Sooner than we assume, the APC will exhaust its bags of excuses. The blame game currently choking us to suffocation will also end. When this happens, reality will emerge and judgement will begin.
With the sacking of NNPC board and the retirement of DSS’ Ita Ekpenyong, APC wants us to believe that change has started. This is laughable because anyone who can appoint can also sack.
Last week, a reader of this column asked why I’m always criticising the APC. She asked whether I am against Buhari or whether it is in my character to constantly hit at any sitting government; from Obasanjo to Ya’Adua; Jonathan; and now Buhari.
“Are you anti-government?” she fired in her text message. No, I am neither against Buhari nor APC; but I am against bad governance. I am against excuses; I am against blame game; I am against political sentiments instead of realistic and pragmatic approach at getting problems solved.
Throughout Jonathan’s era, I can’t remember ever clapping for him. I believe that when an elected officer of government executes a project for the good of the people, he is simply doing what he is expected to do.
Such a public officer must not expect the world to rise in applause. We only clap because we have had elected officers who governed and left without anything to use in assessing them. So, anyone who paints a tombstone in the name of achievement must be applauded because he has made a difference.
If anybody did, I never expected that Buhari and his team will accomplish anything significant in one month or even in 100 days. This is because APC spent more time rubbishing the previous administration—which is what opposition parties do—than plan what to do after the victory dance.
Now, the victory dance is over. Jonathan has left the scene. Buhari, on assumption of office, took off on a promising note; touring certain countries in the neighbourhood to establish anti-terrorism ties.
Then he faced a set-back when the National Assembly leadership brouhaha started. It was his first baptism of fire; and unfortunately, he couldn’t rise to the challenge. He was thoroughly distracted and embarrassed.
Worry set in immediately. Nigerians started asking why the internal crisis of the APC should cause such a huge distraction in the country. As someone not thoroughly refined in the delicate art of political manoeuvring, the president was held captive by masters of the trade.
Caught in the wildfire of its intrigues, APC decided to divert attention of Nigerians by engaging in its known act of distraction through blame game. Its spokesman, Lai Mohammed, did a good job of the assignment.
While counting Buhari’s achievements in 30 days, he said deployment of the Multinational Joint Task Force is “what the Jonathan administration could not do in six years,” and that during Jonathan’s era, Nigeria could not get the military hard wares to fight Boko Haram and had to resort to the use of “mercenaries to confront the bandits.”
I don’t think it serves any useful purpose to lie in a bid to score political points. Who started the idea of the Multinational Joint Task Force—Jonathan or Buhari? Is Mohammed not aware of the refusal of the Obama administration to sell arms to Nigeria because of the cooked up story of humanitarian abuses by our soldiers? Is he not conversant with Jonathan’s decision to buy weapons in the black market to fight these bandits in the last days of the administration?
Why should Jonathan even be featured in a discussion on Buhari’s achievements? Perhaps, Benjamin Franklin was correct when he said that he that is good in making excuses is seldom good for anything else. He must keep blaming everyone but himself for his negative conducts.
However, it must be understood, according to Scott Spencer that excuses become inevitably difficult to believe after they have been used so many times. The advice by John Wooden is simple: never make excuses. Your friends don’t need them and your foes won’t believe them.
Buhari came to the presidency of Nigeria with a dream: to get things done. He must understand in the words of Steve Maraboli that: “we may place blame, give reasons, and even have excuses, but in the end, it is an act of cowardice to not follow your dream.”
Nigerians know pretty well that excuses do not build a future. Excuses do not get the job done. Excuses do not get promises fulfilled. Excuses cannot excuse anyone from fulfilling promises. Constant excuse is the direct opposite of getting the job done.
Toba Beta, in his writing: My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut says “there is a lie in-between a promise and many excuses.” This occurs when excuses are used to cover up deficiencies. When it comes to political leadership, excuses are as annoying as lies.
Buhari is not a magician. No one expects him to be one. He is not even a politician; perhaps, a patriot. He has even confessed that age has slowed him down. So we do not expect too much speed from him though he promised during the campaigns to end naira devaluation and insurgency overnight.
APC must understand that politics is over. It’s time to govern. This is no time for blame game; neither is it time for bad excuses; because as George Washington once said, “it is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” Buhari doesn’t need excuses to govern. He may be slow; but I assume that he knows where he is going.