Buhari: The Awaited Messiah - By Bala Yahaya

Nigeria has over the years witnessed a lot of political instability which no doubt, contributed to its economic backwardness.  The country’s problem is certainly not of lack of resources but of managing them.  This is because, the Almighty in his wisdom, has endowed the country with abundant natural and human resources; talk of black gold, limestone, coal, gas, arable land, population, favourable climatic conditions, etc.  When one takes cognisance of all these natural endowments, he finds it difficult to understand why 42 years after independence; Nigeria is still a dwarf in the realm of economically tall nations.

The major problem with this country is clearly that of lack of purposeful leadership that could adequately utilise the nation’s potentialities and launch it to its rightful position in the comity of nations.  This belief stems from the fact that the selfless leadership styles exhibited by Nigeria’s early post-independence leaders saw to the putting up of viable structures such as higher educational institutions, parastatals, hospitals among many others.  It was an era when leaders saw themselves as leaders and not rulers of conquered territories.  They were so selfless that some of them even died without owning houses of their own in spite of being in power for some years.

Closely following this era, was the era of the earlier military incursions into politics.  This brought about a period of economic mismanagement and political maladministration.  The nation was able to absorb the shock of inefficient leadership at that point in time because of unprecedented enhanced national income occasioned by the oil boom.   The nation was fortunate enough to later have a new military administration led by General Murtala Muhammed of blessed memory who was able to, in unequivocal terms, make the point that with a purposeful and visionary leadership, Nigeria could be a truly independent nation that could define its priorities and take its destiny into its hands without succumbing to the whims and caprices of neo-colonialists. Unfortunately the administration was short-lived. The end result of this was that Nigeria continued to suffer from leadership crisis, which extended far into the civilian regime of 1979-83, a period that was characterised by colossal acts of high level corruption, crippling political violence, gross financial indiscipline, political assassinations among many other vices.

   
Amidst the storm came a messiah in the person of General Muhammadu Buhari whose leadership style saw to the return of sanity and culture of discipline in our society.  For the first time in many years, the monster of corruption was ably tamed, the queue culture was restored, environmental cleanliness became a way of life rather than a novelty, financial indiscipline, late coming, bribery and abuse of office by public office holders were effectively subdued, inflation was practically checked, crime rate significantly reduced and ultimately the country was once again put on the enviable track of self-reliance, economic recovery and enhanced national image. 

Unfortunately, like the Murtala/Obasanjo regime, this administration was also short-lived.  The gargantuan achievements and reconstruction efforts of the astute administration were gradually destroyed through successive years of military coups and political intrigues aimed solely at protecting the selfish interests of the perpetrators.

When therefore, the General Abdulsalam Abubakar-led regime took over the reigns of power after the demise of General Abacha and unveiled the shortest political transition programme ever in the history of Nigeria, expectations were high among Nigerians that democratic governance which has been acclaimed as the best form of governance was about to be enshrined and the country will once again breath the fresh air of freedom and enhanced standard of living.

However, four years after the entrenchment of democracy, Nigerians are yet to witness any significant difference in their standard of living.  Each time, the PDP led government talks about its economic achievements for the country, the common is always at a loss.  Perhaps one needs to have a Ph.D. in economics to really understand the way in which our economy has improved in the past four years.  The whole scenario became even more frustrating when people like Professor Sam Aluko, a world class economist declared that the Late Abacha was a better manager of the economy than OBJ.  OBJ in turn described the erudite scholar as being senile.  But senility or not, the fact remains that the old man has spoken his mind and by extension the minds of millions of Nigerian masses whose standard of living continue to fall by the day with attendant unfortunate effect of having to suffer starvation in the midst of abundance. 

One beauty of democracy however is that it always makes provision for a pay day – a day in which the masses will re-endorse a performing administration and reject a still-born one with the power of their votes.

Nigerians have a cause to thank God that General Buhari, with all his apathy towards partisan politics have answered the SOS calls of Nigerians to come and once again administer his efficacious  Buhariphenicol pill which will certainly cure Nigeria of its numerous ills.  Under Buhari, Nigeria shall witness a sincere anti-corruption crusade, which will deal decisively with any government official, ministry or government contractor found indulging in the act.  Buharism is certainly not the leadership style that will sack an Auditor General for publishing an audit report which every common man on the street know is true.  It is not the type of administration that will attempt to plant ethnocentric stooges in strategic government positions so as to cover its corruptive activities while pretending to be fighting corruption by merely chasing shadows.  It shall certainly not be the type of administration that will send troops to destroy innocent, unarmed civilians and raze down their villages on account of an offence many knew nothing about instead of using the machinery of government to fish out the guilty ones.  With Buhari in power, Nigeria’s sunrise is certainly in sight.