Why no one should envy Buhari

There’s nothing to rejoice about this mandate given to a man who should be testing his strength with the soulful sounds of screaming grandchildren taking on the job that ages even the young and agile. One only hopes in the saying that Allah does not pack for you a luggage that can break your neck.The […]

There’s nothing to rejoice about this mandate given to a man who should be testing his strength with the soulful sounds of screaming grandchildren taking on the job that ages even the young and agile. One only hopes in the saying that Allah does not pack for you a luggage that can break your neck.
The People’s General remembers the sacrifices made to keep Nigeria one but four decades later, the fresh scars have reopened, defying skin grafting. The spread of votes have shown that nationhood is still an ideal to be pursued. Building a nation where no man is oppressed is a lofty ideal, indeed a swansong of the old national anthem but to quote Bob Marley, a fleeting illusion that has eluded attainment. The new Mr. President would have to grapple with the elders of discord who see nothing nationalistic in any action, but cry wolf over alleged marginalization. A glue of national entente is needed if we are to sweep clean the Augean stables left by years of neglect at every sector.
The economy – that thing we all talk about but actually know little of is in rags and tatters, worsened by years of pretence and mismanagement by people whose management of their own life is suspect. The national currency, our medium of exchange is worth much less than toilet paper. The chubby cats of sleaze have fed fat on our common wealth that they are unable to control or shoo off scavengers who feed with their ten fingers and puke all over everything. Attempts to put them on a recovery diet in the past have failed. They cry wolf and rush for the bill of rights that their gullibility denied the people. Still, they need to be quarantined for the needed reconstructive surgery; they need to be placed on a diet of leaves and vegetables to save the nation’s health from the complications associated with financial obesity.
The ministries and parastatals Buhari inherits are not buoyant enough to pay the salaries and emoluments of their staff once his transition committee begins to shift through the gloss of sleaze with a fine tooth comb. The social and mainstream media Rottweiler’s and Chihuahuas who heckled and attempted to impugn the integrity and character of Buhari during the campaigns may have quietened down a bit, but they are not sleeping. They have promised to give him hell at every stage of his transition and to shout as he turns his scalpel for the needed surgical operation. Already, they have been forming his cabinet and sharing positions in newspapers and on social media in a deliberate attempt to cause social dislocation and disharmony. Positions may be shared out based on ethno-social criterion, but the capacity to perform is that of the appointee who also takes home his pay – not to the community. It is not everyone who is like Abike Dabiri-Erewa who takes what is rightfully her nest-egg and injects it into meaningful programmes impacting her community. But the unofficial custodians of races, creeds and religion would be after Buhari’s every move with their megaphones of derision.
We need a new war against indiscipline, not one identified by brigades and badges but by men and women looking at their leader and falling in line – like troops marching to order.  But Buhari has only a ghost of an army and the police – they all have been bastardised and have their visions tainted with politics. Buhari would need the turpentine of clarity to remove the dross, paper over the cracks and solidify things again. We already know that he lives by example, and that should suffice to whip our evil service into something civil and genuinely serving. Ghosts are still being paid fat salaries and those who are real and taking pay cannot tell you what they have accomplished or achieved in the last four or eight years. Buhari would need an army that is modern both in intelligence gathering, training and respect of civil authority – he has the goodwill to bring it to pass. He need a police force that truly serves the people, not a gang of brigands who trade information with thieves and creates an alibi for armed robbers to operate descend on the victims and the innocent.
Our country can be policed by us all. The fact that those who foment religious trouble are usually schooled in neighbouring countries but put theory to practice in ours shows that we can learn a thing or two from our neighbours and stop those who unleash carnage on our people.