Nigeria has had several governments. Each of these were labelled or tagged by the leader of that day. So we had Gowon regime, Muritala, Obasanjo, Babangida, Abacha and lastly Abdulsalam regimes. These are all military generals and leaders. One would not expect anything less of these men.
A different twist though, it is for General Muhammed Buhari who, fate has favoured to be the current civilian president. In his time as HoS in 1983 - 1985, the administration was known as Buhari-Idiagbon regime!
This spoke, has spoken and still speaks volumes. For one, it is known widely and globally that General Tunde Idiagbon was the drive and strength of that administration. It also showed GMB as a led-leader.
Fast forward to 2017, twice he went on medical leave and on those occasions he wasn't sorely missed as the VP tended the nation well, to the amazement of many and angst of a few. This is not surprising as like the first shot at leadership, his deputy was the main man. On the second trip though, probably having seen the popularity garnered by the VP, boundaries were set for him.
On these occasions, not too many times did the citizenry hear from him. All that was heard were from his mouth-pieces. At best these were distorted and conflicting. With a tripartite combination of the information minister and media aides, the confusion and disconnect was rife. Perhaps it is a military strategy to never carry the citizenry along. A strategy this administration condemned the last one for.
In his first term as HoS, one of the first things the administration did was to change the Naira. A move aimed at the supposedly corrupt Nigerians and a strategy of war on corruption. In February 2016, a similar strategy was employed. This time round, it was to place restrictions on all foreign denominated accounts. For an import dependent country, this rocked the rather fragile economic boat with ripple effects of a dollar exchanging for almost five hundred Naira at the peak. Guess work that has thrown the nation into unnecessary hardship.
In the Daily Times news paper of Tuesday, 7 June 1977, the Commissioner for Petroleum, incidentally GMB, said "Fuel Crisis May Be Over Next Year". Forty years down the line, the same man is the Minister of Petroleum and the crisis is still there! There were tell tale signs that there would be crisis as far back as in November 2017 which saw a lot of panic buying and ques. By December the issue of PENGASSAN came up aggravating the matter. The crisis did not and has not reduced.
As usual, PMB only made a statement on Saturday, 24 December after outcries from the people. Recall that the same PMB condemned the suffering of the people when there was a similar crisis in the last administration. Ironically, we seem to be back to 1977 on at best, guess-promises.
On ascension of the highly exalted and coveted position of President, it took our dear president a little over six months to gather a cabinet. It is said that slow and steady wins the race, however, in this case, the race seem to have been lost even before it began. The members of FEC are not spirits and so why did it take that long to assemble? And don't we still have former governors and other government officials who have been accused of corruption appointed in this administration even after the long wait?
The administration, from all indications was not prepared for governance and so spent almost three years blaming and still blaming the last administration.
It is accepted globally that military men are trained to be leaders and for leadership. They are also taught to think upon their feet and be fleet on them. These have never been seen, not in the first term as HoS and certainly not now.
Incidentally, I didn't vote for either candidate in 2015, and the reasons are for another reading. So I am not holding fort for the last administration of GEJ. I am speaking, ye rather writing as a Nigerian with concerns, and rightly so.
MansaMusa has spoken!
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