I DIDN’T vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in the last
election, though I know that Nigeria needed change. I just disagreed with the change agent due to
reasons I have explained in various write-ups in the lead up to the
election. I didn’t vote for Jonathan
either; the PDP as was constituted and operated just wasn’t a Party I could
even consider for anything. In the end,
I voted for one of the lesser known Parties.
But Buhari it is. The
majority vote will always prevail and that is respected here without any
equivocation. So we move on.
As we move on however, it is becoming a struggle not to be
uncomfortable in the way things have unfolded and in the way they are playing
out. Some of the reservations expressed
by some of us are now rearing their ugly heads.
Contrary to his inauguration speech, and contrary to reasonable, logical
expectations, Buhari hasn’t put a fully functional government in place. This is already the end of July.
As we say around here, nothing spoil. The only harm I saw were incompetent
governors (who are unable to manage quite sizable resources) dancing around the
President, taking advantage, and getting off easy. The mound of flip flops and reversal of
official pronouncements have only meant a slight loss of face; nothing major.
However, I began to
panic when I read a news report that Buhari has approved an exchange rate of
N160 to $1 for Christian pilgrims. This
report was publicised widely and with plenty of fanfare.
To me, it is another indication that the President sorely
needs all the help he can get. He needs
technical advisers and a seasoned cabinet like a fish needs water.
But the President has already and unwittingly set up his
eventual Ministers for failure. They
can’t win. Expectations are just too
high now. Ministers would still have to
be Nigerians, working in Nigeria. The
current perception is that Buhari is searching for the best of the very best –
folks with no blemishes at all but blessed with superpowers. Optimal
performance bothering on miracles would be expected from these Ministers and other
appointed government functionaries. How
could anyone go into a job like
that? It is unrealistic and quite
unfair.
All the same, I am becoming increasingly convinced that the
President created this governance lacuna in order for him to have unfettered,
unchallenged (dictatorial, if you will) shot at managing the country for a
while before Ministers, Advisers and other technical and legal people are
brought in and begin to rein-in some of his more impulsive and autocratic
tendencies.
It seems to me that Buhari wants to get in a few
military-style diktats, strong-arm a few people before settling down to normal
democratic governance. Because, so far,
the only things on the table are hunting down people, dire innuendos and
promises of persecution.
As has been whispered all along, the President has finally
confirmed that he intends to probe just Jonathan’s government. It is only that government that is corrupt in
Nigeria’s recent history. Obasanjo is
living large. The bribes from the
Halliburton scandal are the major stakeholders in Nigeria’s present day change
project. Even the scions of Abacha are
running loose, obscenely flaunting stolen wealth. No problem with that. No investigations. Now tell me; how are certain sections of this
country supposed to feel? Does this not
seem like the start of marginalisation
and dehumanisation of the usual suspects all over again?
Even Madam Patience Jonathan was comprehensively humiliated
at Port Harcourt airport last week when she attempted to use the VIP waiting
area. She was refused access by security
personnel citing “orders from Abuja.”
How petty! If a former First Lady
cannot use an airport’s VIP lounge, who should?
I suppose Rotimi Amaechi is using his APC mates to exact revenge. Anyway, there is God o!
The inclusiveness that was pervasive in the last four years
is fast dissipating. Perhaps, someone
needs to remind the President that we are in a thriving democracy. The opposition and opposing voices are not
supposed to be treated like conquered prisoners of war, or like burnt
offerings.
Which brings me back to the issue of the pilgrims’ exchange
rate.
I could have sworn that I heard candidate Buhari campaign
that he would scrap government’s participation in, and subsidy of religious
pilgrimages. But he has only gone and directed that pilgrims
should exchange N160 to the dollar.
What this means is that a pilgrim with N400,000 who
would have received $1,740 at the normal
exchange rate will now get $2,500 under the Buhari plan. The government will
cough up the difference.
Last year, about 14,000 Christians made one form of
pilgrimage to one place or the other.
76,000 Muslims went to Mecca. If
we do the math, the government is going to end up subsidising around a further
$68 million or N13.6 billion on top of whatever is already subsidised for these
pilgrimages.
Can you see why the President needs ministers and other
technical people like yesterday?
Furthermore, a pilgrim with N500,000 would get $3,125. In theory, this person could turn around and
sell back dollars on the black market and make a profit of $1,000 or
N237,000. Now, an…emm…shall we say,
enterprising Pilgrims Board official can fund 100 people into this scheme and
he is looking at a cool N23,700,000 million per pilgrimage cycle. The Christians alone run four pilgrimages in
one year! Heavens only know what they
are looking for.
Please, please, we do not desire on a national scale a
situation like that which currently exist in Osun State. The struggling governor of that State,
Arigbesola, who has not been able to pay workers salaries in like forever
somehow manages to find money every year to pay for Osun citizens
transportation during sundry religious holidays; no audits, no questions asked.
Source
Dr.Michael Egbejumi-David {London}
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