Promise Nakanda
Few things are worst than feeling helpless. even though, the federal government deserves our commiseration in these rather testy times.
The greatest problem of the Buhari administration is credibility. If there is anything that that has made Nigerians worried for about two years into the current administration, it is this government that has been unable to shake off the nagging feelings that it cannot be trusted.
True, such cynicism may not be justifiable in the face of available evidence, but there have been times when government officials have muddled perfectly good reasoning and logic; talk less of showing that they are incapable of sharing the frustration that has become the lot of Nigerians.
For nearly two years now, the government has fought and fought only two creatures: the money-bag( furtive political animal assumed to have money to buy Nigeria and Nigerians) and his much dreaded brother, the politician, whose past mistake calls for a political and economic rescue mission.
The government , as you very well know, has spared no expenses, none at all, to keep the dirty hands of these creatures from the political pie this time around even to the point of suspending core principal cabinet member alleges to be involve in wrong dealings. No government could try harder. No government could wage a more spirited war against the lice in the lock of our democracy.
Yet; the news is bad. The more the government tries, the more success takes on the attributes of failure. A recurring decimal couldn’t be more resilient. The president and his vice, who is the point man of this administration, often compound the situation either by the vee pee’s hasty but inadequate explanation of issues or Buhari’s evasiveness. As our Messi, the president indeed has a way of over-dribbling, scoring an own goal and atimes shooting himself in the leg.
Just imagine the way government has been trying to fly its kite right from inception; the days of fuel subsidy removal, playing hide and seek with the true health status of the president, budget scam still underway, discovering of ghost looted fund by EFCC.
Well, many Nigerians, including yours truly, thought wise counsel had prevailed and governement wasn’t going to needlessly step on the tail of the cobra. How wrong we were. Only the previous week, Nigeria’s Internal Secret Service, the State Security Service (SSS) enmeshed in a recruitment scandal following the exposure of a shocking lopsidedness in the composition of new officers recently absorbed into the agency. The government is yet to open up on this scandal rocking one of his agencies, maybe for the fear that the verdict of history might say that this government has been more naive than credible over the efficacy of its political prescription.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the other hand keep chipping in with news of recovery loots and forfeited assets yet to be utilize for the benefit of the nation.
This threats haven’t shore up our faith in the political decision-making machinery. But we must have faith. Though as i see it, the danger we face now is not lack of faith. It is too much of faith in what flies in the face of logic and our political culture-whatever the latter is. Do we accept, as the EFCC wants us to, that all the recovery looted funds will be utilize for the benefit of the nation? it is all right for the government to insist that, in these rather hazy times, credibility is the best thing to rely on. But clearly, they are learning on the crutches of naivety. Truth be told, nothing has really changed. It may be that the prime movers and shakers of the government operate from behind the firing lines, their stooges being in front. It may be that the influence of the president have been more muted than blatant.
Let’s hope for a brighter future for our country, but let’s not pretend that we see nothing and we hear nothing. of course, one day, we shall get there. But for now the search continues.
Yesterday, our founding fathers fought to secured independence from the colonial masters. Today, the issue are different and the tasks are higher, we are fighting to save the soul of the nation not from foreigners but from fellow countrymen. The evidence of things unchanged begs to be noticed at every corner. Prices of things are on the increase, our policemen and security agents are still used, as they were then, to harass perceived political opponents and critics.
It is important we try to be more realistic about these things. We need to remind ourselves of these things. We need to remind ourselves of these simple, elementary facts of governance because only so can we cure ourselves of what is gradually turning into a national paranoia. President Buhari and his men ought to re-assess their thinking and set their priority right, especially as they are set to enter the next phase of their tenure in office.
Only so can the government itself accept that what is happening is not a negation of its political wisdom or the failure of its carefully-laid up plan but merely the facts of life meeting calculated limits of credibility.
