With Buhari, Nigeria is back

ONUMBA.COM, USA — If Nigeria was ever on the path of social and economic glory at one time, and somehow lost its mojo somewhere along the way, there’s good news:  it just got back on that track with the recent inauguration of Mohammadu Buhari as president.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

        BUT THERE ARE CYNICS

Yeah, yeah, I know, it easily sounds like a premature cockahoop mixed with hasty exuberance.  We have been here before.  That feeling is probably why for some, all of this is pregnant with a smorgasbord of unknowns.  And for others, embracing a wait-and-see posture is a prudent course of reaction for now.  I get it.  I completely get the soft cynicism fed by the thinking, ‘we have all travelled down this road before.’  True, previous Nigerian leaders with shitty performance records also came preaching the sermon of social and economic deliverance on the mountain of hope and saying all the right things, promising succor and raising hopes for a better future sky high.  The most recent of these pretenders is former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a military-civilian hybrid with a pugnacious demeanor, who before my eyes, gave a very believable speech full of optimistic Theravada at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio shortly after he took office.  But after eight years as president, capped off by delusional acrobatic moves to cling on to power beyond his lawful duration (an effort which by the way blew up on his face like a dynamite and vividly exposed his power-gluttonous nature) all that Nigeria got from him was a profound pittance.

For instance, all the talk about stamping out corruption, improving education, revamping the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, solving Nigeria’s power (electricity) shortage problem was just that ——- talk, blah, blah, blah and more blah, blah, blah.  His administration failed woefully, featuring eight years of hollow shibboleths and impeccably packaged effluvium of lies that in the end produced absolutely nothing for Nigerians, just doldrums.

So yeah, I know all about empty promises, dashed hopes and looting galore.  But guess what, in my opinion, and I have no doubt about this, Buhari is different.  He is the absolute best man for the job today, bar none.  Simply put, for Nigerians, his election as president is a sweet Christmas gift coming months in advance.

        FAITH IN THE NEW PRESIDENT

For the first time since I started paying close attention to Nigerian politics, political leadership, issues of governance, conundrums of poverty and challenges of national development, I can gleefully declare without equivocation my complete faith and support for a Nigerian president.  It is a first for me. 

All told, I just don’t trust Nigerian politicians, not even one bit.  Their utterances are 99 percent balderdash.  They are all full of shit.  Naturally, I see them as a load of harpy and pestiferous boneheads, a gaggle of unpatriotic and pusillanimous buffoons, a pack of glib talking charlatans with the pedigrees of grand thieves (Great late Fela Anikulapo Kuti) and rapacious con men only good at turning government jobs into lucrative criminal enterprise.

But I see Buhari vastly differently.  Now, does that mean that the 72-year old newly minted leader will tectonically transform Nigeria and make it look and feel like beautiful Florida overnight?  No, that would amount to recklessly indulging in a quixotic day dreaming grounded in grand delusion.  Not even Buhari is promising that.  What it means though is that I honestly believe Buhari will install an honest leadership to enable him do his best to move Nigeria forward.  He will kibosh the hemorrhaging of a sinking Nigeria and place the country for the first time in eons on a path to the strong possibility of achieving the kind of national development hurrah as Brazil, India and South Korea years ago.  And that’s really all we should ask of him – an honest leadership to deliver an honest effort.  Nigerians would be satisfied with that.

And Buhari himself is prepared to go to work.

“Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems,” Buhari said in his inaugural speech.

I believe that.  I have always believed that “we can fix our problems” with honest, committed leadership.  We can look like Florida.  We can look like Virginia, New Jersey, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, etc.  Oh yeah we can with honest leadership, vision, good planning aimed at implementing that vision, and effective use of our abundant natural and human resources.

SO IT IS TIME TO GO TO WORK

Of course, it won’t be easy for Buhari taking over a Nigeria that is deeply bedeviled by a mountainous rash of tormenting problems.  The country is almost an unworkable mess, hobbled by multi-layered problems piled up over decades of greed infested, bumbling and feckless governments.  But if any Nigerian is up to the task of solving Nigeria’s problems, it is Buhari, period.  Now, having said that, here is the caveat.  For Buhari’s efforts to bear sweet fruits with a lasting impact, it is going to take him and successive regimes led by leaders like him to maintain a relay of honest leadership required for a sustained long term development.  Now is the time to implement the much heralded Ataturkian nation-building model in Nigeria, a reference to what happened in Turkey decades ago after that country’s national icon Mustapha Ataturk singlehandedly unleashed a torrent of nation building orbs widely credited for catapulting that country to the orbit of modern nations.  The Ataturkian roadmap for national development is a perfect fit for Africa where social, economic and technological woes run deep requiring cathartic overhaul as remedy. 

FOUR MAJOR AREAS OF PRIORITY

I pray that Buhari is the long awaited Nigeria’s Ataturk.  For the sake of our children who for years have been robbed of good education, denied of nutritious food and proper and adequate health care, I pray that Buhari is Nigeria’s Ataturk.  I won’t bore you with a glumly laundry list of what is ailing Nigeria, but please permit me to name just four of the most critical ones:

One is electricity.  Without that, the whole notion of building a modern society will simply remain a boondoggle.  That is a no-brainer.

Two is security.  Folks cannot think and innovate, let alone sleep soundly at night, in a chaotic and unsafe milieu.  That means hunting down and obliterating Boko Haram brutal insurgency led by a vicious numskull seeking to establish an Islamic fiefdom rooted in Hisbah.

Three, providing employment for the cascading crest of college graduates trooping out of universities and polytechnics littered all over the country must be tackled with a deep sense of urgency.  These young folks work hard to graduate with diplomas only to be left dangling aimlessly with absolutely nothing to do.

And four, corruption, the irrefutable Holy-Grail of Nigeria’s problems.  Nigeria has a thriving corruption factory where leaders, aka, looting corruptocrats, are able to pilfer from the public till with impunity.  That’s why, when they leave office, somehow these guys become instant billionaires, with no one able to account for the source(s) of their staggering wealth.  I just don’t see how the country can attain sustainable progress, certainly not at a pace caviling Nigerians expect, when a phalanx of white-collar evil ladrones continue to engage in mindboggling height of looting at the local, state and federal governments.  That selfish culture of pillaging the community coffer must stop.  The culprits must pay severely for their crimes with lengthy prison sentences.  The abysmal and feeble organs of government responsible for enforcing oversight, accountability and transparency of government officials and their activities must be dismantled, overhauled and then strengthened.  It’s easy to see that these are the bunyanesque albatross ravaging hopes, bedeviling development and dragging down the country where the ululations of millions of impoverished Nigerians manifest in epic misery often causing many to perish in apocalyptic squalor. 

Here is what a former Nigerian senator said about corruption in Nigeria:

“What has ruined us as a nation is corruption. The level of corruption is so bad that even your aides would be demanding money before people could see you. The situation is as bad as that,” said Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, who was also a former Minister of Education.

I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN BUHARI

Meanwhile, Buhari’s incredible anabasis to the throne of leadership in Nigeria reminds me of a lengthy phone parley, perhaps eight years ago, I had with a good friend of mine, Professor Ahmadu Baba-Singhri, who lives in Iowa and teaches sociology at Grand View University there.

The topic, as always, was the social and economic despair pummeling Nigeria, what to do about it and most importantly who among the phalanx of Nigerian politicians scrimmaging for power at that time was best suited to lead Nigeria effectively and efficiently.

I told him, and he completely agreed that Muhammad Buhari should be given a chance to govern Nigeria again.  We even briefly bounced around plan to form a group in the United States to urge and support Buhari to seek the presidency.  Since then, I never wavered in my profound conviction that he would do a great job as president.

I believed it then and I believe it even more now.

But why this steadfast faith in the former military leader? 

Well, three fundamental reasons:  One, during the two years or so Buhari ruled Nigeria as an Army General, he was for the most part very effective, which is rare in Nigeria.  That is not a hyperbole as most Nigerians would easily agree with that assessment.  I really don’t give a raccoon’s ass about those who get worked up and make a big deal about his austere and autocratic style when he was Head of State.  That kerfuffle is pure codswallop.  Heck, truth be told, tiff and chaos prone Nigerians needed an iron-hand to smack them into bus queues, and still do.

Two, Buhari, despite the smorgasbord of temptations all around him, even when he served as the petroleum minister, shunned the urge to milk the spoils of his plum job to enrich himself with pelf, perks and all other enticing elements of schandenfreude.  That is, he was not corrupt.  Again, most Nigerians would agree with that viewpoint.  Not being viewed as corrupt is a truckload of points in his favor.  But in contrast, some before him, and we all know who they are, cartwheeled out of Aso Rock in glee and guffaw having stashed lorryloads of wampum in an Archipelago of foreign banks, essentially ensconcing themselves and their families in filthy opulence for life.

And three, to me, Buhari spoke in a clamant panache that conveyed basic candor, welcoming humility, clarity of intentions and a dogged determination, almost heeding a divine call, to pursue his burning desire to serve his moribund country.  Bonhomie and a man of inveterate principle, Buhari never projected a slick demeanor, which is an attribute that vastly distinguishes him from a gaggle of other Nigerian politicians who often talk like used car sales hustlers.

A COUNTRY PLAGUED BY HISTORY OF WOEFUL LEADERS

Recent Nigerian leaders lacked these important attributes badly needed in Africa.  Jonathan was particularly effete, chronically clueless and ferociously awful.  He brought a museum of foibles to the presidency.  Boy, where do I start?  The guy was just a wonky and incoherent greenhorn, despite years in politics.  Jonathan was never really at ease being president.  Perhaps, he was never meant to be president.  There was also a furious volley of harsh broadside truculently lobbed at the former first lady Patience who was both a fitful character and a handful whiffle.  Pish.  Dame ‘battleax’ Patience was all over the map, annoyingly edgy, jaw-droppingly loud, startlingly bombastic and toweringly chaotic in demeanor.

In short, the Jonathan couple was a chaotic and piteous combo.  In the end, a gallimaufry of debilitating factors conspired to doom Jonathan’s reelection bid, notably his visible lack of presidential character, his dizzying height of incompetence, his haunting lack of eloquence, his staggering failure to address the bane of corruption in his government and perhaps the linchpin of it all, his disconcertingly cricket and mopey posture in the face of a brutally menacing and swaggering Boko Haram. 

FEAR OVER BUHARI’S PAST IS HOGWASH

As for the lingering hagridden among an increasingly dwindling cabal of cynical oafs about Buhari possibly going back to his heavy handed ways when he was Head of State, such laughable concern was manufactured as a desperate scare tactic by People Democratic Party (PDP) to slow down the roaring momentum of a surging All Progressives Party (APC).  It was profoundly foolish for anyone to think that, knowing that he was head of a military government that came to power through coup.  In short, fear that Buhari would not govern according to democratic dictates was a monumental claptrap, irrational, unhinged and a grand departure from candor; a mighty load of tosh tossed out there by PDP to distract Nigerians from the screaming incompetence of a dilettante Jonathan administration that not only failed to tame a vicious Abubakar Shekau and his vile Boko Haram fighters, but also brought Nigeria to a nadir, an unprecedented shame for depending on neighboring mercenaries from a triptych of much smaller nations of Chad, Niger and Cameroon to fight its battle against the terror group.