It's kind of difficult not to empathize with the general feeling among Nigerians that the pace of change espoused by the Buhari administration is rather slow, after all, I used to be of that opinion also not quite long ago. While not attempting to trivialize this genuine sense of impatience and doubt among the populace, it is important not to lose sight of the enormity of the challenge the Buhari government faces. I'm confident in the belief that even the hardiest of opponents of the Jonathan government would have been horrified by the extent of the rot that awaited Buhari. I'm equally confident that Nigerians would be more than horrified when the full details of the rot eventually emerge, as they no doubt will.
A simple analogy might suffice here: a prospective home buyer views a residential property from the outside without being allowed to venture inside to conduct an appropriate appraisal of its condition. The home buyer is intent on buying the property, basically a blind purchase, hoping that the cost of bringing the property out of its state of disrepair wouldn't be that forbidding. Purchase agreed, contract signed, and the new owner enters the property for the very first time, and he realizes he has just purchased a bomb site!! What does the new owner do? A sensible first step is not to bring in his furniture and other belongings to fill up the place, but to assess the situation and begin the arduous task of clearing up the mess as quickly as possible. After clearing the mess, redecoration may then begin to make the place habitable and then move in his belongings. Now, imagine a desperate situation in which there's a small fire upon entering the house for the first time. Well, the fire has to be put out before the whole property is engulfed by smoke and fire. Here ends my analogy.
The house fire I alluded to refers to the mindless power tussle in the NASS that threatens to destabilize the APC before it even begins to sift through the humongous amount of debris that Buhari inherited. Now, let's deal with a couple of urgent and important issues here.
First of all, I couldn't, for the life of me, comprehend a situation whereby indicted individuals could be in positions of great influence in this government of change. Besides, further information has emerged that the Senate Standing Order was falsified before the Senate leadership elections were held. If this were so, then shouldn't such be speedily and thoroughly investigated, and the wrongs righted, and shouldn't the perpetrators of such alleged fraud be appropriately punished in this era of change? Why should personal ambitions get in the way of propriety in the pursuit of the common good? This fire of impropriety and blatant impunity must be put out; fire fighting must precede debris clearance and redecoration; the foundation for good governance must be firmly established or else the whole change project would be a pie in the sky. Thank goodness for Reinhold Niebuhr when he said "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."
Secondly, what about the disputed withdrawal of $2 billion from the ECA? Okonjo-Iweala's account has been roundly disputed and utterly rejected by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), comprising of the Finance Commissioners of the 36 States (and unrecognized by the Constitution, by the way.) The FAAC said it did not approve the withdrawal because only the FEC has the invested power to do so, thereby rendering the withdrawal illicit. Shouldn't Iweala be made to answer for what amounted to a fraud? This is only an example of the rot that has eaten up the whole machinery of government and one can only imagine the depth and width of the rottenness Buhari has to contend with.
Buhari has been in office for a little over five weeks. While the need to sort out the inherited mess properly is acknowledged, Nigerians expect a bit more urgency in the execution of the task so that the green shoots of the success of the change programme may begin to appear. Nigerians need to be reassured from time to time and the activities of government must be adequately communicated to us in a timely fashion so that the spectre of hebetude may be banished for good.
A simple analogy might suffice here: a prospective home buyer views a residential property from the outside without being allowed to venture inside to conduct an appropriate appraisal of its condition. The home buyer is intent on buying the property, basically a blind purchase, hoping that the cost of bringing the property out of its state of disrepair wouldn't be that forbidding. Purchase agreed, contract signed, and the new owner enters the property for the very first time, and he realizes he has just purchased a bomb site!! What does the new owner do? A sensible first step is not to bring in his furniture and other belongings to fill up the place, but to assess the situation and begin the arduous task of clearing up the mess as quickly as possible. After clearing the mess, redecoration may then begin to make the place habitable and then move in his belongings. Now, imagine a desperate situation in which there's a small fire upon entering the house for the first time. Well, the fire has to be put out before the whole property is engulfed by smoke and fire. Here ends my analogy.
The house fire I alluded to refers to the mindless power tussle in the NASS that threatens to destabilize the APC before it even begins to sift through the humongous amount of debris that Buhari inherited. Now, let's deal with a couple of urgent and important issues here.
First of all, I couldn't, for the life of me, comprehend a situation whereby indicted individuals could be in positions of great influence in this government of change. Besides, further information has emerged that the Senate Standing Order was falsified before the Senate leadership elections were held. If this were so, then shouldn't such be speedily and thoroughly investigated, and the wrongs righted, and shouldn't the perpetrators of such alleged fraud be appropriately punished in this era of change? Why should personal ambitions get in the way of propriety in the pursuit of the common good? This fire of impropriety and blatant impunity must be put out; fire fighting must precede debris clearance and redecoration; the foundation for good governance must be firmly established or else the whole change project would be a pie in the sky. Thank goodness for Reinhold Niebuhr when he said "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."
Secondly, what about the disputed withdrawal of $2 billion from the ECA? Okonjo-Iweala's account has been roundly disputed and utterly rejected by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), comprising of the Finance Commissioners of the 36 States (and unrecognized by the Constitution, by the way.) The FAAC said it did not approve the withdrawal because only the FEC has the invested power to do so, thereby rendering the withdrawal illicit. Shouldn't Iweala be made to answer for what amounted to a fraud? This is only an example of the rot that has eaten up the whole machinery of government and one can only imagine the depth and width of the rottenness Buhari has to contend with.
Buhari has been in office for a little over five weeks. While the need to sort out the inherited mess properly is acknowledged, Nigerians expect a bit more urgency in the execution of the task so that the green shoots of the success of the change programme may begin to appear. Nigerians need to be reassured from time to time and the activities of government must be adequately communicated to us in a timely fashion so that the spectre of hebetude may be banished for good.
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