Unarguably, one month is too short a time to either assess or appraise a tenure that has a four-year life span. But given the peculiarity of the terrible situation we find ourselves as a nation and people, it is justifiably imperative for us to know how this current government has fared in the last one month in her bid to fix a pathetically wounded, mercilessly ruined, callously raped, wickedly battered and dangerously shattered nation. It is all together a needless exercise to continue to dwell on the hell Nigerians went through in the last sixteen, with particular reference to the last six years of President Jonathan’s disastrous outing in the Aso Villa.
I’ve read loads of commentaries both for and against President Muhammadu Buhari’s first 30 days in the saddle as Nigeria’s democratically elected President. Expectedly, the assessors were sharply divided in their arguments. While those who feel the man PMB, given his enviable track record and startling leadership attributes has what it takes to halt Nigeria’s journey to Armageddon, his critics, largely characters who traded all they had to secure a second term for President Jonathan, are of the narrow view that PMB has ‘hit the ground crashing’ instead of running! You really need to log on to any of the social media sites to feel the ‘heat’ coming from the anti-PMB camp.
You engage them at your own peril. The characters are battle-ready to tear any Pro-PMB element into shred. All they do is to decimate serially the personality of PMB. Like headless chicken, they are directionless in their attack, puerile in thinking and irritatingly pedestrian in their submission. A number of my friends have actually sought to know my views on PMB’s first 30 days in office. While some were courteous enough to simply ask questions and wait for my response, the very complicated ones summarily concluded that, being a supporter of PMB, they ‘know’ and are certain what my response would be. This second category of individuals is part of the hydra-headed situation confronting Nigeria now. In their warped thinking, God has ‘blessed’ them with super brains and extraordinary powers to read people’s mindset and physical disposition. Such elements are unimportant.
They just want you to toe their unenviable path of talking before thinking, criticizing without reasoning, condemning before trial! That President Muhammadu Buhari has enviably raised the bar of leadership is to restate the obvious. This is one single truth that these characters are scared of being confronted with. You really do not require some deep reflections to conclude that PMB has halted Nigeria’s drift to apocalypse. They often ask; where are his achievements? Has anything changed? Where is this? Where is that? My simple response to them is; ‘remove the veil of vendetta off your face and yea shall see clearly’! Simple! To begin with, PMB’s insistence to carefully select, scrutinize and assemble a team of competent, capable and very patriotic individuals that would assist him in steering the ship of state is seen by his opponents as a huge minus! They all want him to adopt the ‘old order’ of blindly picking and assigning ministerial portfolios to characters whose understanding of being in power is simply to amass wealth and nothing more. All they want to see is that a cabinet is formed. Clearly, this is a path that the Buhari administration isn’t ready to toe. But the question is; is there any vacuum created by PMB’s ‘delay’ not to hurriedly appoint ministers?
The answer is simply NO. As I have argued elsewhere, with the calibre of competent and hardworking permanent secretaries, directors and heads of government parastatals spearheading Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), we can conveniently run Nigeria without Ministers. Should PMB decide to run his government without ministers, he gets my 100 percent support. It is simply about service delivery. Ministers are mere political appendages. Even when appointed, they rely heavily on the expertise, managerial and administrative acumen of senior civil servants like Permanent Secretaries, Executive Secretaries and ranking Directors to function effectively. Without a cabinet in place, fuel queues disappeared from major streets and roads across Nigeria in days. Without ministers, the respected G-7 member countries invited President Buhari to be part of her meeting. Without a cabinet in place, civil servants now report to work promptly. Without ministers, Nigeria is retaking her pride of place in the comity of global powers. Without ministers, President Barack Obama has invited PMB for talks later in the month. Without a cabinet, he has been holding serious meetings with heads of security agencies.
Lastly, without ministers, President Buhari addressed and chaired an African Union Security session to the admiration of member countries! So, why the noise or fuss about absence of ministers? I’ve been patiently waiting for PMB’s critics to furnish us with their own definition and understanding of the phrase “Hit the Ground Running”. I sincerely doubt if these people really have a fair knowledge of what the phrase is all about.
They expected PMB, like Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state, to vindictively embark on sacking spree as well as break into the homes of immediate past top government functionaries to ‘recover’ government properties. PMB is a perfect gentleman. He’s too refined a democrat to adopt very crude, wicked and dictatorial approach in dealing with his fellow compatriots and women or those perceived as his ‘enemies’. They had expected him to immediately sack, arrest and detain top functionaries who served in the last administration. He didn’t only disappoint them by maintaining the status quo; he’s refused to reverse most of the last minute appointments made by President Jonathan, at least for now. PMB won’t adopt their own definition of “Hit the Ground Running”. It is high time these elements embraced the reality that stares them in the face- it’s no longer going to be business as usual. It’s a complete departure from the ‘old order’. Nigeria has moved on. Government is a continuum. Understandably, having been so used to executing government businesses via needless committees, supporters of GEJ expected PMB to inherit such an awkward tradition.
Time was when committees are set up to carry out assignments that require mere pronouncement or written directive by the President. Just yesterday, he inaugurated the National Economic Council headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Yet they insist he hasn’t “hit the ground running’. While inaugurating the NEC, President Buhari ordered heads of all revenue generating bodies to forward henceforth their collections to the consolidated revenue account! This, without doubt is to end the era of diverting government funds into personal accounts. People, President Muhammadu Buhari has not only “hit the ground running, but has since hit the ground flying”. Remember, change is CONSTANT, not INSTANT.
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