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I didn\u2019t vote for President Buhari in the last election, though I know that Nigeria needed change.\u00a0 I just disagreed with the change agent due to reasons I have explained in various write-ups in the lead up to the election.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t vote for Jonathan either; the PDP as was constituted and operated just wasn\u2019t a Party I could even consider for anything.\u00a0 In the end, I voted for one of the lesser known Parties.<\/p>\n
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But Buhari it is.\u00a0 The majority vote will always prevail and that is respected here without any equivocation.\u00a0 So we move on.<\/p>\n
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As we move on however, it is becoming a struggle not to be uncomfortable in the way things have unfolded and in the way they are playing out.\u00a0 Some of the reservations expressed by some of us are now rearing their ugly heads.\u00a0 Contrary to his inauguration speech, and contrary to reasonable, logical expectations, Buhari hasn\u2019t put a fully functional government in place.\u00a0 This is already the end of July.<\/p>\n
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As we say around here, nothing spoil.\u00a0 The only harm I saw were incompetent governors (who are unable to manage quite sizable resources) dancing around the President, taking advantage, and getting off easy.\u00a0 The mound of flip flops and reversal of official pronouncements have only meant a slight loss of face; nothing major.<\/p>\n
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However, I began to panic when I read a news report that Buhari has approved an exchange rate of N160 to $1 for Christian pilgrims.\u00a0 This report was publicised widely and with plenty of fanfare.<\/p>\n
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To me, it is another indication that the president sorely needs all the help he can get.\u00a0 He needs technical advisers and a seasoned cabinet like a fish needs water.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0But the President has already and unwittingly set up his eventual Ministers for failure.\u00a0 They can\u2019t win.\u00a0 Expectations are just too high now.\u00a0 Ministers would still have to be Nigerians, working in Nigeria.\u00a0 The current perception is that Buhari is searching for the best of the very best \u2013 folks with no blemishes at all but blessed with superpowers.\u00a0 Optimal performance bothering on miracles would be expected from these Ministers and other appointed government functionaries.\u00a0 How could anyone go into a job like that?\u00a0 It is unrealistic and quite unfair.<\/p>\n
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All the same, I am becoming increasingly convinced that the president created this governance lacuna in order for him to have unfettered, unchallenged (dictatorial, if you will) shot at managing the country for a while before Ministers, Advisers and other technical and legal people are brought in and begin to rein-in some of his more impulsive and autocratic tendencies.<\/p>\n
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It seems to me that Buhari wants to get in a few military-style diktats, strong-arm a few people and peoples before settling down to normal democratic governance.\u00a0 Because, so far, the only things on the table are hunting down people, dire innuendos and promises of persecution.<\/p>\n
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As has been whispered all along, the president has finally confirmed that he intends to probe just Jonathan\u2019s government.\u00a0 It is only that government that is corrupt in Nigeria\u2019s recent history.\u00a0 Obasanjo is living large.\u00a0 The bribees from the Halliburton scandal are the major stakeholders in Nigeria\u2019s present day change project.\u00a0 Even the scions of Abacha are running loose, obscenely flaunting stolen wealth.\u00a0 No problem with that.\u00a0 No investigations. \u00a0Now tell me; how are certain sections of this country supposed to feel?\u00a0 Does this not seem like the start of marginalisation and dehumanisation of the usual suspects all over again?<\/p>\n
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Even madam Patience Jonathan was comprehensively humiliated at Port Harcourt airport last week when she attempted to use the VIP waiting area.\u00a0 She was refused access by security personnel citing \u201corders from Abuja.\u201d\u00a0 How petty!\u00a0 If a former First Lady cannot use an airport\u2019s VIP lounge, who should?\u00a0 I suppose Rotimi Amaechi is using his APC mates to exact revenge.\u00a0 Anyway, there is God o.<\/p>\n
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The inclusiveness that was pervasive in the last four years is fast dissipating.\u00a0 Perhaps someone needs to remind the President that we are in a thriving democracy.\u00a0 The opposition and opposing voices are not supposed to be treated like conquered prisoners of war, or like burnt offerings.<\/p>\n
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Which brings me back to the issue of the pilgrims\u2019 exchange rate.<\/p>\n
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I could have sworn that I heard candidate Buhari campaign that he would scrap government\u2019s participation in, and subsidy of religious pilgrimages.\u00a0 But he has only gone and directed that pilgrims should exchange N160 to the dollar.<\/p>\n
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What this means is that a pilgrim with N400,000 who would\u00a0 have received $1,740 at the normal exchange rate will now get $2,500 under the Buhari plan.\u00a0 The government will cough up the difference.<\/p>\n
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Last year, about 14,000 Christians made one form of pilgrimage to one place or the other.\u00a0 76,000 Muslims went to Mecca.\u00a0 If we do the math, the government is going to end up subsidising around a further $68 million or N13.6 billion on top of whatever is already subsidised for these pilgrimages.<\/p>\n
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Can you see why the president needs Ministers and other technical people like yesterday?<\/p>\n
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Furthermore, a pilgrim with N500,000 would get $3,125.\u00a0 In theory, this person could turn around and sell back dollars on the black market and make a profit of $1,000 or N237,000.\u00a0 Now, an\u2026emm\u2026shall we say, enterprising Pilgrims Board official can fund 100 people into this scheme and he is looking at a cool N23,700,000 million per pilgrimage cycle.\u00a0 The Christians alone run four pilgrimages in one year!\u00a0 Heavens only know what they are looking for.<\/p>\n
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Please, please, we do not desire on a national scale a situation like that which currently exist in Osun State.\u00a0 The struggling governor of that State, Arigbesola, who has not been able to pay workers salaries in like forever somehow manages to find money every year to pay for Osun citizens transportation during sundry religious holidays; no audits, no questions asked.<\/p>\n
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