By Amiru Halilu
In his second inaugural address, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United State, said: “We are to beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to their own private profit or use them for the building up of private power.” This is precisely what is transpiring under the administration of a perceived morally superior being who rode to power on sanctimonious holier-than-thou speeches. To re-establish a strong conception of duty, it’s not enough to preach from the holier-than-thou position.
Anyone who thinks that there is a desire to get things right in this feral or perhaps morass nation initially and universally recognised as the federal republic of Nigeria which unfortunately turned out to be the federal republic of demons lacked the simple wisdom to spot the difference between genuinely progressive leaders and political clowns — absolute zeros who get to leadership position to perform tricks rather than to govern, and who had already lost the ability to have the sequential arousal of symbols — here, I mean logical thinking. I do not believe that we still have around us those who have forgotten to pay for their brain bills until when the daughter of President Buhari, Hanan Buhari landed at Bauchi airport with presidential jet.
This sad and unfortunate scenario confirm to anyone who still has a high regard for this government that Nigeria and Nigerians are in the loose hands. No one can defend or justify such gross abuse of power except psychopaths who are not just mentally different but their brains are physically deformed to prevent them from feeling mortify, fear or guilt. Nevertheless, this group of people can be excused due to their mental retardation. I am so glad that president Buhari has now unveil himself as the spoiler of our system who is incapable of managing a diverse country like Nigeria; even his dimwits apologists conceded that their idol, Buhari is bastardising our system. Professor Farook Kperogi once accurately said that: “Buhari has lower the bar of governance.” That is absolutely factual.
As president Buhari’s self-acclaimed righteousness reached its crescendo, I pray that he is not swayed by his fake integrity and form the favourable impression that anything he does: Wrong, illegal or inappropriate has become morally right or correct and he will still have the immunity henceforward or afterlife, and he is the most pious man in our midst. This is because any arbitrariness, corrupt action or decision taken by him goes, and it will be justify by those whose consciences have been deadened by fiendish act. It’s hard to imagine something more cynical than the way Buhari has bastardised and abused the meaning of good governance to make the rest of us look the other way while he shortchanged the entire country. Under him, the phrase ‘democracy’ is sadly being bastardised to such a degree that it’s losing its meaning.
What is really disturbing and still worries me is the precedent president Buhari is establishing for the future of this nation. One wonder whether this seemingly infallible man thinks or still remember shortly before retiring to bed the enormous trust Nigerians vested in him. Does he really recalled how many people died because of him. Should he remembers the sacrifices many Nigerians made to ensure that he gets to presidential Villa Abuja, many things wouldn’t have been happening under his watch. Now he is paying good with evil; everything that should work in this country doesn’t, everything that can get broken under his administration has.
His endless recklessness impelled me to raise the following questions: How will nigeria looks like in post-Buhari administration? How will his successor runs his own government? How much would he approve for the renovation of National Assembly? How many billion dollars foreign loan would he collects? How many days would he spend in London while receiving medical attention before telling us to stop going abroad for medical treatment? How many billion Naira would he wastes on a vague project like National Career?
How many trillions would he inject in electric power sector to give us darkness? Would he be patient enough to wait for the approval of National Assembly before he pays US in case he places an order for weapons? How many children would be out of school? How many months will it takes him to appoint his cabinet? How many days would he spend outside Nigeria all in the name of wooing ghost foreign investors? How many billion would he waste to conduct inconclusive elections? How long would service chiefs stay? How many soldiers would loose their lives in the cause of fighting Boko Haram?
Nonetheless, how many ministers would welcome his son back to Nigeria in case he went to receive medical treatment in abroad? How many years would he spend in office before he can be able to inaugurate board of agencies? How many children would he travels with when travel to attend an official function such as UN General Assembly meeting? How many Mamman Dauras would he comes along with? How many Yusufs, Zaras and Hanans will he present to us? How often does his own Hanan travel with presidential jet? One can’t imagine the number of Aishas would accompany him to the presidential Villa as his wives and the trouble they may foment, and the distraction they may cause!
Leadership is a results business; it is defined by results not attributes; after almost five years in power, president Buhari failed to provides essentials such as security of lives and property, constant electric power supply, pipe borne water etc that make life easier for common man. Any leader that can’t provide the aforementioned — produce a meaningful results such a leader is a great burden on citizenry. I think it was Jim Rohn who said that: “The challenges of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; to be kind, but not weak; to be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid, be proud, but not arrogant; have humour, but without folly.” Out of the aforesaid, no one knows which one of the positive qualities our own President possesses.
But we certainly know that we have a president who is so timid and weak, his inability to take the bull by the horns and be decisive in matters of great importance accentuated his impotency and weakness. President Buhari, boost your management capacity in order to leave a beautiful legacy.
Amiru Halilu writes from Kaduna and can be reached through haliluamiru@gmail.com Follow me @AmiruHalilu