Ruling Nigeria is walking a tight rope.
Muhammadu Buhari knows that. He wanted the job of president with passion. He got it.
Six months (now 192 days) into it, however, Correspondent SAM NWOKORO reports that country folks are still regaled with a medley of ‘body language’, exhortations, and policy sketches without a visible framework. Hardly any bang.
Governments all over the world love to take credit. Leaders of democratically elected governments are conscious of their image and integrity.
They are on the seat of power by peoples’ mandate. So they want to be seen as performing, even though in cabinet meetings and in their hearts they know things are not in order as voters want.
Aides and advisers of the president, his inner caucus, are adept at managing his public perception. They explain away shortcomings, exaggerate little progress, and raise hopes of greater accomplishments to come, even when all the indices point to the contrary.
Spin doctors
It is fair to say that some members of President Muhammau Buhari’s inner circle – Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari; National Security Adviser, Babagana Munguno; and media chiefs Femi Adesina and Shehu Garba – have so far justified their pay.
They help package a man who has dragged his feet for these past six months.
The general perception of Buhari’s style of governance is diverse. His actions affect every Nigerian in every sphere of life. Yet none of those executive actions can be described as articulated policy.
From the take of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on naira value, to reform gambit in the energy sector, up to his appointment of ministers and top aides, it is pretty difficult to locate a clear policy direction that can stand the test of time.
His own man
What is discernible, nonetheless, is that Buhari is acting his own script. It does not matter whether advisers, or the law books, or principal legislative officers – talk less the entire National Assembly (NASS) – make an input.
Thus, whether his leadership style is dictated by the absence of legislative input (both arms of the NASS are yet to commence proper work on policy issues) or because he took six months to inaugurate a cabinet, the public is yet to adduce full reasons for this seeming one-man government.
Nigerians voted for change. Trust a patient people, they are willing to accept that the change they expect from Buhari will come. But even then, they would vouch they know not what manner of change.
However, they perceive him as still a former military dictator who does only what he believes is right.
Exaggerated accomplishments
Ben Nwabueze, a professor of constitutional law, wrote in a recent treatise about Buhari’s style of leadership and how it is perceived by the public; exemplified, for instance, in the war against corruption.
He said “the initial impression indicated by the course of events is that the public acclaim of Buhari rests less on concrete actions and results actually accomplished and more on propagandist talk put out to the public and purposely designed to charm the mind and hearts of people already yearning for action to induce them to see the president as their man to deliver them from the clutches of corruption.
“A deliverer with an ability, not possessed or displayed by Buhari’s predecessors, to identify and catch the looters of our wealth, to bring them to justice and recover the loot.
“The public acclaim of Buhari as deliverer may be said to have had its genesis or origin in statements made by him on his return from a state visit to the United States between July 21 and 25, 2015” on recovering loot.
Embedded in Nwabueze’s presentation is that judging by the manner of the recovery of loot and probe of corruption, public expectation of Buhari as an accomplisher may have been exaggerated.
Reversal of past policies
He has so far demonstrated a pattern of reversal of almost all the policies of his predecessors, especially those of former President Goodluck Jonathan, irrespective of whether they deserve a retouch.
Consequently, it has been a case of one step forward, two steps backward.
Whether these reversals will culminate in genuine change resulting in improved standard of living, economic growth across the board, and development aligning with the United Nations mandates on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which round off this month, is another thing altogether.
Invisible legislature
One of the drawbacks that has drawn public flak is the long time it took Buhari to form a cabinet.
Nigerians believe it should not have taken nearly six months for a government prepared for power to effect positive change to get off the ground.
Buhari was elected March 28, 2015.
Nigerians assumed he would have known his cabinet even before election, more so when he had given the impression he was not going to be unduly influenced by partisan interest in selecting his Change Team.
But then it became obvious to him that he is in a democratic setting and had to moderate his posture with a dose of partisan consideration.
“Nigeria is on auto pilot and the only visible segment of the Nigerian government is the Presidency as represented by President Mohammed Buhari,” said Odua People’s Congress (OPC) founder, Frederick Fasehun.
“He has been going to various places in the world and fighting against known corruption.
“The legislators were voted in and immediately they resumed, they turned the National Assembly into a boxing ring. In the process, they had to go on holiday.
“As far as I am concerned, the legislature has not been visible. Nigeria is now in political doldrums.
“The All Progressive Congress (APC) was shouting change which Nigerians strongly believed in. But the change we have noticed has been in the negative. There has not been any positive change.
“That is my own way of looking at the political situation in the country now.”
Fasehun’s thumps down encapsulates the popular view that the past six months of the federal government led by the APC has been one of motion without movement.
Another commentator said the “composition of a government is not something that should consume six months. All of half a year of no real policy direction, or even where there is one, no statutory mechanism for putting such into action.
“Everything seems to have been revolving around the policies of the immediate past government then retouching them to suit the interests of the current holders of power, irrespective of the long term implication of such changes.”