MUHAMMADU BUHARI AND THE SQUANDERING OF GOODWILL

MUHAMMADU BUHARI AND THE SQUANDERING OF GOODWILL!

I have never met our President, Muhammadu Buhari. I have never received any favour of any type from him or anyone associated with him: not the promise of the famous oil block, not a contract, not an employment… nothing! I have written in this column before that I am not sure that Muhammadu Buhari even knows that I exist. To be clear, I have never been a member of any of Nigeria's motley power contraptions called political parties.

Yet, there are many who accuse me of being part of the conspiracy to foist Buhari on the Nigerian people. The fact that I am 'accused' is clear evidence that things have not worked out very well. Maybe, if things had worked well, nobody would have noticed that I had anything to do with anything. I do not deny that I expected so much of General Muhammadu Buhari and said so loudly. I so badly wanted my country to be led by a man whom I believed had the moral authority to call a spade a spade and who would have the strength of character to do the right things irrespective of whose ox is gored.

I have only one PVC which I carefully deploy the way my conscience tells me to. In terms of voting therefore, I do not have more power than the vulcanizer down my street. I however write Saturday Breakfast which appears to be read by a good number of people and I lead an effervescent group. It therefore appears that my thoughts go beyond my household and some people respect the opinions that I express. Hence, it beholds on me to be very thoughtful about what I say and what I write.

I am very thoughtful about saying this: I never thought that Nigeria would come to where it is today with hope becoming a very scarce commodity and our young people frustrated beyond words. Just this week, a good friend of mine who very much supported the candidature of Muhammadu Buhari, packed his bag and baggage, his wife and three children and left Nigeria for good. He has had enough.

While my friend was leaving, the newly minted APC Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, bubbling with energy, was barking in Abuja. Oshiomhole may not have quite understood the import of his outburst on Labour Minister, Chris Ngige in Abuja. In issuing Ngige a yellow card and threatening to walk him out of the APC stadium, the former NLC leader simply delivered a State of the Union address. The team is playing very badly and he would no longer tolerate ministers who disrespect the President, the captain of the team. He was confirming what everybody already knows: the falcon no longer hears the falconer and anarchy has set in.

The fact that Oshiomhole was talking about inaugurating Federal Government Boards a few months to the end of the term of this administration gives everyone an idea of how well the country has been managed. Pray, when will these boards meet, agree on policies, execute those policies before being booted out in a few months?

Mine was a key voice in the setting up of what today is the Nigerian Copyright Commission aimed at driving on behalf of Nigeria, the intellectual property revolution which is powering economies around the world. In drafting the law setting up the commission, we immediately recognized that the agency must be run by a board made up of men and women grounded with experience in different fields that would ensure that the agency is permanently at the forefront of pursuing national interest and not individual idiosyncrasies. Since Buhari became President, the NCC has not had a Board. I have watched with sadness as one man appointed by the previous government with little evidence of the knowledge or experience to run such an important national agency has been 'Sole Administrator' issuing weird instructions and dismantling every block that we have laid for the greatness of our nation.

With COSON, Nigeria was the shining star of the continent in copyright administration. With so much government meddling, Nigeria is on the way to becoming the laughing stock of the world. Unfortunately, what is happening with our copyright system is happening in several other important agencies in our nation.

I began to ask questions in the first six months of the Buhari administration. I pinched myself when Bukola Saraki outsmarted the APC leadership and became and remained a very powerful Senate President despite the many banana peels his own party threw at him from every direction. I became worried when months after months, Nigeria did not have a minister and Abuja became a wasteland as our civil servants drifted like sheep without shepherd.   

I was shaken by the Babachir Lawal incident which went on and on and remains unresolved as I write. Who would have believed that the Maina matter with its potentials to destroy the civil service, would be swept under the carpet? It has. I honestly did not think that the blood of so many innocent Nigerians would repeatedly be shed over something as mundane as the rearing of cattle. With an army general in charge?

Sambo Dasuki is not from my village. When I hear the incoherent things being said over his matter, I shudder. Is anyone calculating the cost to our nation of the destruction of our judicial system with this intransigence and the shame it brings us in the comity of nations?

Love him or hate him, Bukola Saraki has a Supreme Court Judgment in his pocket. Those who tried to diminish him have made him a superstar. Do they understand that the harder they go after him, the bigger they make him?

Amaju Pinnick at the NFF has just received his own COSON treatment. It appears that everything good about Nigeria is under attack…

I do not know any Nigerian leader who came to power through the ballot box with so much goodwill and so much expectation. Books will be written, and movies made on how Muhammadu Buhari blew it and is now having endless meetings seeking support which he had in abundance. What happened to the almost limitless goodwill Buhari had?

Goodwill?! Goodluck?! Godspeed to Adams Oshimhole. So sad.

See you next week.