In August 2009, I moved to England. In the first couple of weeks at my new school I found myself developing feelings for this girl. The more I got to know her, the more I realized she was bad for me. She wasn’t a particularly good person but because I had an ideal of what and who I wanted her to be, I found myself tuning out the doubts. I had fallen to the idea of her and who she represented. This dynamic is similar to the current relationship Nigerians have with President Buhari. At the time of last year’s elections, Buhari’s portrayal as an anti corruption crusader with a competent machinery behind him was viewed favorably to the monumental scale of corruption that had plagued the Goodluck years. This coupled with the religious fanaticism of Nigerian society meant that Buhari’s losses at previous elections and eventual success was given a romantic tinge ala the Sepia filter on Instagram. Has President Buhari lived up to the idealization?
There’s a current meme making the rounds that makes reference to what the Yoruba people describe as yinmu. My sense of description fails me but put simply, it is that gesture people do with their mouths to denote some element of self deception. Essentially, the reality of Buhari’s government has been a yinmu to the narratives and perceptions that brought him to power. There are a number of reasons why this is. Firstly, while the anti corruption crusade is admirable, it is indicative of the lack of imagination in the President’s approach to nation building. It has also reached the point where the lack of notable prosecutions coupled with the blame game being played with the previous government ensures that people have grown wary of the whole theme. It’s hard to objectively measure corruption as it’s unlikely we’ll know the true depth of the corruption in this administration till they vacate office.
Drawing a parallel with Buhari’s previous incarnation as a Leader is the economic insecurity. It’s necessary to caveat this issue by saying the President inherited a struggling economy. However, that does not excuse his poor response to it. In fact, his protectionist choices have enabled the biddable Godwin Emefiele. As if the sham that was the “flotation” of the naira was not enough, there’s the proposed bid to criminalize the mere possession of FX for 30 days. One does not need to be an Economics major to understand that these measures taken by the government to peg the exchange rate are merely artificial and delaying the inevitable whilst leading to inflation and killing the standard of living. The use of the Department of State Security to enforce these draconian measures help in increasing the distrust held towards the government. Using them to target supposedly corrupt judges served as proof that the government have no regard for the rule of law. This served as another instance of a Buhari election narrative unraveling. We were sold the idea of a past military dictator with democratic leanings- his behaviour since then has defied that.
The signs should have been clear with the whole ministerial farrago. Using the whole corruption crutch, we gave the President leeway to take his time in choosing members of his cabinet. We should have known something was amiss when he then opted for some career politicians like Rotimi Amaechi and Audu Ogbeh. Understandably, this was as a reward for their effort in getting him elected but it also contrasts with the change mantra he campaigned on. In opting not to visit Lagos on the eve of a state visit using bogus health grounds and then receiving the Governor of the state closest to Lagos (Ogun), he displayed an unhealthy streak of pettiness that will lead me to suggest his comeuppance is nigh. His rumored rift with ex Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu was the factor at play here. Whilst Tinubu is fundamentally flawed, his role in Buhari’s success cannot be understated. The Vice President is a Tinubu ally, after all.
As things stand, President Buhari’s time in office has been a masterclass in squandering good will and wasting time. In doing this, he has raised the skepticism Nigerians have of the political class. A legitimate criticism raised in the last election cycle was that there were next to no ideological differences between the two major parties- the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party. It’s even worse now when the Senate President is from the APC and his deputy from the PDP. Were our politics more sophisticated and issues based I’d predict that it’s only a matter of time that a figure tapping into the current wave of populism across the world took advantage of this. In the absence of that, there’s an imperative need to do better. The “smart” politicians who form a part of the mess that is this administration need to understand that their silence and poor performance renders them complicit. As the posturing for 2019 resumes, it’s imperative that there’s no airbrushing of history. They should be ready to be held accountable for the choices they make now, in the future.