Another false start by Buhari – TheNigerialawyer

Azuka Onwuka

In 2015, it took President Muhammadu Buhari six months to
announce his ministers and as long as three years to name members
of different boards. He never even named the boards of some
agencies in the four years of his first term in office. For
example, the board of the Advertising Practitioners Council of
Nigeria (APCON) was never constituted throughout the four years of
his tenure.

In addition to the six months it took to form his cabinet from
the day he was inaugurated, the President also had the two months
between the March 28, 2015 election and the May 29, 2015
inauguration date. He was also lucky to be the first Nigerian
civilian president to win an election without his opponent
challenging his victory in court or criticising the process of his
election. So, he had the luxury of having the time to concentrate
on his plans for the nation right from the day he was declared the
winner of the election.

Those two months were enough for him to form his cabinet and
take off with zest on the day of his inauguration. To borrow the
cliché: He would have hit the ground running. Given the number of
times he contested elections and the passion he put to it, he was
expected to have attacked the issue of governance with dispatch
right from the date of his inauguration.

The excuse given by him for not utilising the pre-inauguration
two months as well as for taking six months to name his cabinet and
crucial government functionaries was that he needed to take his
time to get the best. Curiously, most of the people he named as
ministers were those who were already known and were even working
within his party in different forms. So it was surprising that it
took him that long to “search for” them. Ironically, even among
those ministers, two were found to have breached the constitutional
provision that before a person can take up any employment position,
that person must undertake the one-year national service of the
National Youth Service Corps scheme. One special adviser was found
to have forged his secondary school result with which he gained
admission into the university.

Even though the President has refused to acknowledge it, the
lateness in forming his cabinet affected his administration and the
country negatively. There was some uncertainty about the direction
of his administration because of the lack of a cabinet. Many
ministerial actions could not be taken early because there were no
ministers.

It was expected that in this second term, he would not repeat
the mistakes of the past by showing more eagerness to tackle the
problems of the nation, given that the nation has deteriorated
under his watch economy-wise and security-wise. Even though he has
blamed every negative thing that occurred in his administration on
his predecessors, that has not wished away those problems. Poverty
is increasing by the day; insecurity is worsening by the day. These
issues need to be solved or at least arrested to avoid further
descent.

From February 27 when he was declared the winner of the election
by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission,
Prof Mahmood Yakubu, Buhari had three months to form his cabinet.
That was long enough time for him to name all those who would work
for him in all sectors and capacity. However, his second term
kicked off on May 29 without any word on his cabinet. He has,
therefore, breached the constitution by using aides that were not
appointed officially. A lawyer has sued him for this breach.
Curiously, his inauguration took place without any speech to tell
the nation what his general plans are. The excuse was that his
speech would be delivered on June 12, which is the new Democracy
Day.

But Democracy Day is completely different from Inauguration Day.
The Inauguration Day is the official take-off of his second term of
four years. Democracy Day of June 12 is like the Independence Day
of October 1. Democracy Day and Independence Day have nothing to do
with the tenure of the President. Those dates are for speeches
about the importance of democracy and independence respectively.
Therefore, the Inauguration Day belongs to the President and the
governors who are sworn in on that day, while the Democracy Day and
Independence Day belong to the nation and the people.

The reaction of a man whose house is on fire and that of a man
whose roof is leaking can never be the same. When the man whose
house is on fire acts like the man whose roof is leaking, he is
saying that he either does not understand the gravity of the
situation or that he does not care about the house.

In June 2018, The World Poverty Clock showed that Nigeria had
become the country with the highest number of poor people in the
world, overtaking India whose population is seven times larger than
Nigeria’s. The report stated that 86.9 million Nigerians living in
extreme poverty. But the matter did not stop there. The report said
that every six minutes, one Nigeria would go into extreme poverty.
Consequently, by the end of 2018, a total of 90.8 million Nigerians
were in extreme poverty.

Last week, The Economist stated that 94 million Nigerians live
in extreme poverty. Noting that unemployment rate stood at 23 per
cent, having grown for 15 consecutive quarters, the paper said:
“The Nigerian economy is stuck like a stranded truck. Average
incomes have been falling for four years; the IMF thinks they will
rise for at least another six.”

In addition, the security challenge from Boko Haram that was
restricted mainly in the North-East has spiralled to the North-West
and North-Central, with an upsurge in the activities of killer
herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers. Sadly, the security agencies seem
helpless and overwhelmed.

In addition, even though Buhari has been trying to revamp the
infrastructure, the infrastructure across the country has been
deteriorating at a faster rate than the speed at which it is
attended to. For example, in 2013 when the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
was inaugurated by Dr Goodluck Jonathan, the plan was that Julius
Berger and RCC, the construction companies handling the two
sections of the 130-kilometre road, would complete it in four years
(2017). This is 2019, yet the road is not anywhere near
completion.

Over the decades, it has been the same story: while a new
administration is reconstructing a road somewhere, dozens of other
roads are dilapidating and forgotten; and while a hospital or
university is being revamped, dozens of other hospitals and
universities are falling apart or even virtually abandoned. It,
therefore, becomes a vicious cycle that ensures that much of the
federal infrastructure is always in terrible condition across the
country.

Given this emergency situation in Nigeria, one would have
expected that issues related to governance would be treated with
some fervour, to see how much ground that can be covered. When a
man has an old car for a long trip, he leaves home much earlier
than those with brand-new cars. He knows that his car will not move
as fast as the new ones and may experience technical hitches on the
way, especially when stuck in a traffic jam. By leaving much
earlier, he gives room for all these, and subsequently gets to his
destination in good time. That is the case of Nigeria. But it is
disappointing that after spending four years in office, President
Buhari does not still realise this.

—Twitter @BrandAzuka

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