If Buhari failed, we all failed
30 May 2023 |
1:55 am
The common expression on the lips of most Nigerians now is that the immediate past administrator has failed woefully with nothing to show for its eight years of being in the saddle of governance.
Buhari
SIR: The common expression on the lips of most Nigerians now is that the immediate past administrator has failed woefully with nothing to show for its eight years of being in the saddle of governance.
To say the least, such utterance, which appears to be gaining very wide currency among almost everybody, both those who should know and the crass illiterates, shows very clearly that most Nigerians are very myopic in their thinking and reasoning.
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None of those going about with such a verdict about the outgoing administration ever realise that if they continue to argue that Buhari has failed, they too have failed. The outgoing government did not get to power through coup but by election, not once but twice.
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That means that everyone was instrumental to its ascendancy into power indicating its preference over all the other candidates that also contested in those elections. Besides, Nigeria runs a democratic form of government where no single person is capable of holding the entire nation to ransom because there are organs that are supposed to act as checks and balances to the other organs.
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If those other organs have failed to perform their duties as expected of them that can never in any way be the president’s fault. Most of the accusations levelled against the president are the magnitude of debt being left behind for the incoming successor. Yet, the national assembly approved all the loans taken by the current administration.
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The president has invested heavily on the infrastructural deficit of the country, which most Nigerians are quite aware of and even enjoying, but simply refuse to acknowledge. The problem of insecurity is placed solely on Mr President while Nigerians would never ask the governors to account for the monthly security votes they receive.Â
All blames for the nation’s woes are placed on Buhari, yet Nigerians know quite well all those who embezzled billions of dollars belonging to Nigeria without anyone asking them any question apart from the ones traced to the late Abacha.
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If Abacha had not died, who would have dared to ask him any questions about the source of his wealth? Who has been man enough to question all the other former heads of state still alive about the source of their stupendous wealth?
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In the history of governance in Nigeria, it’s only Buhari everyone agrees has not stolen the nation’s money, at least as at the time he assumed power in 2015. If, perhaps, the narrative has changed now, and he is also in money at his departure from government, on what should the blame go if not a completely absurd system, which overlooks the rogue and accuses the upright?
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• Jide Oyewusi, Coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.
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