When success is hard to s(p)ell

I congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for finding the courage last Wednesday to drop the hot coals of the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) cow settlements it had in its grasp. An announcement said the government had decided to “suspend” the policy, which was supposedly aimed at “resolving” the cattle herders/farmers violence sweeping the country. But any […]

I congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for finding the courage last Wednesday to drop the hot coals of the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) cow settlements it had in its grasp.

An announcement said the government had decided to “suspend” the policy, which was supposedly aimed at “resolving” the cattle herders/farmers violence sweeping the country.

But any Nigerian who imagines the worst is over may be deceiving himself.  To begin with, the government did not make the announcement, or state its terms.

In line with its character of avoiding responsibility and nurturing deniability, the announcement was made by a state governor.

President Buhari did not undertake the task.  Neither did Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who leads the National Economic Council (NEC), authors of the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NTLP) under which the RUGA settlements policy was said to have been crafted.  He jumped on a luxury jet and headed for the safer and more peaceful climes of Rwanda.

Osinbajo had previously denied that the RUGA contraption was a policy of the NEC or that his office was helping to create the settlements nationwide, as affirmed on television on June 28 by Baba Uthman Ngelzarma, the General Secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association.

The presidency, which is loaded with layers of aides who are in limbo because their contracts have expired, did not make the announcement.  That job fell to Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi, following Wednesday’s NEC meeting chaired by Osinbajo.

And the governor chose his words very carefully, to wit.  “We are aware that today Mr. President has suspended the implementation of RUGA programme, initiated and being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, because it is not consistent with the NEC and federal government approved National Livestock Transformation plan which has programmes of rehabilitation of displaced IDPs, resulting from the crisis and also development of ranches in any willing state of the federation.

Rarely does a government fall into disarray, as the Muhammadu Buhari outfit did last week, while pretending it is intact and in charge.

What is probably worse than all of this is the context in which it is taking place: Buhari’s preference to listen only to himself and those who are singing his praises.

Among them: his Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), members of which visited him on Tuesday, and to whom he complained that his “successes” are not being appreciated by Nigerians.

“It is not an easy job to sell this administration’s successes: we are doing unpopular things in the face of powerful individuals and taking on vested interests who are accustomed to the corrupt old order.”

And then he rolled out the clichés.  “But we must do things the right way,” he told his praise-singers.  “If we promised change, then we must deliver it, regardless of whose interest we touch. There must be a manifest departure from the old order.

“Fulfilling these three promises is fundamental to taking Nigeria to the Next Level. I assure you that I am resolute on the delivery of these promises. When we leave, Nigeria will be a far better place than when we came.”

This is the context in which Nigerians who expect better of Buhari had better prepare for his ‘Next Level’ four years.  It is a context in which the politest characterization which may be made of the Buhari administration is that it is confused.  In real terms, it is a self-centered tragedy, and the evidence is that in four years at the speed at which it is flying, it may have destroyed Nigeria.

Buhari continues to sell the fiction that he is fighting corruption when it is obvious to the entire country that he is the biggest enabler and masquerader of the menace since IBB.  With what is a man who cannot set a good example-beginning from publicly declaring his assets as he had proclaimed loudly as he sought the presidency-fighting corruption, his bare hands?  What is he hiding, and is that a success?

How is a man who proclaims but does not respect the rule of law upon which democracy is founded a success?

How is a country that is far more insecure than it was when Buhari came to power a success?  Is an army so divided and unsuccessful that its leader is blaming his troops from his cozy luxury in Abuja a success?

How is a country that was promised change but has only changed for the worst a success?  What fundamental input has Buhari made?  As much as we criticize former Presidents and Goodluck Jonathan, the first claims responsibility for establishing the anti-corruption agencies while the other demonstrated the quality of his heart with the Freedom of Information law; what significant stake has Buhari driven into the ground?

Is a government which abhors the intellectuals a success in favour of certificate forgers and manipulators a success?  Are we supposed to encourage our children to work to excel while all they see at every echelon of this government is a battery of protected crooks and liars?

In 2014 and 2015, presidential candidate Buhari swore he would sell the presidential fleet and fly commercial services with other Nigerians.  Those jets have for over four years been put at the service of privilege; is that the definition of success or of 419?

If Buhari is successful, does that mean he built a school, or that he saw the dangerous contraptions being passed off as schools nationwide and demonstrated his embarrassment?

Did he build good roads somewhere, or did he ensure the longevity of any existing ones by covering their open drains?  Has he built one hospital in the past four years that a member of BMO can brag about or go to when he is sick?

Speaking of success, if the RUGA settlements are such a success, why did he buckle under the national outrage and suspend the idea?  And if, as he already knows, it is a failure, why did he not call it by name and cancel it?

The point is that success does not need selling.  It is only when failure must be marketed as success that selling-and discreditable subterranean propaganda outfits such as BMO-are required.

We have reached the point at which Buhari must make up his mind there can be Nigeria as defined by the republican constitution he swore to uphold, or an unworkable Nigeria that is driven by conflict.  Nigeria is workable, but only under a single agenda Nigerians can unite under.

That is what the RUGA experience, which he must now bury, tells us.  Because success spells, and sells itself.

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