Buhari today, tomorrow: The archives have it!

It would be a stretch to say that, after a year in office, nothing has taken the shine off President Muhammadu Buhari.

Complaints now abound of Buhari’s slow pace. And a palpable confusion in decision-making as well as personnel deployment, combined with impatience rooted in high expectations now, cast his administration in less glowing light than it started with.

By the time he took over on May 29, 2015, Nigeria was a wounded nation with a deep physical gash on her body, inflicted by Boko Haram terrorists in their rampaging blood-letting. This was compounded by the moral wound on the nation’s soul inflicted by mindless corruption and inept management of resources. And with distrust sown all over the country in the run-up to the election, the emotional wound was also raw.

When he won the election therefore, what Buhari was given was a unique mandate: To heal Nigeria, renew her essence and be the architect of a national renaissance.

It may not be his doing altogether, but the reality is that, today, Nigeria under Buhari is in dire straits.

On the occasion of his first anniversary in office, the Presidency reeled out what it called President Buhari’s achievements.

The list included the symbolic and the substantial, the mundane and the sublime.

Opinions may be divided on whether these were worthy accomplishments, there is unanimity of opinion, however, that expectations are far from being met.

While no one expects this government to perform any magic, what Nigerians have continued to worry about is hope looking set to be dashed, promises with the prospects of non-fulfilment.

More than the roads, dams and bridges, he has promised to build, more than the power he will supply or any infrastructure he would restore, Buhari has a responsibility to build one thing: Nigeria’s future on a solid foundation. To build infrastructure, he needs MONEY. To build a prosperous future for Nigeria, he needs an additional currency known as the WILL.

Money, indeed, talks. With the cash crunch occasioned by falling oil prices, Nigeria has just heard it say ‘goodbye!’ in a tone that is deafening to the ears. So, what about the other currency?

Nigerians see the genuine exertions of Buhari but they may never see the results in ways they wish or deserve. This is because the symptoms of what ails Nigeria have so overwhelmed the body and the conventional wisdom is to peel away, incrementally from the top, at a multi-layered pile of problems. Unfortunately, that conventional wisdom is the least useful to Nigeria. The root is the place to start from!

The consensus in Nigeria today is that the 1999 constitution in operation is thoroughly flawed and should be substantially amended if not completely replaced to cater for the good governance and well-being of Nigerians. This is true.

Even if there could be a debate on the contradictions in that constitution, its credibility is undermined by its opening line which says “we the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria… do hereby make enact and give to ourselves the following constitution.”

Of course, there is no need to belabour the processes leading to that constitution. The truth is: It was not made by the people of Nigeria.
But granted that we have moved on with it since 1999, things have happened to suggest that Nigeria is not making progress on that constitution as injustice reigns and agitations for a redress grow louder by the day.

Nigeria therefore, remains a lie! And to make the country a Truth is Buhari’s job.

A constitution has been described as ‘an autobiography of a nation’ and the ‘repository of the national soul.’ A constitution is the set of a nation’s commitments, the mirror unto itself and the moral compass for its various journeys.

This, according to scholars, is why what is in the constitution is just as important as how they got in and put in there by whom. It is therefore not enough for a constitution to reflect the wishes of an elected majority as being argued by some of our legislators, a constitution must reflect as far as possible the widest consensus of all citizens through the involvement of all stakeholders across all divisions in the country.

That is why a national conference is often called for. It allows the people, by consensus, to reclaim their sovereignty by fostering an enduring legal order to which they all willingly subscribe.

While it is true that the Olusegun Obasanjo administration organised a national conference in year 2005, the report of which has not seen the light of day till today because the intention was not pure and the outcome less so, the Goodluck Jonathan government appeared more serious in 2014. It was not the best but it must rank as the closest thing to the ideal so far.

For that conference, no mode of representation could have been better or more democratic or fairer than the elective one but given the time, complexities and urgency of the task at hand, the nominating mode was allowed to pass with all its imperfections.

Moreso, a bit of representation was built into it with each state sending forth those it believed could best speak for it.

For some strange reasons, true federalism, restructuring, fiscal federalism and many more have become not only trite but feared words to some people in Nigeria. Yet they are words we must not only live with, they are words without which Nigeria cannot thrive!

And this is why President Muhammadu Buhari’s reaction to the report of the 2014 national conference compelled me to the conclusion that he is yet to fully appreciate his mandate as a President at this time in our country’s history: the re-birth of Nigeria! He said, among other things that he has never bothered to read the report and he is not likely to do so. Indeed, he has consigned it to ‘the so-called archives!’
Archives?

Painful as Buhari’s position on the structure of Nigeria and its non-interrogation by otherwise critical minds in the polity have been, I am, ironically, comforted, almost to the point of feeling triumphant by the fact that there are no surprises:

The Nigerian state’s reputation as an undertaker has no equal and our rulers’ dexterity at the entombment of their own opportunities for redemption is legendary. History has shown that Nigerian leaders have always made the best coffin or dug the deepest grave for the blessings divinely, freely bestowed on the country. Hence the archives of the Nigerian state remain the richest cemetery of great ideas for the people’s progress.

For civil service reforms, go to the archives and you will see enough ideas on how to make that engine of government roll better. For private sector reforms or public-private sector partnership for development, there are enough ideas on the shelf! For campaign finance reforms, electoral integrity and deepening democracy, the archives have it! For fighting corruption, go to the archives!

So, in looking for a way forward, Nigeria only has to look backwards.

In her search for life, our nation only has to go back to where so many dead have been buried!

Nigeria’s purpose is manifestly clear: a rainbow nation in which all find a shade, an umbrella under which all, big or small find shelter, a land rich enough, square metre for square metre, for all to dig or till and to feed or prosper from. Diverse in people and diverse in resources, Nigeria has it all.

But this diversity, a most potent strength, is one attribute Nigeria has done its best to deny or even undermine because of laziness or convenience which has engendered the conventional wisdom that oil alone is what can sustain the country and that an acknowledgment of our political diversity, which would necessitate adoption of economic diversity models as well as the need for individual hard work, undermines the nation’s unity.

As with all fallacies, this has, of course, resulted in a multiple deck of fallacies, culminating in distrust, inequity, poor governance and the kind of economic stagnation Nigeria is in today.

The trouble is not Nigeria. It is the leadership, a leadership which has been relentlessly unreasonable in the quest for solutions to the country’s problems.

To escape the tag of being part of Nigeria’s leadership burden, therefore, Buhari must go back to the archives and exhume the body of a report which contains useful guide for the country’s journey to true nationhood, peace and prosperity.

Unless we do away with a system that shackles the country to the hegemonic fantasies of a few, unites the people in poverty by caging their creative abilities, and breeds the coalition of a deprived majority, prone to easy manipulation by a thieving minority, Nigeria cannot make progress into unity and prosperity.
­
To those who are in mortal fear of Nigeria’s diversity and therefore work against maximizing that diversity for the country’s unity, let it be said on record: You are Nigeria’s enemies!

President Muhammadu Buhari has a unique mandate and his place in history will be defined by how much he understands this.

The real duty he should do for Nigeria is to begin the process of instituting a proper federation, releasing all of Nigeria’s potentials and putting an end to all discontents within the polity.

Money talks. The echo of its loud ‘bye bye’ to Nigeria is still reverberating! Of course, it may someday come back to say ‘good morning.’

But the other currency, the WILL to make his presidential job a mission, is innate to Buhari.

Buhari needs money to build all power, education, roads, bridges and all sorts of things for Nigeria. May he find it.

The real prayer Nigerians need to say constantly, however, is that: May our president be guided by a sense of responsibility to the future of a united, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria and may he find the real currency, the WILL, to build that future.

• Part of this columnist’s presentation at the Public Interest Symposium of the Island Club, Lagos.