After one year since President Muhammadu Buhari came into office, most Nigerians are divided on whether or not to roll out the drums of celebration or just be silent and continue to watch how things pan out.
One thing is certain; most Nigerians are eternal optimists. We still believe and have hope in promises. Like the popular parlance in Nigeria, “one-day things go better”. Government officials tell us to bear with them that Nigeria will be better. But do we have a choice? At least, not before 2019. We are stuck with them and have no option but to bear with them. President Buhari’s government started out like his predecessor’s,
enjoying so much goodwill from the people. But most of this is now lost. One year on, a lot of Nigerians are bitter and hard pressed under the harsh economic reality staring them in the face. You can feel the frustration when they hear how much was looted by government officials from the previous government. It started out like a closure
when they hear so and so past official has been arrested and money retrieved as they await trial. Now, it is beginning to feel like just another story. The drama is gone as things have refused to turn up the scale, translating to the tangible improvements in living conditions for Nigerians.
You see, it has been from one interesting drama to another at the presidential villa and by extension Nigeria. Like life, sometimes it is sweet and at other times bitter.
First, the president’s frequent travels was an issue, then there was the impasse between the security agencies over whose officers man what part of the villa. Let us take a short walk down the memory lane.
In one year, the presidential villa has played host to pastors, traditional rulers, and visiting presidents. Most notable were those from two opposite generations, many years younger and a few months or years older than our septuagenarian president. Your guess is right.
One of the youngest world leaders and head of government, the charismatic and `swaggerlicious’ Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, visited the presidential villa. It was quite a father and son-like show. Conversely, one of the longest-serving presidents on the continent, Paul Biya, also came visiting. He has held power for 34 years.
The Scottish bagpiper-band was reintroduced, first, to welcome the president from one of his foreign trips much to the consternation of Nigerians who thought there was no need to bring in a foreign pump to Nigerian parades or official band, then into the regular band that welcomes other presidents.
Lest I forget, the one year in review started out with the “body language” cliche. Everyone was watching out for the president’s body language on different issues. Nigerians learnt to watch the president’s body language while at home and wait for him to speak when he is abroad and break news on important national issues.
Then came the budget debacle. First, it went missing. Then it resurfaced, with the new attachment called padding. Recall the President’s remarks, how that he’d never heard the words “budget padding’’ throughout all his incarnation in government.
This particular drama took the longest to drop the curtains. It was one of Buhari’s most embarrassing moments. When ministers who had gone to defend their budget, got wowed by the new figures allotted to them. Some out-rightly rejected their budgets, claiming the document was not what was submitted during the president’s budget presentation to lawmakers on December 22 and had offered to re-do it.
Nigerians had heaved a sigh of relief when the National Assembly finally passed the budget thinking this was the end, but it wasn’t. Many more dramas am sure you remember, played out. When the details were finally submitted to the president and he went through it with his team, there were more paddings. Then started another battle of fixes. Thankfully, all that is over now.
A delight to journalists anytime he comes calling, President, Olusegun Obasanjo visited the villa a record number of times during this period, obviously to advice to President Buhari.
A pain in the neck for this government has been Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State. This man is loquacious and audacious too. He seemed to have an eye on the president’s every move and criticising him all the way. Well, coming into the villa during the National Economic Council retreat, Fayose granted an interview where he dared the president to call a state of emergency in his state.
I don’t know how, but he seems to have gone a bit quiet now, maybe with the problems of having to raise money to pay his staff salaries.
Do you also remember that book on beauty written by the president’s wife? The Essentials of Beauty Therapy. Coincidentally launched on a day that marked the second anniversary of the abduction of the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls. Good that one of the girls have been recovered, though brought back home a traumatized nursing mother. I hope and pray for the return of the other girls.
The proceeds from the sale of the book were to be given to parents of the girls and the slain Buni Yadi boys. But Nigerians had thought it a tad insensitive that while the #BringBackOurGirls group and some parents wailed at the gate of Aso Rock, a cream-de-la-cream of society held a launch just inside the walls dividing them.
Then came the biting fuel scarcity and all the razzmatazz that went it. I told you of how some men had to tie mosquito nets around their cars while they queued through the night for fuel. Nigerians sure have a way of making things light and getting through them. Thankfully that too is gone, though we now have to battle with rising prices as petrol pump price increased.
We also saw the president’s chess moves in handling the crisis that had erupted after the increase in petrol pump price. His handling of the planned strike and negotiations by the organised labour in the country, speaks volume. Perhaps President Goodluck Jonathan should have borrowed this page. Or maybe not.
Nigerians have also had to bear the grief caused by the herdsmen attacks in Benue and Enugu states.
Well, it was not all grief.
The Federal Executive Council reduced its meetings to once a month, or at least that’s what it seems. In truth, the cabinet meetings are now so irregular; the best way to ascertain their frequency is to calculate a simple average since the cabinet was inaugurated last year. And that comes to about once a month. This council has been interesting to watch, with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation as the class monitor, bullying ministers to submission (pun intended). He is a sharp contrast to the very amiable and cerebral Omobola Johnson who was the monitor during the last administration.
The SGF sure knows how to get the ministers’ attention without ringing a bell. Remember when he called them analogue ministers? Well, they have upgraded to using digital gadgets now.
And now, back to present day reality, Nigeria is in dire need of help to keep it from taking the bend. With the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta and the economy floundering and dithering on the edge of a recession, we wait to hear the president’s plans for the next year and hopefully things will get better. In Nigeria, we are all believers in that school of thought.
Elizabeth Archibong
