…if the truth must be told, President Buhari may likely leave the stage without any national tangibles if the same speed we have today is deployed for the remaining ‘few’ days he has on the saddle. For instance, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan may never be forgotten for the 2014 Confab which was a tangible attempt to solve a national problem. Although he did not implement it, greater majority of Nigeria are calling for its utilization. That was a national tangible.
The phenomenologists would assert that there may not be any politician living or dead in Nigeria that can be tagged a phenomenon like President Buhari following his antecedent as military Head of State. From our conscious and sub-conscious minds this lanky man has proved to be a man to be hated, appreciated, and remembered or dumped in historical refuge dump. Phenomenal people focus much on virtues such as solution provider, positivism, time-measured thinking capacity, empathic, etc. On the other hand, phenomenal people loathe popularity choices, self- benefitting, removing hands from the plough, superficiality, etc. Rhetorically, their words are words on marble.
That is why Buhari will be remembered for ‘I am for everybody and I am for nobody’. Since the uttering of this pithy statement can it then be said that President Buhari is really a phenomenon?
Between 1983 and 1985, General Buhari bestrode the country like a colossus with the mission to rid the country of the stench of corruption, gargantuan greed of Nigerians, avarice, lack of public probity and accountability. All of these were wrapped in his War Against Indiscipline (WAI). The philosophy behind this war was to coarse Nigerians to queue for essential commodities of Shagari’s government, change our lethargic work habits, imbibe nationalism, patriotism, avoid economic sabotage, and keep our environment clean. Though that military government was short-lived, its impact has leveraged Buhari to be tagged Mr Integrity up till tomorrow. Indeed Nigerians still live in nostalgia of the WAI and wished it had continued.
It is with this hindsight that the question of legacies that Buhari will live behind begins to agitate our minds. As an individual I begin to nurse some fears because it should not be questioned that had Buhari been denied the leadership of the country would we have fared better as a country; and now that he is in, what legacies will he bequeath to Nigeria? Or voting him in is a collective effort in futility. As it is, Buhari has near two and half years or under 1,000 days to doff his hat or leave the stage in applause or in odium.
Herewith I divide legacy into national tangibles and intangibles. Usually, human memory is short-lived and historians are likely unwilling to record intangibles in the life of a country or in the performance of a leader. Personally, if were a historian, I would not credit a government for tarring roads, constructing railways; and such mundane activities of government. Why? Because it is not a big deal to award contracts for such projects since leaders have their technical experts to execute such projects. I consider such activities of government as national intangibles. If President Buhari came with the mantra of Change, one’s expectation would be for developmental scenarios that are structurally horizontal and vertical. You can imagine the Burj Khalifa of Dubai, the Palm Island of Dubai, One World Trade Centre of the USA, Shanghai Tower in China, etc springing up under President Buhari leadership. If change were tarring of roads, fighting corruption and the likes, then it would be like art for art’s sake. For instance, the Russians will never forget the President under whose guidance the Sputnik was launched in the rat race to explore the space.
That Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum ordered the construction of the ever-expanding Dubai International airport in 1959 is a national tangible. Speaking bluntly, all social safety nets would not be remembered after Buhari’s exist because it like giving fish to somebody to eat everyday instead of teaching the person to learn how to fish. Indeed, any leader can get that fixed as no ingenuity is required in the planning and execution of such project. For instance, would it not have been a national tangible if President Buhari decreed that he would use a CAR made in Nigeria? To me, brandishing a Mercedes Maybach S650 as presidential official car is not the type of change Nigerians expected, after all, Buhari is known to love and live a Spartan’s life style. What has suddenly gone wrong? Furthermore, who would have expected that Buhari would not build a world class hospital after his divine survival from an ailment in a London hospital? This would have been a national tangible. As we write, Nigerian Doctors are on their second round of strike and coincidently, each time Nigerians Doctors are on strike the President will be in the United Kingdom for medical attention. Meanwhile, the Villa Clinic, where our President resides cannot handle common ear infections.
What then would be considered national tangibles that Buhari may leave as his legacies in the ‘few’ days left for him to make history or for him to escape history making him? One, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has spent almost a decade in the bakery and this should not be so. When passed into law, the oil and gas industry will be unlocked for investments in Nigeria’s rich natural resources.
Not only that, the restive host communities of this resources will be taken care of thereby limiting the agitation in that region .Two, it would have been a monumental credit to this administration if the Executive via the instrumentality of the people of Nigeria saw to the collapse of the National Assembly into a Parliamentary System via an Executive bill. Our Legislators should work on part time basis. The body language of this administration seems to suggest that it appreciates the Presidential system that is financially unbearable. Of course, when the 1999 Constitution was crafted, the so-called oil boom fooled us into believing that it will be forever. The reality is that the crunch has come to stay since many countries are leaving the use of fossil fuel for gas and solar. It will be a national tangible if under Buhari’s watch, our constitution is reviewed to take care of the above suggestions.
I belong to the school of thought that believes that this country needs to be restructured. A simple example is the relocation of the nation’s capital from Lagos to Abuja. That is a national tangible! This kind of structural adjustments is what the country needs. Power is too concentrated at the centre and that is where the national madness starts from. Imagine a constitution that gives opportunity to each geopolitical zone to produce a President on a four-yearly tenure. This is a hypothetical assumption. The APC government should come out boldly and do the needful instead of this barefaced deceit. Where is the El-Rufai Report on restructuring horridly bagged at the eve of the National election in 2015?
President Buhari refused to endorse the newly crafted electoral Law because according to the presidency, it was only 72 days to the election and there would be no time to test-run the law. The question therefore is: when is the right time for the law to be signed and implemented? When?
Finally, if the truth must be told, President Buhari may likely leave the stage without any national tangibles if the same speed we have today is deployed for the remaining ‘few’ days he has on the saddle. For instance, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan may never be forgotten for the 2014 Confab which was a tangible attempt to solve a national problem. Although he did not implement it, greater majority of Nigeria are calling for its utilization. That was a national tangible. For President Muhammodu Buhari, time is on the run!
Alex Abdullahi Maiyanga PhD, mni
maiyangaalexius@yahoo.com
