By Adelaja Adeoye
Nigerian economy is fast slipping into a state of comatose; urgent measures must be taken to salvage the situation else I don’t think we can survive till 2019 at this rate under the fist and grip of President Buhari.
Only those with plenty reserve of cash will not feel the pain, anguish and poverty ravaging Nigeria since the assumption of office by President Muhammadu Buhari.
President Buhari is supposedly a man of uncommon courage with sincere passion to eradicate corruption out of Nigerian system, a lot has been said, debates and schools of thoughts on his style of governance but one critical yardstick used to assess the progress of any government is how buoyant or viable its economy is doing.
Nigeria economy under ex- President Jonathan despite all the allegations of corruption was adjudged as the best and biggest in Africa at that time, well, at that time is just some 9 months ago. One will wonder what suddenly happed to the biggest economy of 9 months ago, now under President Buhari, what is he doing wrong that seems to make everything wrong. This question is not so hard to answer as I think.
All progressive Congress (APC), the party that Buhari rode to power came up with powerful and un-resistible promises during electioneering campaign and even gave timelines to the delivery of their promises, even though some of those promises were denied shortly after they came to power and no single one has been achieved since the time they came to power, APC did not stop at promising Nigerians heaven on earth but mocked and knocked every achievements of Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, as many can see some of Buhari’s ministers are now praising the achievements of Jonathan they once mocked and knocked.
Buhari dissociated himself from numerous campaign promises, his only focus is fighting the alleged corrupt people, he is much interested in fighting and fighting without setting up strong economic team to deliver dividend of democracy to Nigerians.
Another problem is that the economy might not change from its current status if President Buhari continues to put himself in a “god” status which makes his ministers, advisers and stakeholders to fear to talk or give him wise counsels, one UK tabloid The Ecomonist, who claimed that they endorsed Buhari also wrote that it seems he is making the same mistake as his first chance to rule Nigeria in 1984 when he toppled democratic system through coup and came to power.
The state of economy now and that of 1984 of Buhari reign of terror have a lot of semblance, how can President Buhari promised to make N1 equal to $1 before elections and 9 months down the line, $1 is equal to over N400, what is the future of Nigerian economy? Everybody is groaning under severe pain, the purported budget of change suddenly turned to budget of shame and corruption.
Buhari who’s aura and accolades includes integrity and had contested 4 different times surprisingly does not have any sound economic plan to pivot the nation but seems his only focus is to fight his perceived enemies under the disguise of fighting corruption not minding what happens to the electorates that campaigned, queued in the hot sun and blazing rain to enthrone him to power.
It is evidently seen that President Buhari would want to cover his weakness and failure to provide dividend of democracy to Nigerians, this has made him to hire more of media aides to spread propaganda in the media than setting up strong economic team and advisers, infact how can one advise a man who is not accessible and ready to listen to anyone, this is the feelers we are getting about the person and personality of President Buhari, his corruption fight is dead on arrival so to speak.
The more President Buhari tries the more distracted he becomes from real governance because, his mission if I could put together from what I am seeing is to decimate Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) probably because he is allergic to criticism, opposition or quest to conquer and perpetuate himself into power than necessary against the constitution of Nigeria like the Mugabe of this world, there is no assurance that Nigerians will have that power to change Buhari peradventure things remains the same in 2019.
I say this because, its seems brute forces is taking its high place in the scheme of things against those who can speak up against the several misrule of this administration, citizens might also be subjected to such fate as time goes on because, none of them want to be like Hero Jonathan that allowed everyone to have their say no matter how ridiculous it may be.
President Buhari should know better as a military trained man that, fighting too many battle and enemies at the same time might be too risky and dangerous for him, no one is against fight against corruption but it is too oblivious that in some aspect he is on a revenge mission while at some other point he is fighting opposing voices to his style of governance.
Even those who sold Buhari to Nigerians as the messiah that will make Nigeria becomes a Dubai have began to sing a different tune, it is no longer news that Senator Remi Tinubu, the wife of All Progressives Congress National Leader Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu took to the floor of the Senate to shout “This is not the change we voted for” in another dramatic scene, our kongi, most respected and reputable noble laurel Prof. Wole Soyinka had asked President Buhari to convoke an emergency economic confab.
If the economy is going in the right directions, no one will be crying and shouting hoo and ruu for Buhari to do the right thing, we cannot sustain a government by simply telling the whole world about how corrupt some leaders are or how many thieves we have caught by this administration.
The worse of Buhari’s situation is those ignoramus fellows that line themselves up on social media, radio stations and TV outlets to defend him every now and then, they think they are doing good job defending their saintly god, unfortunately the more they do that the more they provoke the anger of Nigerians.
What do you want to preach to a man sacked from his job or a man with no food or money to cater for his family because the economy is not doing well, investors are leaving Nigeria in droves, yet we keep seeing in the news papers everyday EFCC or DSS arrest this and that, how long are we going to endure all this?
In the very beginning of President Buhari, I belong to nobody and belong to everybody, every mistakes are blamed on Jonathan and the past admin, Nigerians were playing along, suddenly when reality began to hit people very hard due to the economic crunch, they got back to their right senses that Jonathan is not the problem, it’s all lies and propaganda to buy time.
They in APC failed to use that time buying gimmicks very well by fixing one or two things that could be of benefit to Nigerians and now nobody want to hear Jonathan as an excuse for failure to deliver on all campaign promises.
The question once again is if under 9 months of Buhari reign as President, Nigeria remains economically unviable, what happens to the nation in the months ahead to 2019 that we’ll have the opportunity to try and CHANGE him?
May God help Nigeria.
Adelaja Adeoye is a blogger, social and political commentator who writes from Lagos Nigeria. Twitter Handle: @AdelajaAdeoye.