Those of us old enough to remember
the first term of Buhari-Idiagbon regime between 1984 and 1985 would have
countless stories of hardship that Nigerians faced during that era. Aside from
political cleansing, civil servants salary were not paid for many months. Both
of my parents were civil servants. I remember waking up many morning seeing my
father helpless as to how to find food to feed us. Thank God we had some farms
and planted lots of cassava. It was because of that experience that I dislike
eating LAFUN till today because I ate more than enough of it. It was the
easiest and cheapest cassava staple food to make. The suffering of that time is
in no way comparable to the suffering civil servants and pensioners are facing
today, and invariably most Nigerians in one way or the other. Many have not
been paid salary in upward of 6 - 12 months in some states. Pensioners are no
different, in fact they are the most neglected because they are no longer in
active service so there is no way they can effectively protest like civil
servants.
Years after Buhari and Idiagbon were
overthroned by IBB, many Nigerians that cried and whaled during their reign
started to praise them because they began to see the differences between
Buhari's government and subsequent government of IBB and later Abacha.
What is the point I am making? I
hope Buhari is right just like then because his government seem not to have a
clue as to how to tackle and address the issues at the heart of Nigeria’s
under-development - bad economic situation and insecurity. Yes, he has
curtailed and clipped the wings of Boko Haram but his government has created
another monster in the Niger-Delta. Yes, he has clamped down on corruption and
recovered a lot of loot but naira has falling so badly that no serious local or
foreign investor will want to invest in such an unstable economy. There are
counter-accusation of lopsided appointments government parastatals that favored
his political mates and kinsmen. His government has denied this, but what is
clear is that Buhari has not being vocal and spitting fire at his Fulani
brothers who have wreaked havoc all over the nation like he did with Avengers
and Mend, nothing was done to CBN that employed children of notable politicians
in APC like Atiku and co. What we see is a bill sponsored by some shortsighted
law makers to begin to seize people's land all over the country to allow our
nomadic brothers to continue to graze their cattle without respect for original
land owners.
The fact that the lot of most
Nigerians has not improved after almost 16 months of Buhari's government speaks
to what Nigerians should expect for the remaining 2 + years. We love Buhari's
anticorruption campaign (that is why someone like detests Jonathan's
administration), but Nigerians want results - we need jobs for our youths
leaving colleges without any hope of the future; there is a need to find
solution to states govt inability to perform its duties - pay salary and do
good capital projects - our people are dying of hunger, mild sickness and high
blood pressure; we need power; we need security of lives and properties
everywhere in Nigeria; we need utility supplies; our universities need to
funded like never before - these among many promises of Buhari and his APC
cronies.
I hope at the end of 4 years, Nigerians
will be able to say that this government as delivered on its promises - and
have the after-effect of 1984-85 government. Right now, it does not seem so.
GMB should know that Nigerians are no longer forgiving of a government that can
not do its job - another election is just around the corner and you will be a 4
year term president if you do not get your acts together - look for people who
can deliver and not just people you can trust alone.
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