BY TOCHUKWU EZUKANMA<\/p>\n
On May 29th, 2019, President Mohammadu Buhari was inaugurated for a BY TOCHUKWU EZUKANMA On May 29th, 2019, President Mohammadu Buhari was inaugurated for a second four year term.\u00a0 The elaborately ceremonious event was all familiar for it was the seventh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nsecond four year term.\u00a0 The elaborately ceremonious event was all
\nfamiliar for it was the seventh presidential inauguration Nigerians were
\nwitnessing in the country\u2019s twenty years of unbroken democracy. As
\nusual, it was a jamboree of the shakers and movers of the triumphant
\npolitical party. As usual, it was also graced by the splendor of
\nmilitary parades, an assortment of national and international invitees,
\nand a resplendent array of members of the judiciary and legislature.
\nTypically, the high points of this pomp and pageantry are the swearing
\nin of the president and the president\u2019s inaugural speech.
\nBut, noticeably absent from this second inauguration ceremony was the
\npresidential inaugural address. Nigerians justifiably expected the
\nspeech because it is an essential fixture of presidential inaugurations
\nin Nigeria. Its absence was as disheartening as it was revealing. It was
\ndisheartening that a president that stood at the end of a four year
\nterm, and at the threshold of another, refused to give Nigerians an
\naccount of his four year service to the country, and apprise them of
\nwhat to expect in his next four year term. It revealed the president for
\nwhat he is: a retrograde record breaker.
\nThe inaugural speech is a global phenomenon. Since the advent of modern
\ndemocracy in 18th Century United States of America, it has remained a
\ncentral aspect of every presidential inauguration. With it, the
\npresident sets the moral tone of his presidency and defines his
\nobjectives and goals for his new administration. With his 1933 inaugural
\nspeech, the incoming American president, Theodore Roosevelt, gave hope
\nto a desperate nation buffeted by an economic recession, and unnerved by
\nJapanese militarism in Asia and the stormy stirrings of Nazi barbarism
\nin Europe. Conrad Black summed it up succinctly, \u201cWhen Roosevelt
\nfinished his fifteen minute address, no one doubted that a drastically
\nnew era has begun\u2026\u201d
\nIn 1940, on May 13th, in his opening address as the new British Prime
\nMinister, Winston Churchill, with his electrifying oratory – \u201cI have
\nnothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat (in the war) against a
\nmonstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of
\nhuman crime\u201d – redefined an epoch. He roused a demoralized, pacific
\nand war-weary British nation and Commonwealth to martial resolve and
\nglory. In his 1961 inaugural speech, John F Kennedy struck a memorable
\nchord in the American minds and set the stage for his New Frontier
\npolicy with his unforgettable, almost hagiographic, phrase, \u201cAsk not
\nwhat your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your
\ncountry\u201d.
\nNigeria is in dire straits. The entire spectrum of the Nigerian society
\nis troubled. There is poverty and hunger, violence and brutality,
\nignorance and disease, lawlessness and strife, etc in the land. Apart
\nfrom the need to give Nigerians a report of his earlier four years in
\noffice, and highlight his objectives, goals and strategies for his new
\nterm, the president should have given an inaugural address to rally a
\nfractious and despondent country and give her, for long, debased and
\nsuffering masses hope. It was an opportunity to give solace to millions
\nof Nigerians afflicted by the devastations of Boko Haram terrorism,
\nFulani herdsmen murderous fanaticism and other myriad sources of
\nviolence in Nigeria. He should have, on that day, at the least,
\nreassured the teeming poor and downtrodden, and the seemly forgotten men
\nand women at the bottom of the economic pyramid of a hopeful economic
\nfuture.
\nThe country is abuzz with speculations on why President Buhari gave no
\ninaugural speech. The optimists surmise that it was deliberate: a
\nconscientious choice to defer the speech for another day. But then, the
\nquestion readily arises, if it is given on a day other than the
\ninaugural day, will it still be an inaugural speech? The cynics
\nspeculate that he did not speak because he did not know what to say. If
\nhe did not know what to say, his advisers and handlers would have
\neducated him on what to say, and written it down for him. Still, others,
\nin their cynicism, think that he gave no speech because he does not
\ncare. He is totally indifferent to his responsibilities as the president
\nof Nigeria and the expectations of Nigerians. This seems the most
\nplausible of all the reasons.
\nAre the consequences of his four years of indifference to his duties and
\ninsensitivity to the legitimate aspirations of Nigerians not
\nconspicuously evident? Our educational and health care systems remain in
\na mess and our country\u2019s social indexes are still pitiful. Despite the
\nhoopla about the fight against corruption, Nigeria remains extremely
\ncorrupt, and Nigerians, remorselessly corrupt. Presently, the country is
\nincredibly divided. Even during the civil war, Nigerians were not as
\ndivided along ethnic, regional and religious lines. The Nigerian economy
\nhobbles precariously, as the unemployment rate remains dangerously high,
\nespecially, among the youth, and more and more Nigerians slide into
\ndesperate poverty. The dearth of electric power continues to render
\nbusinesses un-operatable and unprofitable. The incidence of violence is
\nunparalleled: terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, meaningless killings,
\netc.
\nPresident Buhari is a record breaker. He has already broken a number of
\nrecords \u2013 all in the negative – in his four year presidency. In the
\nannals of Nigeria, he is the first president that it took six months to
\nappoint his ministers. Never before in the history of Nigeria did the
\nnaira fall so low against the dollar as during his presidency. Has he
\nnot given the Fulani herdsmen a carte blanche in their murderous binge
\nacross Nigeria? No Nigerian president ever pandered so brazenly to a
\nterrorist group and its unyielding butchery of the innocent. So, it was
\nin line with his tradition of breaking the record in the negative that
\nhe became the first Nigerian president to get inaugurated without giving
\nan inaugural speech.
\nTochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria
\nmaciln18@yahoo.com<\/a>
\n0803 529 2908<\/p>\n