Buhari: The style is the man

As President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2016 Budget into law last week, the nation heaved a collective sigh of relief. Now we can begin to begin. For our collective sake, I want PMB to succeed. I am really tired of hopes raised and dashed, as we have had for too many years. Hopes raised, hopes […]

As President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2016 Budget into law last week, the nation heaved a collective sigh of relief. Now we can begin to begin.
For our collective sake, I want PMB to succeed. I am really tired of hopes raised and dashed, as we have had for too many years. Hopes raised, hopes dashed. Right from Independence in 1960 through the civil war years and the military chess game that preceded our return to democracy in 1999, we have been tantalised with promises of hope only to fall flat in the face of betrayal in the hands of the very people in whom we pinned our hope.
When Goodluck Jonathan came on the scene, I am on record as having canvassed that we all give him unqualified support because if he failed the entire nation would suffer. It is not difficult to see how the fortunes of the people are tied to the success or failure of the country’s leader. When the former president started derailing, I highlighted his errors and suggested remedies. Those who were having their fill from the gravy train resorted to the usual rude retorts. It was in their interest that the president be a perpetual lame-duck while they stole the country blind.
Leadership is a sacred trust. A leader is as good as his official and unofficial advisers. Even in the little corners in which some of us have held leadership positions we have seen that sycophants always flock around the leader, hailing his every move. None of them will dare tell the king that he has lost touch with the people. The way a leader gets around this problem is to keep his eyes on the ball. Always. Not once in a while.
In development terms, we ought to be in the league of the Singapores of this world by now. But we have so far blown our opportunities. We have a chance to begin to get things right with PMB. But already the usual partisan, negative campaign has started. For some people, Buhari must fail so that their jaundiced predictions can come true – even if the nation goes to the dogs.
But Buhari must not fail. It is in the interest of 170 million Nigerians that for once we have a government worthy of the name. The rest of us cannot succeed while he fails. It is more likely that if he succeeds with his programmes life will be better for us as a people. As long as he is our president we have to wish that he does the right things. We also have to make suggestions on how he can do the job better because he is a mere mortal like the rest of us.
To be sure, he is not infallible. Yes, he does make mistakes. He is entitled to his mistakes. Where he will have problems is when he thinks he has nothing more to learn. Then disconnect would set in.
I am of the considered opinion that Buhari means well for this country. Although he has his pluses and minuses the former far outweigh the latter.
Integrity is the most important quality a Nigerian leader must have. Buhari has it aplenty. He is not a thief. And that is saying a lot in a country where the national treasury had all but been reduced to a basket of corn toppled by political vultures so that other birds of identical plumage could feed fat. If Buhari was corrupt, his government wouldn’t have been able to fight corruption the way it is doing now.
Unlike leaders afflicted with verbal diarrhea, Buhari is taciturn. That quality has its uses and is most effective in dealing with some of the agent provocateurs begging to be recognised as the president’s foremost enemies, thinking that that would enhance their status as opposition loudmouths. He kills them with silence. Indeed, creative Nigerians have composed an invocation: May God not ignore you the way Buhari ignores Fayose!
But that same quality does not work in times of national calamity such as the various herdsmen/farmers clashes we have been witnessing recently.
Where such matters are concerned, the president must tweak his style to ensure that he leads from the front. He must physically visit the affected areas no matter how much the system tries to shield him. Perception is everything. Remember how rebranding changed the perception of people about Buhari before the elections even in the face of the vilest propaganda against him?
There is a lot to be said for Uhuru Kenyatta visiting the Westgate Mall after the bombing by Al Shabab terrorists and addressing the nation from the ruins. America’s Obama holds the gold medal in this regard. Wherever tragedy strikes, he is at the scene to empathise with the people, hold their hands, mourn with them, encourage them, and uplift the spirit of his people. Tanzanian President, John Magufuli, is currently being toasted on social media as the kind of empathetic leader Africa needs.
Buhari still has majority of Nigerians with him. The long wait for the budget and the understanding shown by Nigerians during the recent fuel crisis attest to that. But the people’s support can’t be taken for granted.
That is why going forward, the president should tweak his style to confound those who are looking for a chink in his armour to cast aspersions on his credentials as a nation-builder.

Disinformation
There is so much disinformation disseminated by some ghostly cowards who want to set one ethnic group against another. A picture taken in 2011 in faraway Ethiopia during a festival when cows were slaughtered for a traditional ceremony, is being recaptioned and sent via the social media as reprisal attack on herdsmen in Nigeria: ”20 Herdsmen, 83 Cows Killed In
Nasarawa In Suspected Reprisal Attacks!” screams the headline. The security agencies ought to fish out these cowards before they set the country ablaze.