Buharists: The Taunt is Over
By
Ayantunji Benjamin Gbenro (PhD)
@bengbenro
The last general election was the most divisive ever in the history of Nigeria. Divisions along ethnic, religious and regional lines. The social media is not spared of the divisive bug, especially Nigeria Twitter and Facebook. You are either a Jonathanian (also referred to as Jonahadeen or PDPian), which metamorphosed to Wailing Wailers after the election, or you are a Buharist or APC apologist.
These two groups have distinct characteristics. The Jonathanians are tenacious in their conviction even when it has been proven over and over to be an illusion. They appear to carry the hangover of the campaign season. They silently pray that Buhari should fail so that they can poke the Buharists. The Buharists on the other hand believe the last government was the worst thing to ever happen to Nigeria. Unlike the Jonathanians who tolerate anything about their principal even if they disagree in the closet, Buharists are unforgiving and impatient with their principal. The reason for the impatience can only be conjectured. It is either they are genuinely interested in the progress of the country and want to put their principal on his toes, or they are angry with their principal for not making the national cake go around as was the case with the previous government, or they are desperate to retain their followership on various media platforms and will go for any popular opinion. The reason for the Buharists’ impatience can only be properly explained by the Buharists.
When you compare the thread on some of the Buharists’ wall today to what they said about a year ago, you sometimes think they’ve been hacked. I’ll not bug you with names but anybody that is conversant with Nigeria Twitter and Facebook pages will know what I am saying. The dilemma about these change in conviction or apparent impatience is that most of these people have the ears of the President or the ears of someone who has the ears of the President. My advice to the Buharists is they should tone down their expectations a little. They were instrumental in swaying public opinion, especially the undecided voters to the President’s side before the election. These undecided voters are still undecided. If you build up an army of antagonists against the President, then he will spend the next 3 years managing public perception rather than doing the job he was voted in to do. This will amount to building a house and pulling it down; an exercise in futility.
Let’s examine the President’s performance one after the other based on his campaign promises.
The President’s campaign was basically hinged on three areas: Security, Fight against Corruption, Economy/Job Creation. The President during his campaign believed that these three are interwoven. When youths are jobless then it creates an army for insecurity. There can also be no Job creation in an insecure environment. Corruption feeds unemployment and insecurity. None of these three can be tackled in isolation. So, how has the President fared in this regard?
The last major Boko Haram attack or bomb blast on a community, was in January 2016. Any attack today will be a major news item unlike a year ago when it was the norm. Between January and today, major roads hitherto abandoned due to insurgency in the northeast, have been reopened.
Markets and motor parks under lock and key for over three years are back in business. The northeastern part of the country is becoming secure. One or two (depending on which report you believe) Chibok girls have been rescued in addition to thousands of other abductees. These are evidences that the President is winning the war against insecurity. It’s not yet Uhuru, but there is significant progress.
There have been other incidents of insecurity here and there like the attacks by herdsmen on the Agatus and Nimbo community in Enugu State, the crisis in Lagos, the attack on oil pipelines in Niger Delta, the Kidnapping of school girls in Lagos etc. most of these incidents were a one off and the security agents were able to nip them in the bud. The President should be given the credit for these efforts if he gets the stick for failure. I don’t expect the criminals among us to vanish into thin air overnight, but I expect my government to show the will power to deal with criminals. This government is showing the political will to deal with insecurity and I expect the Buharists to amplify it. This is what you convinced people to vote for and your principal is delivering on the promise.
On the fight against corruption, the minister of finance last informed the nation that over N3 trillion has been recovered through the TSA (Treasury Single Account). This money would have gone into private accounts. Kudos to the President for having the political will to implement the policy and for the recovery. We were also informed that over thirty five thousand ghost workers have been detected and removed from the Federal government payroll at the last count. These are also funds that would have gone into private pockets. Recently, Over two trillion naira was announced as money recovered and frozen in various accounts. Many prominent individuals have been dragged to court on corruption charges. At the last count, there are about 3 APC Senators facing various corruption charges and this controvert the notion of selective prosecution bandied around.
Civil servants have been charged. A deputy governor of the Central Bank was suspended. Civil servants have been redeployed based on the padded budget saga and who knows what will be the final fates of those civil servants? If there is no single conviction till date, the judiciary should answer for that. I don’t expect Nigerians to change their attitudes overnight and the President cannot be everywhere to monitor everybody, but one thing that is sure is that there is now a consequence for actions or inactions. To this end, the President is winning the anti-corruption war and I expect the Buharists to drum it to the world.
“This you promised us will happen and it is happening”.
“The economy is battered and the government is doing nothing about it”. This is the narrative the Buharists allowed the Jonathanians to peddle and are sometimes consciously or unconsciously supporting. The fact is that inflation is at an all time high, but is there anything that can be done to prevent that, looking at the global economy and where we are coming from? I doubt that. The government has been doing a lot about the economy since it took over. We may not all agree on methodology but that doesn’t translate to aloofness on the part of the government.
The economy of this country solely depends on oil. This government took over when the oil price had crashed in the international market. Let’s assume that the previous government sold oil at an average of $100/barrel and we sold two million barrels/day, it meant we earned $200 million/day. Now, if this government sells at an average of $35/barrel and we maintained the same level of production, we will earn $70 million barrels/day. That’s a deficit of $130million/day or (65% deficit). However, there has been a drop in production of about 40% to 50% due to militancy in the Niger Delta. This will increase the deficit by about another $30million/day. The population of the country has not changed nor has the infrastructural deficit. It should be obvious from this simple mathematics, to any objective mind, that there is a massive problem. But that’s why we voted the previous government out and voted the current government in. What then has the government done to address this problem?
The first thing that was done was to block the leakages. This made the Jonathanians to go to town with the narrative of “there is no money” and the Buharists also amplified it. When the Jonathanians said “there is no money” it simply means wastages have been blocked. Buharists should celebrate this as an achievement because “this is what you (APC, Buhari) promised us”. The government also bailed out about 28 states that couldn’t pay salaries. Then there was offsetting debts accrued from petrol subsidies.
The country has been dependent on importation of petroleum products for over sixteen years, paying humongous amounts to individuals as subsidy payments without any attempt to develop local refining capacity. When this government took over, it decided to reverse the trend by opting for direct oil swap while doing everything to improve local refining capacity. Predictably, there was a fight back in terms of sabotage from people who benefitted from the old order. The saboteurs cut across private and public sectors. Every attempt to restructure the NNPC was opposed and this lead to intermittent fuel scarcities. These, coupled with forex scarcity, has forced the government to finally do away with the controversial fuel subsidy regime. Though this has led to increase in pump price, but the queues have disappeared and competition is forcing the price below N145/litre in some locations across the country. For having the courage to tackle this menace rather than throwing money at it as was always the case, this government should be applauded and the Buharists ought to celebrate this achievement.
The government has kicked off it social investment program. 500,000 volunteer teachers to be employed, 100 skilled and unskilled jobs are also to be created and school feeding for over twenty million school children is here. This is unprecedented in the annals of this country.
There is also a loan facility for over 1million market women across the country and various other programs for farmers to accelerate the diversification of the economy. The police is employing 10,000 personnel and N5,000 will be paid monthly beginning this month to the poorest of the poor through conditional cash transfer.
Two hundred and eighty billion naira has been released for capital projects and infrastructural development out of the three hundred and fifty billion naira planned to be injected into the economy. This amount is higher than all the amounts released for infrastructural development in the past 4 years. Major contractors are back to site across the country and massive infrastructural development has commenced. More people will get back to work in the construction sector. The spiral effect on the other sectors of the economy, will soon be evident.
The Buharists should wear garlands and celebrate to high heavens. You convinced us on the need for change. You told us we couldn’t continue on the same path. The last one year has been tedious. Some of you are losing hope. You are being taunted about the change you promised. Things are now taking shape for your government and the only trajectory for now is up. This is your government and it needs your support.
You convinced us to embrace change and we did. Your unguarded criticisms will convince the rest of us that you deceived us. I am not sure this is the image you’ll want to project for yourself and your principal.
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