5 Mistakes Buhari Should Not Repeat In His 2nd Term | Nairalaw

By Jude Egbas

President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) defeated Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) to win the February 23, 2019 presidential election.

Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes to beat Atiku who polled
11,262,978 votes.

Buhari won the presidential election with a victory margin of
3,928,869.

As Buhari and the APC prepare for their inauguration for a
second term in office, here are a couple of mistakes the president
shouldn’t repeat in the next four years if he intends to leave a
lasting legacy for Nigerians.

1…Dear Buhari, don’t take forever to assemble a
cabinet
Elected President in March of 2015, Buhari infamously took six
months to name and assemble a team to work with.

It would prove a costly decision and move.

The nation slipped into a recession, the Naira weakened
disastrously against the dollar, millions of jobs were lost,
businesses shuttered shops, insecurity deepened in the northeast
and north central regions and investors fled Nigeria in droves as
they sought signals and confidence boosters from the new
president.

Nigeria is yet to recover from those six months of inertia,
lethargy and dithering from Buhari.

The president loves to crack jokes about earning the “Baba Go
Slow” nickname from Nigerians after a painfully slow start, but the
last thing this nation needs at the moment is a leader who moves at
snail speed. Nigeria just can’t afford that kind of glacial speed
any longer.

As he sets out his stall for a second term on the saddle, Buhari
should already have a team in place to hit the ground running from
Day One. Anything less would be bad for everyone.

2…The 2019 cabinet requires some fresh blood and
ideas
Buhari took forever to name his cabinet, but largely made the wrong
choices in the end.

The 2015 cabinet brims with deadwoods and persons who only found
their way to Abuja because their political party owed them a debt
of gratitude for delivering their states to Buhari during the
elections.

Worse, Buhari didn’t deem it fit to reshuffle a cabinet that was
clearly not delivering on his myriad campaign promises.

The president now has a responsibility to invite younger,
smarter technocrats into his team, more so because he doesn’t need
to repay political debts in order to secure another term in
office.

If 2015 to 2019 was about cleaning up the mess and laying a
solid foundation for Team Buhari, 2019—2023 should be about
actually delivering on campaign promises and providing badly needed
infrastructure.

Only a handful of members of the 2015 cabinet deserve to stay a
day longer on their jobs after the May 29, 2019 inauguration day.
The rest should be speedily fired.

3…Unite, not divide the country
The president has been accused of nepotism, lopsidedness in
government appointments and clannishness on numerous occasions; and
justifiably so.

During one of his first public interactions after winning the
2015 election, Buhari announced that those who handed him only 5
percent of his votes should not expect to be treated the same as
those who gave him 97 percent of his total vote haul (referring to
his own northern base).

The Southeast and South-South regions, which handed the
president negligible vote percentages in the 2015 election, saw
Buhari’s Washington comments as proof that the newly elected
president had made up his mind not to treat everyone equally.

Buhari could not shake off a reputation for tribalism and
divisiveness during his first term.

He has to be the leader that unites, the leader who strives for
inclusiveness in his administration, during what promises to be an
interesting second term.

Every region of Nigeria has got to have a sense of belonging
under Buhari

4..Banish the cabal from Aso Rock, Mr.
President
Buhari was allegedly beholden to a cabal during his first four
years.

Things got so bad that even his own wife, Aisha, announced to
the world that a small clique of persons had taken over the running
of her husband’s administration.

Securing a constitutionally permissible second term should hand
Buhari plenty leverage to take ownership of his own government and
do right by Nigerians.

Buhari now has a once in a lifetime opportunity to banish the
politicians and the coterie of vested interests who never mean well
for their country.

5…Speak to the local press a lot more
It took the period of the electioneering campaign for Buhari to
directly engage the local media after his 2015 media chat.

For most of his first term, Buhari only announced policy
proposals when outside the country’s shores.

It was a tactic that backfired, as the presidency made more
enemies from within the ranks of the local press, while finding it
doubly difficult relaying its objectives and achievements to an
increasingly skeptical populace.

Buhari has to do better between 2019 and
2023.

Quarterly media chats, town halls and press conferences should
be a must for Team Buhari in his second term. Anything less could
further leave a wedge between the administration and the
populace.