhammadu Buhari gave an
insight into his forthcoming second term in office, saying “my last lap of
four years will be tough.”
Buhari was declared winner of last Saturday’s presidential election by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with over 15,191, 847
votes to defeat his main rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with 11,262, 978 votes.
Speaking while hosting members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in
the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa who had converged to
congratulate him on his re-election, Buhari said his second term would be
tough because Nigerians are so easily forgetful.
The president, who said he deliberately went through the rigorous days of
campaign in all the 36 states of the federation before the election, added
that he opted to campaign in two states per day to make a statement to the
opposition that he was strong and fit.
He also said the next administration would face the economy very squarely
because of the huge unemployment rate bedeviling the country, which he
said had become a huge problem to everybody.
However, he expressed gratitude to God that the agriculture sector had
helped a lot in strengthening the economy through what he described as
soft loans to farmers, pointing out that agricultural output has
consequently been rewarding because of the steady rainy seasons. This
Presidential claims have no verifiable proofs because millions of farmers
still operate within the fringes of manual labours and have yet to get any
form of financial facelift to upgrade to mechanized farmings.
However, the politically correct president, who thanked God for the steady
rainfall, submitted that investment in agriculture would have been a
futile effort if there had been no good and promising rainy seasons.
He praised states such as Lagos, Ogun, Kebbi, Jigawa, and notably Ebonyi,
which he said had played notable roles in stopping rice importation
through large scale rice cultivation especially with the unpredictable
state of the oil sector.
Responding to the congratulatory visit by his ministers, Buhari asked them
to also congratulate themselves on the election victory, saying if he had
lost the election, the ministers would not have come around to
congratulate him.
Buhari who has lately become very philosophical, also gave us the texture,
colour and characteristics of his next cabinet.
President Muhammadu Buhari said that only people of integrity will make
his cabinet in his second tenure of office. Does this mean he has many
crooks in his current cabinet? One of his ministers forced her qualifying
NYSC certificate even as another dodged national service upon graduation.
Still, another Advisor has fake WAEC certificate.
However, the President who also promised women and youths that his
administration will not disappoint them said that he will not exclude
people of his generation which he said is his own constituency in the
distribution of positions.
President Buhari stated this during a victory dinner organized by his wife
Dr. Aisha Buhari on Saturday night for the All Progressives Congress
Youths and Women Presidential Campaign Council at the Old Banquet Hall,
Presidential Villa Abuja.
While acknowledging the role played by women and youths towards his
re-election, he reassured Nigerian women and youths that he will not
disappoint them in the next four years.
The group, women and youths had in their demands appealed for more women
and youth representation in the next cabinet.
But President Buhari in his remarks, promised that only those with
integrity and interest of Nigeria will be considered for appointment to
the next cabinet.
According to him, “I assure you that I have listened on the representation
made that my cabinet should include women and youth.
Don’t celebrate it yet, I said I have listened to some of the
representation made here. Well, I myself I am considering some of the old
people and I will protect my constituency too.
“But I will assure your I will continue to have a team of people of
integrity that are really concerned with Nigeria and Nigerians.”
He also assured them that in his second term in office, he will not
disappoint them. He said, “I will not disappoint you, our objectives are
the same. We have to fix this country so that the next generation can have
a country to be proud of.
“We are working very hard to get the infrastructure in place, the roads,
the rails so that Nigeria will mind their own businesses.
“I very much appreciate your coming here tonight …, but I’m congratulating
ourselves for succeeding, if we had failed, my good God, thank goodness we
have succeeded.” President Buhari noted that more fertilizers were being
made available to Nigerian farmers at a lower rate, adding that food
importation was reducing while more Nigerians have started to embrace
agriculture.
Deconstructing the above affirmations of president Buhari has come out
with a synthesis that he may after all not have meant harm at all but to
warn Nigerians that it is not yet Eldorado.
If the explanation offered to me many years ago by my formator is anything
to go by, then it is not a bad thing entirely that president Buhari has
further cautioned Nigerians not to expect a bumper harvest of prosperity
and the easy life in his last term going by the fact that his first term
witnessed the worst case scenario in the area of economy.
The last four years of Buhari between 2015 to 2019 just before Nigerians
went to the polls last weekend which has come out with a very
controversial outcome stating that Buhari won by 15 million thus beating
his nearest rival of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, saw Nigeria go through the first ever economic recession in
thirty years.
Also, during the years under review as aforementioned, there were cases of
closures of factories in the manufacturing sector due to collapsing
infrastructure just as capital flights led to phenomenal job loses which
even by official estimates saw Nigeria losing millions of jobs. Even the
sudden postponement of the February 16th polls led to the sudden loses of
over $7billion according to estimate by the chambers of commerce and the
Nigerian stocks exchange.
Experts say the postponement cost Nigerian businesses about $7.605 billion
(N2.737 Trillion). The amount is about two percent of the country’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), $427 billion. These experts spoke to ThisDay
Newspaper.
Also, the Nigerian Bureau of statistics said that 3.3 million Nigerians
suffered job losses in 9 months in 2018. The Bureau of statistics stated
the above in its labour force statistics, released on December 19th 2018.
The labour force report, for the 04 2017 to 03 2018 released on that date
states that the number of unemployed Nigerians rose from 17.6 million to
20.9 million.
Nigeria also faces terrible problems of infrastructure collapse and acute
energy poverty just as these spectacular social crises have meant that the
costs of living in most parts of the country are at the highest
intolerable degree. The crises of infrastructure collapse and energy
poverty means that the private sector and the real manufacturing sector
would not operate optimally. Even the ministry of power and the Presidency
budgets multimillions to purchase and fuel generators.
I think, these are areas that president alluded to in his speech in which
he warned all of us to brace up for the realities of hard and tough times.
Those who work in the Presidency know that even the state house clinic
suffers from corruption and lack of amenities. So the tough times are
domiciled amongst the staff of the Presidency especially those without any
form of control of public funds. Last year, a driver in the Presidential
Villa reportedly committed suicide due to hardship even when the National
Assembly members who face no hardships collect HARDSHIP’S ALLOWANCES
running into millions yearly.
What we need to do as citizens is to participate qualitatively in the
governance of our country by monitoring the implementation of the budgets
at all levels and follow the trails of implementation of these budget
lines in our different communities.
The coming 9th session of the National Assembly must open up the process
of procurement and throw the informations to the faces of Nigerians so all
Nigerians can very easily follow the different stages of implementation.
Buhari should appoint the Council to oversee the Bureau of Public
procurements so the meetings of the Federal cabinet stops being used as
procurements and contracts awarding forum.
The president must run a lean government made up of smart ministers and
also scale down the cost of government by appointing very few technical
advisers and avoid populating government with boys and girls of politics.
The next national Assembly must reduce the cost of running their offices
even as government appointees need to also be captured by the new national
minimum wage bill that the government has approved.
Let no one in government be paid juicy salaries that are not covered by
the National minimum wage Act even as the Revenue mobilization board must
be inaugurated and allow to autonomously operate.
President Buhari should get tough with corruption tearing apart his
administration from the top most echelons. Within his kitchen cabinet,
corruption is loud and clear.
The NNPC which he runs as petroleum minister even against a binding
court’s verdict is a cesspool of corruption under Buhari just as the law
enforcement agencies only go after political opponents of Buhari.
This double standard must be resisted by all Nigerians.
If all these tough measures are adopted universally not minding political,
ethnic or religious affiliations, and if strategic security jobs are
allocated to reflect federal character principles and not concentrated in
the hands of Fulani and Hausa Moslems then it is a welcomed tough tenure.
This story by an international news magazine is apt: “His (Muhammadu
Buhari) victory this time will not generate the same euphoria it did in
2015. The former general, who ruled briefly as the country’s military
dictator after a coup in the 1980s, has struggled to fulfill many of the
campaign promises he made four years ago. Mr. Abubakar’s people’s
Democratic Party (PDP) claims the results were rigged. In a sign of
growing voter apathy, turnout, which languished at 44% in 2015, fell to
36% this time.”
“For many Nigerians, the election has been tarnished by the sloppiness
with which it was run. The vote was originally scheduled for February
16th, but INEC postponed it just hours before it was meant to begin
because it had been unable to get materials, such as ballot papers, to
polling stations on time. When the vote was held at last on February 23rd,
observers say most polling stations opened hours late for the same reason,
and many election officials were unprepared. The European Union’s observer
mission cited “serious operational shortcomings.” (The Economist, March
2nd – 8th 2019).
*Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA
(HURIWA) and blogs
@ www.huriwanigeria.com; www.h