President Muhammadu Buhari’s reputation fell further on Tuesday when he shelved the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting for the flimsiest of reasons. According to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed, the meeting was called off because government functionaries were apparently enjoying an extended Sallah holiday. This is as ridiculous as the one his aide had given about his office being taken over by rodents on his return from the United Kingdom last month. He has only attended the meeting once in over three months.
Muhammed’s statement was an insult, exhibiting not only the chasm between the Presidency and the people, but also contempt for a citizenry undergoing painful socio-economic pressures. Said Muhammed: “…the two-day public holidays declared for the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations left little or no time to prepare for the weekly meeting.” The festival proper fell on Friday and celebrations were actually for that day and the following day, Saturday. Monday as a public holiday was not necessary in the first place.
This government is proving to be a big disappointment. Buhari was expected to bring a breath of fresh air, seriousness and purpose into governance, away from the corruption, waste and shallowness of the preceding government. There is no doubt that the main reason for this culture of indulgence has developed from the over-reliance on oil and gas as the mainstay of the economy. If it were an economy that depended so much on hard work and productivity of every sector, then the government should have thought twice about giving work-free days to the citizens at the slightest opportunity.
This is unserious and unacceptable. It is bad enough that Nigeria lists 13 national public holidays for 2017, apart from the Saturdays and Sundays that are usually observed as work-free days. Curiously, weekdays are substituted for the holidays that fall on weekends. The Public Holidays Act stipulates that when a public holiday falls on Friday and Saturday, “only the Friday concerned and no additional day in lieu of that Saturday shall be kept as public holiday.” Serious countries do not give a substitute for any holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday.
Buhari should stop carrying on like a paternalistic potentate doing Nigerians a favour. He was elected to give his all in the service of the country. The office of the President is a full time, 24/7 assignment and governance should not slow down or grind to a halt on the whims of an individual. A government that fails to hold its weekly meetings will find it difficult to reprimand a civil servant who shows up at the office late or exhibits a lacklustre attitude to work. The last incident is just one in a series that has already become a norm since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
The country is in a bad shape, wracked with widespread despondency among its 180 million people: an economy barely emerging from recession with the 0.55 per cent growth it recorded in the second quarter of this year after five successive quarters of contraction; unemployment rate is climbing; crime and insecurity have spiked, while terrorists are back in business in the North-East region. On the political front, tension is high and some divisive voices are calling for radical changes, ranging from restructuring of the distorted federal system to outright secession. Angry exchanges rend the air, notably between radical self-determination groups from the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones on one side, and equally intemperate northern formations on the other. Incidentally, Niger Delta militants gave notice of their intention to resume sabotaging infrastructure from yesterday while university lecturers have been on strike for two weeks, joined Wednesday by doctors in public health institutions. Floods have killed hundreds of persons in Benue, Niger and Cross River states with more of the same predicted by experts.
Yet, Buhari carries on as if he has all the time in the world to fix things; running his administration at an uninspiring pace. Apart from his sloppy remarks that “ministers are there to make a lot of noise,” it took him almost six months to put his “noise-making” cabinet together. Buhari owes Nigerians; we don’t owe him. Nigerians bucked the trend by electing him and have been patient while he battles ill-health, spending 103 days outside the country at the last throw. But Nigeria is drifting. His leisurely, casual approach to governance is galling. This style is giving the notorious cabal of personal aides the ammunition they need to hijack his government as his wife, Aisha, and close associate, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, separately confirmed publicly. His headline anti-corruption programme is also floundering, losing steam and bite as the courts throw out high profile cases, key functionaries bicker in public glare and corrupt forces mount a ferocious push-back. Despite his party having a majority in both chambers, the National Assembly is routinely at loggerheads with the Executive, shooting down its proposals and adding to the national dissonance. The country appears rudderless.
But what makes an effective president? Discipline, hard work and “reliant on really talented, hardworking, skilled people” as Barack Obama, the US immediate past president, puts it. He says, “The first thing I think the American people should be looking for is somebody that can build a team and create a culture that knows how to organise and move the ball down the field.” Buhari should know that he does not have all the answers to Nigeria’s developmental challenges. He should, therefore, look beyond “yes men” for advice; understand the importance, process and implications of decision-making. He should focus on his major goals and get his team to move in the same direction. He should redress the total lack of coordination in this government and take charge or delegate to his capable deputy and ministers. The ship of state cannot be held back by one man. If Buhari is unable to keep up with the demands of the office, he should either delegate or step aside.
