By Bala Ibrahim
As expected, the media is awash with the comments of President Muhammadu Buhari in Owerri, Imo State during his state visit on Tuesday, 13September 2022, where he sounded bemused by what is happening in the country with regards to the splendid performance of his administration.
President Buhari was in Imo state, where he commissioned some projects executed by the Governor Hope Uzodinma. Speaking after the commissioning, the President said when he came to power in 2015, many local government areas in Borno and Adamawa states were controlled by the Boko Haram terrorists, whom he described as fraudulent people.
However, the President added that the Boko Haram terrorist have now been overwhelmed by his government, taking time to blow his own trumpet by outlining some of his achievements in the past seven years.
He said: “Between 1999 and 2015 when we came in, I would like people to check the Central Bank and the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Company), the average production was 2.1 million barrels per day. Nigeria was earning at this time 2.1 million times. But look at the state of infrastructure, look at the road. Look at the railway, it was virtually killed. Power, we are still struggling. But when we came, unfortunately, the militants were unleashed, production went down to half a million barrel per day. Look at the problem in the North-East, check with anybody from Borno or Adamawa, how many local governments were in the hands of the government and how many were in the hands of Boko Haram? Fraudulent people, whoever they are, are fraudulent! But now, go and ask the hard-working Governor of Borno State, a very hard-working governor. The Federal Government is in charge now. In terms of time and resources, this administration has done extremely well. I have to say it because those who are supposed to say it are not saying it. I don’t know why.”
The countenance of the President as he looked at the audience while putting the question was not only baffling, but bewildering and perplexing. His expectation is that having done so well with so little at very challenging times, one would expect a sustained and enthusiastic show of appreciation from the electorate, to whom promises were made and the promises were kept. But to his surprise, his regime seems to be receiving the reverse. Why? The President extended the blame even to his predecessors, whom he said, despite earning so much from crude oil, failed to develop the country’s infrastructure.
While some are blaming the principal image makers of the government for failing to market the administration’s achievements well, in his characteristic frankness and political maturity, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, said the issue needed to be looked at holistically, and that can only be done, if we adopt the attitude of positive politics.
Adamu’s concept of positive politics is one that imbibes the kind of behavioural changes that would influence others, with the goal of helping the party, the leaders and the country, through the portray of good image and the publications of accomplishments.
As the leader of the party at the national headquarters, Adamu’s office is almost always besieged by visitors whose mentioned mission is to help in the actualization of the ambition of the party. At every opportunity, the chairman is unequivocal in his message that the time to play positive politics is now.
To press home his sermon on positive politics, and while receiving a team that came to partner with the party in its bid for success on Wednesday, 14 September, 2022, Adamu said: “The time for playing politics with such undesirable qualities like manipulation, power abuse and undue self-interest is over, particularly now that the party is presenting a new person on the Presidential ballot.”
The chairman dismissed apprehensions that the people being unsympathetic to the ruling party, by listening more to the opposition. He said all over the world, the opposition is listened to more than the government but that is not to say the government in power was not doing well. He granted the claim that there are areas of concern, stressing that the party was working hard to address them through the application of positive attitude in politics.
Buttressing the President’s bewilderment on the failure of those entrusted with the responsibility of promoting the achievements of the government, as well as the chairman’s push for positive politics, a member of the visiting team observed that “if achievements are not communicated, it’s like talking to someone in a foreign language. The result is that the listener wouldn’t understand what you are saying. And precisely that’s where PMB has found himself as a victim. Yes, a victim of negative communication.”
There is a particular cliché that is circulating in the social media with a query, thus, “Now that Nigerian troops are winning the fight against Bandits in Kaduna State, why is it that those agent of dark news and their members of Satanic group aren’t reporting?”
The answer is simple: People are not ready to play positive politics, which encourages constructive criticisms.
Bala Ibrahim wrote in from Abuja
I totally agree with you that the information managers of this government have not lived up to expectations. They are below par in the dissemination of the achievement of this PMB/APC government. In my view, the fault is at doorstep of the Minister of Information and PMB . He should have sacked the Minister. But nothing spoil. They could still do something.