The Buhari Nigeria needs (1)

REALITY has finally dawned on all, after the excitement of the 2015 historic presidential election.

As the novelty of the outcome and the delight Nigerians experienced at finally breaking the jinx through use of the ballot box to force regime change wear off, the sobering realism of the sheer enormity of the task ahead, that is what must be done to stabilize the nation and then move it forward, has taken the centre stage.

Just picking up a newspaper or listening to the political and social commentary or perusing the social media would lead you to believe the just-concluded elections were only about one man and one office.

Nigerians, all of us, those who have known it throughout as well as those that our volatile circumstance have now conveyed the truth to, now recognize the indisputable fact: Our nation’s destiny effectively lies in the Presidency.

Just about everyone is fixated on the Presidency. All eyes are on the man, Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect, and on the critical office of the Presidency that he is about to assume on May 29.

Given the totality of our circumstances, and what is absolutely needed now—someone clean enough to mount a credible crusade against incorrigible and intractable corruption; someone sufficiently grounded in the explicit nature of Nigeria’s brand of “indiscipline”; someone with enough mass support (and the guts) to battle the unrepentant high and mighty; and someone who will command absolute respect across the nation’s military and security establishment – most Nigerians believe they have found their man in Buhari.

Judging from the nation’s rare post-election festive mood and introspection too, it also appears that Nigerians have broken yet another decisive jinx.

All indications, strangely, are that people would actually like the President-elect to do well and are wishing him God’s speed.

And so, as it should be, the nation is awash in ideas and recommendations as people talk, write, and participate in a myriad of ways meant to proffer ideas.

Ideas of how not to stumble big-time at the outset and squander the momentum, goodwill, and political capital that now seem in abundant supply to the President-elect; ideas on how to circumvent both the pitfalls and treacherous trappings of the past that have ruined many a Presidency; and ideas on how to leverage the incredible opportunities afforded by the current unprecedented mood of the nation for “change”.

I must confess that I am thrilled by our nation’s current ‘let’s-get-moving’ outlook. It took us a while to get here, but we are finally here.

As a religious people, we obviously need to thank God for it, and then turn to the challenge at hand, which is to manage, milk, and mine this new-found positive momentum to the hilt.

Yet, a particular matter has continued to nag me non-stop and has persisted despite my best efforts to exorcise it from my usually malleable psyche. Frankly, something in me tells me that this thing holds the key to answering the question of whether Nigerians will get any mileage out of their current costly efforts at nation-building.

Or, whether at the end of the day, all this struggle and sacrifice – deaths, mayhem, and spending – would amount to another wasteful resource diversion, the kind of puff-puff that classic literature would dub as either “much ado about nothing”, or a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing”.

•To be continued.
•Alozie contributed the article via alozie@asu.edu

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