President Buhari and the Nigerians He Doesn't Know

If Nigerian Politicians are guilty of corruption, Nigerian Civil Servants are the worst. They invented Budget Padding until they were ousted about a year ago. They perfected the act of Repetitive Capital Expenditures (CapEx). In other words, in every Budgetary Allocation in Nigeria, there is always funding for the same project or expenditure that enjoyed massive funding the previous year and the year before.

Let's break it down!

You allocated about Two Hundred Million Naira for the procurement of Computers and accessories in 2012 for use at the Department of Squandering and Embezzlement. The Following year, 2013, you budgeted Two Hundred and Eighty Million, and progressively in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Where are the Computers? No one is giving an account regarding the disbursement of the budgeted funds and how they were utilised.

I am not saying anything new or propounding a novel theory in public policy here. You and I, and most Nigerians, are aware of this ugly trend in our public offices. But the question remains, how come no administration has been able to stem the tide of Padding of Budget and Repetitive Capital Expenditures? Must it be about Preparedness or Motivations in Power?

You could say, President Obasanjo was not ready - he was imposed on us to assuage the Yoruba for the derailment of Abiola's mandate by the Northern Military Power Elite. But he ran again successfully for a second term and was about to do it the third time until he was stopped. Therefore, you cannot accord President Obasanjo any consolation prize or cut him some slack for lack of preparedness. Simply put, there is no excuse for his inability to rein in our Civil servants and bundle the culprits to prison without trial.

Concerning President Jonathan; you could argue that his emergence was an accident of history - he was just a loyal Deputy Governor of a non-viable state in the Niger Delta. But he spent five years at the helm of affairs. How come he didn't learn on the job? No Excuse. He, like President Obasanjo, was a huge disappointment in subduing our recalcitrant civil servants.

How about the current President - Mr. Buhari? In the history of the creation of Nigeria, arguably, he ran the most times before he was elected the President of Nigeria. Therefore, to say he wasn't prepared is an abuse of discretion and abuse of one's sense of justice.

He was prepared in 1984, and beyond and now. If that is taken as a matter of fact, can you see a reflection of that preparedness in the war against abuse of process in the Civil Service or at the National Assembly or at his own Presidency? The answer is a capital NO. Again, of all Nigerians who have shown interest in the office of the President, he is the one most often touted as the crime-fighting Czar. The question then remains? How come Nigerians are not seeing the rewards of that CRIME-FIGHTING attribute?

Let's do a Little Analysis on Recruitment

Like President Jonathan, President Buhari suffers familiarity deficit with Nigerians, except for his Military peers and Kano and Katsina-based friends and family members with whom he had worked in the past. That was where Military President IBB had an edge over all of them. He was never afraid or intimidated by the academic prowess of the likes of Professor Aboyade, Kalu Ndika Kalu, Justice Akinola Aguda, and, not to be left out, the brain behind the Imo Formula. They succeeded in expanding the economy and orchestrated a blueprint for a political transition from Military to Civil rule before the process was truncated by some timid guys in Military uniforms.

President Obasanjo was in the same category as President Buhari is right now. But Baba had a saviour in the person of Vice President Atiku. This man (his Vice President) had a one-of-a-kind knack for identifying and co-opting talented technocrats into his fold.

Unfortunately, I am not so sure that Vice President Osinbajo has the level of influence in Buhari's Administration in the category of the high-profile status that Vice President Atiku commanded under Baba.

That is, by the way. What am I saying, President Buhari, sorry to say, is an alien in his country today. He has no knowledge of the emerging technocrats in the polity. To complicate the matter, he is not detribalized like IBB. Also, he doesn't see any void and seemingly does not perceive the existence of vacuums in his administration. The most painful part is that, like most political leaders, he is not aware of his inadequacy in identifying and picking quality candidates to fill the vacancies. That's the main reason the so-called CABAL are reigning supreme inside the Aso Rock Villa today – a self-proclaimed indispensable bunch who know the inadequacy of their President but continue to exploit it to their advantage. A National tragedy of immense proportions.

In an answer to a question following the lopsidedness in the selection of his senior staff members after his inauguration, the President told Nigerians that he selected them based on trust. Nigerians did not take him seriously. He was simply being frank with us. These are the people he knows and has been working with - the same people his wife was to later grieve about in public. And these are the people behind the Crown.

The President did not stop there; he went ahead to select or pick his Ministers unilaterally, turning his back on the progressive forces that incubated his APC. It is the same story at NNPC and our own Central Bank. The celebrations of nepotism have never been so openly displayed in the history of this country.

So, if President Buhari is to succeed as President, if President Buhari is not going to go down in history like those Presidents before him (whether Military or Civilian) who never stop to assure Nigerians of their goals to eradicate corruption, and stem the tide of squandering of our riches in the public sector, it is time to do an audit/performance review of the men and women his administration has appointed or employed (the Police, ICPC, EFCC, Ministry of Justice, Senior Advisers, etc.) to battle corruption in high places.

So far, so good, it is apt to say: it is déjà javu all over again. This administration is not winning the war against corruption. The focus shouldn't be on political opponents; it should be all-embracing, no matter the tribe, region, faith system, political affiliation, or the branch of government.

A Sober Reflection on True Leadership

The great Americans who built the only God's Own Country on earth today did not achieve that overnight. It was painstaking, consistent, unrelenting, gruesome, but filled with hope for a better future. They were men with enormous visions; imbued with an attitude of faith, of selflessness, grace, and propelled by the candid thought of, yes indeed, we are God’s Own Children and in Him We Trust. In Nigeria, we have men - great men, but we don't have leaders - real leaders.

Leadership comes with enormous challenges, and the learning process is highly demanding. It is not about age, it is about your willingness and ability to embrace changes, including social media and its wahala. President Buhari doesn’t come across as a father figure, and that is why the Kanus, the Arewa Youths, and sundry Militants are little gods in their kingdoms. 

You cannot be lax in the war against corruption and expect to find peace if you stultify the demands for Restructuring. That’s two strikes right against you. You must be seen as a genuine warrior against financial fraud and nepotism; otherwise, the demands for Restructuring will never end. 

I have said this before, and I will continue to say it. Nigerians do not need an Emperor; we need a leader. As long as the Cabal and the Presidency continue to defer to President Buhari in the image and likeness of an Emperor, grounding the Presidential Jet for months at Heathrow Airport, without explanation, is beyond the pale. With his inner circle remaining intact, I'm afraid to say, he won't be able to take us to the promised land. It is not about his age. It is not about his health or ill-health. It is about his resistance to change and the greed and sycophancy of the stooges around him. 

Today, Nigerian brand of Evangelism is taking the whole world by storm, ritualists/kidnappers are having a field day, killing and maiming for ransoms, and Herdsmen are appropriating farm lands, killing and raping innocent women with bestiality and butchering helpless farmers with enthusiastic abandon. You cannot separate the three or four trending occurrences from the failure of leadership. Yes, they are the offshoot of disappearing leadership. 

Evangelists are enjoying a massive boom in membership drives because Nigerians do not know where to direct their grief, their pains, and their hope. Ritualists are trading on human parts fearlessly, and Kidnappers are becoming more daring and deadly in their acts in the human trade.  And the Herders are now the law unto themselves – untouchable and invading villages and towns, ravaging them with brutal alacrity, vanishing into the thin air like scenes from movies. And no father figure on the scene with his credibility intact to speak and appease the conscience of the Nigerian man. If corruption remains unchecked and true federalism is jettisoned, watch out for the unknown. We cannot continue to do the same thing the same way all over again and expect drastic change.

Mr. Alex Aidaghese is a concerned Nigerian