By Muhammad Sulaiman Abdullahi, PhD
President Muhammadu Buhari has come and gone. It is believed that many Nigerians thought Buhari would be the best president of their lifetime. Even Baba Buhari himself assumed and pretended that he was the best. And he did his best; only that his best was not enough for Nigeria.
Baba accused all those before him, directly or indirectly, of mismanaging Nigeria. However, with all the accusations he heaped on others, Nigeria was technically and practically raped under his watch. It is even alleged that most of the suffering inflicted upon Nigeria and its innocent citizens was the handiwork of some of the closest associates of Buhari, including his family members. Some supporters claimed that his style was the best way to govern. They boasted that Buhari assigned competent hands to govern, and he never interfered. This assertion has many troubles, and I will mention only two.
First, it is wrong for any leader to assume that his workers or those he assigns to do a specific job for him are perfect. They are not, and no one is. And even if assuming they are, he is responsible for watching, gauging, supporting and assessing them. Buhari didn’t do that. He was just there sitting, flossing and picking his teeth.
Second, some of those assigned some responsibilities and some ministries during the Buhari era were not competent. Look at what Adamu Adamu and Ngige and some of their close allies did to education. Look at what Hadi Sirika did to aviation. Look at what Godwin Emifele did at the Central Bank of Nigeria. These are just a few among many. One would wonder how did that happen under Buhari’s watch.
When Nigerians voted for Buhari in 2015, most believed Nigeria’s worries of 1960 downwards would just vanish. There is a widely circulated story of someone who sold his generator, considering that the electricity would be fixed and that the generator would be a nuisance to him and occupy space. Buhari disappointed him and all other Nigerians in the energy sector. The electricity tariff was hiked unprecedentedly, to the corrupt extent of not even giving notice. They hiked it at their will without recourse to anything or fear of anyone. This was Buhari’s era.
Furthermore, according to what many Nigerians believe, had Buhari not become a president, many fools and even non-foolish among Nigerians would have tagged him “The best president that never is”! He came and went, and his performance shows he isn’t the best.
However, no one will occupy that seat without doing good, willy-nilly. Buhari did some things, but I don’t think he did it consciously. His undoing and the power of the seat made it happen, as Baba didn’t seem to care then. I can’t mention a lot, but I know he tried not to influence the 2023 elections in favour of his party. That single action should be emulated by all those who come after him.
Also, some of our airports look majestic but at the expense of our roads. Some think that it happened due to his excessive love of foreign trips. He couldn’t bear the sinister looks of our airports as he happens to be a constant, consistent and regular customer there.
The health sector received almost total neglect during Baba’s era. He knew about it very well as he shunned all Nigerian hospitals because his government abandoned them. The former president enjoyed robust, healthy and developed foreign medical healthcare when Nigerians died in Malaysia and lack of genuine Capenol. He didn’t care, and neither did he ever talk about it.
Wallahi Nigerians suffered a lot under his leadership. Inflation has never been bad, like how it grew big during Baba. Another thing that Nigerians may live to regret is their high hopes for Buhari’s government, which became a curse on them. The ordinary people with whom Buhari sided and dined when he looked for the seat lost him completely. He later started accusing them of laziness.
His non-strategic accusations to all classes of people in Nigeria started in phases and kept on changing based on the position he found himself.
The first phase was when he was aspiring to be the President. Then, he tactically sided with the masses and openly demonstrated with them on the streets. He yelled at the PDP government and accused them of various things, and his government multiplied all the suffering. The second phase was when he became the president, accused all the Nigerian politicians, and painted them bad in the eyes of all Nigerians and the world.
Lastly, in the final phase, when he consolidated his grip on the leadership, he turned and accused all Nigerians, especially the youth and the masses he sided with and voted for him. He accused them of being lazy and full of enjoyment as if he didn’t want to see anyone enjoying and smiling!
He governed as if he was doing Nigerians a favour while most of those who supported him were either dying of hunger, kidnapped or wholly disoriented.
Nigerians from the North and South graciously excused many of Buhari’s excesses, thinking he would do wonders. Today is only a few days of President Bola Tinubu’s government, but he has taken some decisive actions which Buhari’s eight years couldn’t do.
We didn’t have high hopes for Tinubu initially, but we foresee and pray that his government will be better and more beneficial to Nigerians than the I-don’t-care government of Baba Buhari.
Dr Muhammad can be reached via @muhammadunfagge (Twitter) or email: muhammadunfagge@yahoo.com.