By Tope Omotayo, PhD
Millions of Nigerians were jubilant when then Candidate Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was announced by the INCE Chairman, Prof Attheriu Jega as the winner of the 2015 Presidential Election, the announcement was made around 3.45 am on April 1 2015 and it was not April fool.
However, with about 17 months to the next election, events of the last 26 months have obliterated any hope in the Buhari Administration for millions of Nigerians.
President Buhari’s cryptic declaration in his inaugural speech – “I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody” – should have alerted the nation to what was to follow. But somehow, it beat everybody. The joke was on us all!
It appears now that the President’s esoteric rhetoric on May 29, 2015 should have told us all that we now have a leader who operates more in the Platonic world of form than on the firma terra abode of mere mortals.
Where should one start now? It took the President over five months to appoint his ministers, ostensibly because he was searching for the best hands in the land. Eventually, we ended up with the same of the same – the bunch of old brigade already known to us all. The first shock, maybe, but not yet a disappointment; the nation still believed.
Then the fight against corruption took centre stage became the mantra of this administration. It appears though that the more the Buhari Administration blamed the last Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration for everything wrong in Nigeria today, the more Nigerians heard the ring of cluelessness in the voice of their government. The blame game no longer washes with the hungry and increasingly restless masses.
Then citizens began to take counts of the hypes offered us in place of policies: Treasury Single Account (TSA, actually an inherited policy of the immediate past PDP administration) ; China currency swap ; abracadabra forex policy; the more you look the less you see zero budget… The claim was that all these would revamp the economy and bring better living standard to the Nigerian people failed to materialise.
Of course all of these were enough to make anyone sick. Nigerians quickly became sick and tired of it all. But then President Buhari too became sick. If Buhari is sick, Nigeria is sick, according to Governor Sam Ortom Benue State. Of course the sick cannot help the sick. And to cover up the sickening situation, Aso Rock mandarins started shoving out sickening lies!
The situation as you read this is that most Nigerian are in deeply ignorant of what ails President Buhari. Those who dared to ask questions are daily being tear-gassed on the streets of Abuja.
Meanwhile, ministers continue to proffer excuses instead of policies, inflation runs amock on double digit, no light, no water, no road, no salary…and most Nigerians cannot afford basic necessities of life. The standard scale of measurement is negative on all fronts. It is a fiasco!
Dr. Omotayo wrote in from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
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