By Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa
[dropcap]L[/dropcap]et me start by stating that political parties in Nigeria have no perceptible ideological divide. I expressed my views on this in a previous piece on platform mobility. The political parties exist in fulfillment of constitutional requirement as the only organ that can sponsor candidates for elections in Nigeria.
They are barely able to control their elected officers and depend on government and a few moguls to fund their activities. As a consequence, political successes are predicated on the capacity and character of individual actors in Nigeria.
Let me make certain positions clear before going further:
I have nothing against the age of president Buhari or that of former vice-president Atiku.
I am not sure there is a problem with the age of any legally qualified person as long as such a person is mentally and physically fit enough to hold office.
I do not hold any of them in contempt. I supported President Buhari’s government until recent events in the policy cycle.
President Buhari was a former military head of State and once presided over Nigeria’s oil sector. With the benefit of such background, he had more than enough exposure to rule Nigeria from day one upon his election in 2015.
In addition, he had the benefit of running for office three times before he won on the fourth attempt if I am correct. In other words, he had nearly 16 years to prepare to be president. Against this background, much was expected from him in the area of policy making, implementation and monitoring.
Many also expected that he would have been comfortably abreast with the economic and socio-political dynamics of our country. From the evidence on ground, he doesn’t appear to have measured up, even half way, with the broad expectations of the Nigerian people who voted massively for him.
I will deal with a few areas briefly, due to need to promote brevity for want of time.
SECURITY & WELFARE
Section 14 (1) (b) of the Constitution provides that our country shall be a state founded on democracy and social justice with the security and welfare of the people being the primary purpose of government.
Can we say that this obligation is being met under this regime?
I do not think so. This regime was voted in as a corrective one, not a story telling one. The public was aware of the problem with Nigeria before mandating this regime to do the needful. This is the basis upon which a logical assessment can be done.
It is conceded that some meaningful work has been done in the war against Boko Haram but the events of the group lately question the efficacy of the methodology adopted in this fight.
With hundreds continuing to die innocently in the hands of this group, this campaign cannot be regarded as durably successful. An approach review is a desideratum.
Whatever the gains of government in the Boko Haram efforts, they lost it with Fulani herdsmen. Buhari is the best placed person to deal with this menace. Apart from his office, he is Fulani himself. Yet he is unable to summon the courage to call his brethren to order.
He cannot even set up a national commission to find lasting solution to this threat to Peace nation-wide. How can a group of people move around with so much illegal weapon and kill men and women on the slightest provocation?
Why should a group of people kill freely nation-wide without remorse or fear of the law? The herdsmen obstinacy is an impetus of the Buhari regime. It was a scanty and localized threat before then. This is a major dent to the image of the regime.
I need not tell anyone about the spirally geometric increase in kidnapping, armed robbery, human trafficking and ritualism nation-wide. These crimes have always been around. The dimension that they have assumed smacks of official complicity by law enforcement agents.
Coming from a regime like this, it is a let-down. Imagine the number of lives that have been lost to perpetrators of this crime unchallenged. These are products of institutional failure for which no one else but, Buhari should take the blame.
Today, many live in fear and suspicion. Life is no longer sacred. It is daily illegally terminated. Just like a discarded piece of toilet paper. Most of the victims are from the masses who are ironically the center of Buhari’s rise to power.
There seem to be no end to this crisis as it is closely connected to the social order. With more than three million dislocated from the Labor market and more Libyan refugees coming back home, we would need a miracle not to witness a further increase in this direction.
With the type of police we still have, we may need serious fasting to avert a complete breakdown of law and order. Nothing has been done about the police. We all know this.
When Buhari came, the police pretended for a few weeks and on seeing that he was not as capable as they thought, they are back in full swing. They are three times worse than they were before Buhari. Ask the public about this.
ECONOMY
YES, we are in a recession. It may be true that previous regimes did not do certain things correctly but there was a promise to do it right by Buhari. Did he get it right?
He took 6 months to appoint about average ministers, prohibited the operation of domiciliary accounts and that pushed the dollar underground in a free world order.
What did he expect? He got a bloody nose. Of course his poor communication skill pushed oil production down in the Niger-Delta due to increased Militant activities, until regional leaders intervened.
While this was on, government lost revenue and recession crept in. It is correct that oil prices dropped and there was additional loss of revenue, but the choice of his cabinet did not help matters.
A regime, whose leader so much chastised his predecessor in office, ended up retaining many arrow heads of that regime and from the same political party that President Buhari discredited.
It was clear evidence of a huge deficit in talent hunting and a demonstration of the act of double speaking.
The perception held by many international rating agencies of the economic policies of President Buhari, is one of policy epilepsy and therefore hardly would recommend our economy to foreign investors.
From a promise of creating three million jobs or so, this government has caused the loss of about the same figure of jobs due to lack of more creative ways of growing the economy.
For example, limiting most categories of official cars to INNOSON cars alone would have created a boom in the auto industry and encouraged more people to invest there. Instead, billions of Naira are wasted on land cruisers, Lexus and Prado jeeps, etc., for all sorts of public officers even during a recession. I will leave this alone for now.
INDISCIPLINE
It is not difficult to understand why there is so much policy failure by this regime. Just figure out the following:
SSS stops Buhari’s nominee for EFCC chair in the senate and nothing happens.
Minister of Petroleum fights NNPC’s GMD in public over insubordination and non-compliance with due process.
HOS accuses HON. AG of complicity in reinstatement of Maina. The same AG meets Maina in Dubai at a time when he was on the wanted list of criminals.
IGP maintains that he has the right to engage in romance with female police officers.
Opulent living style by many government officers during a recession that has led to the death of many and dislocation of many more.
I would reserve my comments on the anti-corruption campaign, if indeed there is one for another write up. In my part two of this series, I will deal with Atiku and his ATIKULATION.
Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa is a Lawyer and former member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives (1999-2011).
