Today is the eighteenth day since the inauguration of President
Muhammadu Buhari. After all the fanfare, merrymaking, presidential
dinners and congratulatory messages, it appears our president is yet to
resume duty. For two weeks and four days Nigerians are yet to understand
where the new administration is heading. As a matter of fact, not a few
Nigerians are of the opinion that we do not have any leadership in
place yet.
For well over two weeks all we have heard are tales of our
president visiting various countries for reasons not yet clear, other
than the wish list he was asked to submit by and to his 'seniors'; all
we have seen are pictures of him enjoying the comfort of the
presidential jets, pictures with other heads of states and governments.
Even the vice president has been so bored that he had time to call a
meeting(meant to settle the national assembly power tussle) of various
APC factions. The duo have become like the notorious Marie Antionette,
who offered her people cake when they needed bread. So lost is the
present administration that it presents Nigerians with pictures and
continuous talk, when ALL the people demand is action.
For a man
who had spent twelve years seeking to be Nigeria's president, it is
indeed shocking that he appears totally bereft of the moves to make
since assuming office. It would not be wrong if anyone should assume
then, that perhaps he had succeeded in his first presidential quest, the
'snail speed' movement we are experiencing now, would be worse. With
all the noise about "hitting the ground running from day one", all we
have seen is a president who has hit the ground crawling instead - in
the process earning himself the nickname 'crawling president'. After two weeks of not making any significant appointment/s,
yet traveling around the world with people without portfolios - spending
tax payers money on private citizens for reasons only he(the president)
can explain. His senior special assistant on media and publicity(Garba
Shehu) has found a way of shifting blame; "the president did say he
would hit the ground running, but he has NOT BEEN GIVEN THE CHANCE
to hit the ground running". As childish and unbelievable as the above
comment is, the 'good' thing about it, is that even the president's man
acknowledges that his boss is snoring on duty and urgently needs to wake
up to the reality that Nigerians don't have time to waste looking to an
absentee leader. Perhaps one is to take Mr Shehu serious, who are the
people he refers to? How powerful are they that they can prevent the
president from keeping to his words? How many are they to effectively
hinder a man voted in by over 15 million people? Does the president have
an antidote to these hindrances or is this the same story we will hear
for four years? Is this part of the gimmick to hide incompetence?
After-all a governor(whose state the president's party called a model
state) accused the immediate past administration of withholding funds
meant for his workers salary, with the truth now bare before our eyes,
it is obvious his excellency lied. Time will tell if Mr Shehu's
explanation is "bobo gist", as I believe it is. Besides the president
also told us he belongs to nobody, was he also lying? I am sure majority
of Nigerians want to know what these encumbrances are.
Whatever
the explanations the president and his team have for us, is meaningless;
not when he told us he was prepared for the job. It is unthinkable that
almost three weeks after, PMS is still being sold for N120, Nigerians
are still dying daily (in hundreds) from the hands of 'fulani herdsmen', that
modalities have not been put in place to begin the free school meals
program, nor have we heard of any policy meant to ensure N1 = $1,
neither have names of jobless graduates been compiled for the monthly
stipend promised. Many have argued that it is still early days, but then if the
president is finding it so difficult to handle elementary issues, it
means issues like fighting corruption(as we already have noticed),
reviving/building new refineries etc had better be totally forgotten.
It
is time the president sits up to deliver on the many promises he
WILLINGLY made to Nigerians. Mr President, the holiday should be offer
by now, either you resume fully or inform us in time to give up on your
administration.
Enenim Ubon tweets from @EnenimUbon
