Insecurity and change in Nigeria

I think the president and his yet to be constituted government must be worried about several things on the ground and looming in the horizon.The Buhari administration was brought in by Nigerians as a result of the colossal failures of the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and one major problem among many that were worrisome to the […]

I think the president and his yet to be constituted government must be worried about several things on the ground and looming in the horizon.
The Buhari administration was brought in by Nigerians as a result of the colossal failures of the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and one major problem among many that were worrisome to the nation was the state of insecurity in the country aside the absence of virtually every good thing of life. The expectations of several millions of our citizens were and are that as the president said rightly on the day of his inauguration that he was going to hit the ground running; that by now several positive achievements would have been recorded, especially in the area of insecurity.
Unfortunately, what Nigerians are still seeing is the same assembly of heads and figures that were central in the administration that they massively sacked from office through the March 28 elections. In the security circle, no change has been made apart from the recent appointment and replacement of the head of the DSS. The service chiefs that failed to win the war against insurgency are very much in place apart from the inability to appoint key principal officers of government more than three months after electoral victory and a month after inauguration.
Nigeria is running without a scribe, and other assistants in the Villa that would help the president officially discharge the onerous mandate and responsibility that Nigerians have placed on his shoulders. Many citizens are of the view that even the defeat that the APC leadership suffered in the Senate and the House of Representatives during the election of presiding officers had more to do with the absence of critical officials of the presidency who would have joined forces with the party leadership even when the president was out of the country or busy attending to handover notes received from the government that just left.
President Buhari is a retired army general there is no doubt about that but one thing that seems to be missing is there seems to be some gap between the reality on ground and the form of government that he desires to run in Nigeria today.
I am afraid that the tactics of waiting too long before the government is in place is counter-productive and may be very costly. I hope the president will not wait too long until Nigerians turn that love into apathy and eventually hopelessness which could dangerously affect the mobilising factor that will be required in order to win the support of the citizens in the implementation of good policies of government.
Silence is not always golden, especially at this critical stage that the nation is in.
The agitation is palpable and the president cannot afford to keep waiting and wanting to do things his own way and or move the nation at his pace. This is dangerous and may not be cost effective.
Events across the restive north since the commencement of the Ramadan fast have been most traumatic and what Nigerians would expect would not be the same PDP attitude and ex-president Jonathan’s style of condemning mass loss of lives and claims of being on top of the situation when Nigerians are dying and unable to sleep with any of their eyes closed. Clearly, the nation’s armed forces cannot function under the old order and expect miracles even if under a different and more serious commander-in-chief.
What happens to the moral of the fighting forces, what happens to psyche of the soldiers? Definitely, those who are talking to the president are not saying the right things and PMB cannot afford to run the country the way he deems fit without inputs from critical segments of the society. I am worried that delay may cause the president and his government tremendous denudation of hope and support from those who defied brute force and materialism to allow PDP be beaten in March 2015.
I agree with those who argue that the president is to serve for four years. What is critical is that he came on board at a time when the nation is at its most trying moment. Urgent actions even if palliative, can keep hope alive rather than waiting to get things in perfection before changes are recorded. Nigerians are definitely impatient and would need much more than that to keep their spirits alive and on the belief that it is the government that promised change and that they voted for.
It is unfortunate that the insurrection has continued unabated and more lives are being lost and apparently the theatre of war expanded beyond the North-east, as was the case earlier on. Nigerians desire to see obvious practical change and in as much as I believe that it cannot be mechanical, citizens are desirous of evidence of direction towards redemption and this can be done through action on the caliber of officials that are assembled to run the government.
We have invested so much in this course. It is time that those upstairs responded to our apprehension. I believe it is not rocket science it is human management and should be seen as such. PMB must hit the ground running as he promised. Certainly, he is not there yet and the consequences are piling by the day.
The appeal is that despite the belief that things are so bad and rotten, it is necessary that the government acts with the necessary precision that would assuage the already endemic national apprehension that we face as a people.
Every citizen must wake up to his or her responsibility to ensure that collectively we live in the peace that we desire as a people. Nigeria is really facing a tumultuous period in its existence not because the insurgency is new but mainly due to the huge expectation that came soon after inaugurating the new government that all problems typifying the past, which they massively rejected, would disappear.
I call on the president to act with dispatch and constitute his government as a matter of national urgency. It is dangerous to continue to parry while the people’s expectations are surging, especially in the face of the renewed hostilities by the insurgents. If there is any government that enjoys popular support in Nigeria, it is second to the Buhari administration that kicked off on May 29. It is necessary that they must be seen to be acting and urgently, in the name of the people and its good self.
Condolences to all of us as a people. Hope we will see the end of these challenges as soon as possible.