WHO REALLY DOES BUHARI BELONG TO?

Many -many Nigerians were stunned during the week when another increase in the price of petroleum products was announced together with an almost hundred percent increase in the price of electricity. In the middle of a pandemic! This is a pandemic that has devasted the income of millions of Nigerians leaving many without any income at all. Where are the people supposed to get the money to pay these new prices? Terrible timing!

Everyday, I witness this peculiar economic fallacy at play. The thinking seems to be that the more money the government or the big corporations have, the better the life of Nigerians. So, the government goes ahead to squeeze and squeeze the people to the point of death so that life will be better for everyone!

Elsewhere, it is understood that what makes up a nation is the sum-total of the quality of the life of the citizens. To fight the effects of the pandemic, governments in other climes are raising funds to support their people in several ways with the understanding that a crushed people cannot work, cannot buy any goods and cannot support the growth of the nation's economy. In Nigeria, a different kind of economic model appears to reign.

When you have your personal pipe connected to the NDDC or NNPC or any of the many different agencies of government, it may be difficult for you to understand the anguish real Nigerians are going through. When you live in a good house provided by government and enjoy the perks of office on the bill of government what is happening in Nigeria may appear to you like Nollywood, a video show. It is then easy for you to issue a statement to justify what is not justifiable. My people say that when the corpse of a stranger is being carried along, it may appear just like a log of wood.

The fact that there are no protests on the streets may not be because Nigerians are comfortable with what is going on. The people are dazed, sapped, tired, and confused. What we have may be very dry wood. With a little spark… you know the rest.

"I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody". So declared the former army general on the day he was inaugurated as the democratically elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. To me, those words are the most memorable words ever spoken by Muhammadu Buhari. The words are his contract with the Nigerian people. They were expected to set up the moral compass for a presidency many hoped would attack the lack of moral compass in the way Nigeria has been run.

A major part of the crisis that the Nigerian nation has faced since Buhari was elected is that there are many in the country who verily believe that Buhari does not belong to them. That has been accentuated by those who by their actions and body language make it clear to you that Buhari does not belong to you but to them and them alone. These people believe that they are the 'inheritors' of the Buhari mandate and these 'inheritors' walk around with a swagger and throw their weight around like they are conquerors of the Nigerian nation who can share the bounty, the produce of their conquest, as they wish and to hell with everyone else!

At different Federal agencies, I have personally encountered this behavior. The President has allowed these 'inheritors' to mess up the Buhari brand as they have placed under pressure the institutions that ought to be the pillars of our nation and the pillars of a successful presidency.

Suddenly, the indices for measuring development in Nigeria is construction work done by citizens of the Peoples Republic of China at unknown cost to the future of the Nigerian people. Have you noticed that after our struggle to stop being a British colony, we have now with open hands quietly accepted to become a Chinese colony? The Chinese are now funding and building our railway, airports, roadways and everything else! How are we sure that they are not also funding our politics? Our capacity to do anything of value is now in question. Very soon, the Chinese will appoint our ministers.

Things are bad, very bad and it does not matter whether you are a Buhari supporter or you hate his guts. It is that bad. We all know that crazy things happen in politics but to have these things happen right in your face with so much abandon. Wow!

Please pardon me for asking, who really does Buhari belong to?

 

See you next week.