PEOPLE THOUGHT BUHARI HAS FAILED . . .

Buhari is neither a failure nor a loser, but rather an incidental sacrificial lamb who was forced to choose between not acting patriotically in a call to serve, thereby saving his dignity and integrity forever; or acting, thereby exposing them to a cruel and an unforgiving test. Buhari answered and independently took the decision and chose to rule a non-reciprocating nation through an overwhelmingly muddled and ill-fated democratic procedure and institutions. With military background dominating the most active segment of his life, he justifiably rightly, but operationally wrongly decided to rule the only way he probably knew. The tactic was to fight every known and perceived enemy of the country to the point of surrender or vanquish.

Deliberately, he chose to tackle the most monstrous of those enemies, which he, for long had an outstanding score to settle with. The monster happened to be a cancerous ill, which like wildfire has engulfed the very matrix the nation was formed from. Corruption, an endemic incurable disease and a seemingly infinite cul-de-sac is proving to be an indomitable enemy capable of not only resisting the assault of the relentless, several times victorious and battle-hardened General; but also fighting back with equal, or even superior arsenal and determination.

The fight is made tougher for the now old, outwardly strong but inwardly meek president by the composition of the entity he is trying to redeem. Like a pathetic doctor attending to an unwilling patient, Buhari is made to rule over the following categories of citizens;

1. A predominantly ignorant class of masses whose main cause in life is dominated by a want and continuous search for an unhindered, quickest, easiest, and unmolested means of satisfying the physiological pangs of hunger and thirst; and satiating sexual lust. This class is easily malleable and prone to manipulation because of their unwariness through deceptive promises, false paradise, presentation of false facts; and malice and slander against a hated group.

2. An unscrupulous class of tycoons who have constituted themselves into cabals in the military and paramilitary, politics, civil service, businesses, religions, and to some extent, the media. Their main cause in life is an undying want for an unchallengeable power, inexhaustible money, and unquestioned influence over affairs of the country.

3. A ‘mis-educated’ class of elites who wallow in their self-imposed deceptive believe of infallibility and knowing all the answers without even understanding the questions. This class parades itself as an omnipotent expert with all the cures of the country’s ailments locked up in its rusty and dusty academic shelves. In technical reality, however, the class has only symptomatic descriptive capabilities with little diagnostic proficiency, and is therefore ill-equipped to serve in the rigorous field of policy formulation which is the pillar upon which successful governments are built.

4. Between the aforementioned extremities, there exist down-trodden, obscure variants of the classes that are either too preoccupied with their own more personal concerns, or just fed-up with a persistently and stubbornly hopeless and incurable lame horse to care less.

Buhari’s position is therefore pitiful, but that of the country is chronically more so. We probably had only one or two, but certainly no more than three slim chances in the history of this country when we had some patriotic and hardcore nationalists leading us, and all of those chances were botched by our same attitude of lack of in-sightedness and our incapacity for critical thinking. We criticize effects to lure the unwary masses into hatred for the leadership; and blind our eyes to the causes of the effect because we are too academically lazy for an in-depth analysis.

In my perspective, we have arrived at the last bus-stop, and if we collectively failed to support a glaringly selfless, patriotic, and hardcore nationalist president like the one we now have, we probably may not have another of such slim chances. We should be a vanguard of, and for the truth. It is not in the least interest of the country to propagate rumours, falsehood and engage in defamation of the personality of the president. I am not denying the possibilities of probable wrong or erroneous policy action or inaction by the president; I am however totally against unjustifiable condemnation of every action of the government, and the wanton haste in blaming the president for every seemingly and most often only facially unfavourable decision.

I beseech anyone with a one single dose policy treatment for the myriad and varied socio-politico-economic problems of the country to come forward with such. It is not just enough to criticize. Most of our criticisms are social media-based, and then why not, once in a while using the same outlet to articulate a readable document outlining the solutions instead of the continuous hammering on the negative effects of what we assumed to be the government’s lack of foresighted policies. It is probable, somehow, one of these days, they may reach the power center, or they may be a reference for some future government.

I am not hired or paid or even influenced by anyone, individual, or group to write this.

Yours in the love of Nigeria,

Mansur U. Dawaki (Ph. D)
Department of Soil Science
Bayero University,
PMB 3011, Kano, Nigeria.
+2348029029330