Time to consider a new template
It is a general sense of euphoria and good feeling to have President Muhammadu Buhari back at his desk. The spontaneous reception accorded him in Abuja and around the country by Nigerians upon his return last weekend was a pointer to the fact that he was missed.
His sojourn in England for over three months on medical rehabilitation no doubt set the country on a knife-edge, with many fearing the worst. His return was therefore salutary and a huge relief for a tottering polity.
Without taking anything away from Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo who held forth in acting capacity, President Buhari’s absence surely left a vacuum. The economy which had lapsed into deep recession since early 2016 has not been helped by the president’s protracted ailment either.
Though the economy has returned to positive indices marginally, the negative effects still linger. Naira exchange rate is still quite high at N365/$ compared to pre-recession rate of less than N200.00. Inflation remains double digits and retrenchment has not quite abated. Even though both oil output and price have improved, civil servants across the country are still owed salaries while pension payments are now a rarity in nearly all the states.
But more troubling in the economic front is the fact that the country remains import-dependent; from raw materials to petroleum products and sadly, staple food items like rice, wheat, poultry, fish, cooking oil, to name a few. This suggests that productivity is still quite low and all the talk and initiatives about diversification last year have not yielded much so far.
Notably too is the fact that the Buhari administration has not been able to impact on the massive petroleum products import which is the hugest source of foreign exchange outflow. One would have thought that building refining capacities would be a short-term priority of the government considering its deep-reaching import on the overall economy. But refineries have remained comatose, with no clear-cut policy on whether to dispose of them or reactivate them. Government’s hope on this critical issue seems to hang only on on-going private initiatives which are out of its control.
But beyond the economy, the political environment seems never to have been more fractured and divided than now. Apart from the subsisting violent uprising of the Boko Haram terror group, the land seems suffused with anger and bloodshed. As many ethnic groups as are in the country seem to want to get away from the Federal Republic.
The Fulani cattle rearers act as if they found a new impetus to damage farmlands in their trail and trample farm owners when they dare to challenge them. A new breed of malevolent cattle rustlers is now on the prowl. The Niger Delta militants are like a standing enemy force while agitators from the south east have forced themselves into official reckoning. And of course, the sustained quest for a restructuring of the polity has gained such momentum that can no longer be ignored.
These issues, or indeed troubles, are on President Buhari’s table to chew upon as he returns, still frail, from a medical holiday. What is to be done?
First, we must state unequivocally that the president’s national address of Monday fell short of required panacea for present ills. If anything, it actually touched even raw nerves and downed expectations.
Nigerians expected a little more information, if not openness about the president’s ailment. Not a mention. Though he is back on the beat now, he cannot seem to muster enough energy to drive even routine functions of state. That has grave implications for managing the myriads of matters raised above.
Nigerians expected a more fatherly understanding of the much aggravated political situation in the land; but instead, he seemed to have fuelled the fire: “Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable.” This singular statement is particularly galling to many Nigerians who think the nation must be re-tinkered and structures unclogged in order for her to progress.
We urge the president to reset his mind and be a bit more open-minded on this issue; in the making of nationhood, nothing is cast in stone, nothing is settled.
President Buhari must come to terms with the fact that there is indeed a need to devolve power a little bit more from the centre. Some of the ministries and departments under the Federal Government are mere drain pipes adding little value to the nation’s development. For instance, what does the Federal Ministry of Agriculture produce other than grow a burgeoning bureaucracy? There are dozens of such federal institutions which must be re-imagined.
And it is not enough to leave this crucial discourse to the National Assembly or the National Council of State as suggested by the president; for one, these institutions are inequitably skewed against the south of the country.
We urge the president to review some of his actions and policies which have proved irksome and worrisome to some sections of the country; issues like lopsided appointments and outright inaction towards killer herdsmen.
The president must act fast to turn things around, there is little time left.
