I think the president, Muhammadu Buhari, already knows that the game is up. His legacy in history is sealed and his reputation cast in slurs and ignominy.
By Achike Chude
Just as there has been a frantic last minute scramble by the occupants of Aso Rock to try to secure history’s kind verdict on President Muhammadu Buhari for his eight years as Nigeria’s president, there has equally been a last minute scramble by the president and his men for good or bad, to milk the system of whatever is left in her treasury before they leave office on May 29.
All over the country, from the states to the federal government, the last minute ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegal’ looting of our commonwealth by political office holders is being carried out with the speed of lightning.
The dexterity with which the normally lethargic legislative arm of government in both the states and the center are approving frivolous and astounding amounts of monies for last minute expenses is beyond compare. Even our president, falsely described over eight years ago as an epitome of frugality is immersed and enmeshed in this.
Just this Wednesday he urged our pliable Senate headed by the equally pliable Senate president to approve a request to pay judgement debts in the sum of $566,754,584.31, £98,526,012.00 and N226 billion being judgement debts owed by the Federal Government through the issuance of promissory notes.
And there were some of us who actually described Muhammadu Buhari as Mr Clean. But don’t blame us. The way the president carries himself, you will think that he is an angel surrounded by demons in his government – the only virgin in a maternity ward. Sadly, with what has gone on in his government for the past eight years, especially his last-minute urgent fascination for money, you cannot help but believe that he is no innocenty (à là Fela). Governors are having last minute supplementary budgets. Ministers are in frenzy about executing multi billion Naira contracts. And our president wants to pay judgement debts and borrow $800 million to pay poor Nigerians as palliatives for subsidy removal even when the incoming administration is the one saddled with the removal.
And in the midst of this, President Muhammadu Buhari is doing all he can to court a favourable verdict from history for the lost years of Nigeria under his stewardship.
I think the president, Muhammadu Buhari, already knows that the game is up. His legacy in history is sealed and his reputation cast in slurs and ignominy.
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A book has been written and launched by Ghana’s president Akuffo Addo on his behalf. Refineries, bridges, and roads have been commissioned by the president. A flurry of laws have been quickly passed by the National Assembly and expeditiously signed into law by the outgoing occupier of Aso Rock. All of these have been attempts to ensure that history will be kind to the fifth executive president of Nigeria whose eight year tenure comes to an end in a matter of days.
But it is too little too late. Nigerians will surely remember the second Niger Bridge alongside the mass hunger in the land in which over 133 million people are living in multidimensional poverty. They will remember the train infrastructure built by the administration alongside the terrorism that has grounded the same trains and seen to the gruesome death of over 68,000 Nigerians in Buhari’s Nigeria. They will remember the few road infrastructure built by his administration while contemplating the erosion and dilapidation that became the lot of our education and healthcare sector in the last eight years. They will remember the social investment programmes of the government and will put it side by side with the unbridled and unconscionable corruption that characterized Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency. They will acknowledge the passage and signing of many bills into law by his administration, especially the electoral act and juxtapose it with the 2023 general elections in the country now seen as one of the worst.
They will remember the attempts by Buhari’s government to improve electricity supply in the country and conclude that all Nigerians got in return was darkness. Then, they will be reminded about the president’s clannishness and provincialism that led to many parochial appointments based on the appointees’ tribe, geopolitical provenance and religion. They will remember that under this president Nigerians became more divided than at any other time in her recent history. They will remember the foreign and domestic debt that balooned astronomically under his administration as well as the exchange rate and inflation.
And in putting all these together: the good, the bad, and the ugly, it then becomes much obvious that President Muhammadu Buhari failed Nigeria and Nigerians in a most grievous manner.
