Buhari’s govt is clueless, says Adebanjo

A CHIEFTAIN of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere and elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has assessed the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and described it as clueless, saying it lacks the compass with which to navigate the ship of the nation for improved welfare of the citizenry.

Adebanjo, who spoke with reporters in Ibadan at the launch of a two-volume autobiography written by a former minister, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, as part of activities marking his 70th birthday, said it was regrettable that after five months in office, President Buhari has nothing significant or tangible to point to.

The octogenarian said although he did not want Buhari’s government to fail and supported his anti-corruption crusade; success would not come without an economic blueprint that would reverse the increasingly poor socio-economic conditions of Nigerians.

He said: “They are clueless; they have no programme. The only thing they were determined to do was to chase Jonathan away. I have said it and will continue to say it. I don’t want Buhari to fail. I only want him to prove people like me who spoke against his ambition wrong. Even now that the ministers have been appointed, where is the blueprint that they are going to work with? They are just talking about change, change and anti-corruption. After wiping out corruption, will there be food on the table of Nigerians?

“He should prove that he is not a dictator and a tribalist. How could he appoint 31 people and only seven came from the South? He is not ruling Daura or the North. He is ruling Nigeria and must carry everybody along. As a person, Buhari has integrity. But the integrity must be used in a way that will carry every Nigerian along without discrimination. Who is strange among the nominated ministers? However good some of them are and there are really good people among them, but should it have taken us four months to do?

“Are they not the people Buhari had been campaigning with? And when they had been campaigning for almost 16 years to be in power, has he got an idea of what he is going to do? He ought to have an idea and a policy.”

The Afenifere chieftain blamed the seeming lack of direction in the present administration to the manner the leaders of the various parties that coalesced into the All Progressives Congress (APC) came together.

“Individually, they all have various vested interests. That is why the first thing we saw in the National Assembly was crisis. You don’t share the booty after winning the war. They should have agreed on how to share the booty when they were fighting the war.

“When we see people like Adeniran, to me, they are anxious to be in power and that was why they joined them. I have told people like him that where he is, he has not got people of his ilk because when they got there, they were frustrated. It is not what he wants that is happening in the PDP. People like me are too conservative and that was why we were in the opposition in the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s party”, Adebanjo further said.

In his own address, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State stressed the need for intellectuals who joined partisan politics to always document their experiences to disabuse the minds of those who cast politicians in the mould of vagabonds and rogues.

“I am excited about the personality of Prof. Tunde Adeniran, not only as an intellectual but also as a politician.”