2022 – Nigeria’s year of pain and suffering

To see people expecting President Muhammadu Buhari sign a reformed Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law is a demonstration of the elasticity of human expectations. Each time presidential proxies need to explain an issue of national importance, it becomes obvious that they are dithering. When it came to signing the 2022 Appropriation Bill into law, the president did not waste time explaining delays. It was evident that he did not use his integrity toothcomb to examine the details of that budget before signing it.

The president appended his signature to a document that rehashes the template of corruption. Included in that budget was a phony presentation under which Aso Rock renovations were to gulp N5.2 billion among other scandalous provisions. There’ll be more revelations as the media dissects the innards of the budget. Buhari signed first then reeled out several inconsistencies in what he proposed versus what he signed. He could have adopted the same attitude for the Electoral Act as amended but he chose to dump it totally.

When it comes to padding, the Nigerian legislature employs the you scratch my back, I scratch yours philosophy. Every budget that the Buhari administration has presented so far has been a fraud. They bring nothing new to the concept of governance or ease to the bottom line. Instead, they increase public hardship, hopelessness, debt overhang and insecurity.

It is obvious that those who craft Nigerian budgets put no serious thoughts to the ritual and soon the executive presents a supplementary budget. We are used to dissecting the scandalous provisions – like what it takes to feed, house and the run Aso Rock. From unblocking toilets to making provisions for Internet services at driver’s lodge and refurbishing presidential kitchen with new cutlery at outrageous provisions.

The Nigerian budget exposes the dissonance between the rulers and the people. It costs more to sustain the opulent lifestyle of any current occupant of Aso Rock and his minions than it takes to ease the pain of the people or to supply the infrastructure necessary for them to fend for themselves. The common man is way off the radar of those who plan the budget.

In 2021 as in the preceding years, our president displays no superficial care for the common man or concern for the troops ‘fighting’ insurgency on his behalf. As a retired general and experienced commander in chief, President Buhari has not visited his troops in their trenches nor has he attended a single funeral of the gallant soldiers. He is yet to visit the hospitalised to ascertain their needs but he is refurbishing a hospital in Aso Rock that could build three or more standard hospitals. Buhari’s speeches and actions are as far apart as the skies are from the earth.

During crucial moments when terse words are needed to caution bandits our president’s silence emboldens their atrocities. Bandits now know how empty presidential threats are and so, they up their actions. Mr President’s spokesmen excuse his absence at states grappling with bloodshed.

Enough of what the president did not do in 2021 to the sweetest things he did. Insistent outcry for the overhaul of government’s lacklustre security apparatchik led to the retirement of Tukur Buratai and his cohort mid-last year. The euphoria did not die down when the president presented their names to the national assembly for confirmation as ambassadors.

The rubberstamp legislature endorsed the list and helped Buratai transform from one of the worst army chiefs in contemporary history to becoming Nigeria’s envoy to Porto Novo.

Within weeks of desecrating the traditional efficiency of the foreign ministry, Buratai achieved his first feat as a transmogrified ‘diplomat’ with the arrest of Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho. Igboho was the Yoruba bush fighter who rallied to dislodge herdsmen terrorizing his homestead. That exploit elevated him from the leadership of an ethnic militia to becoming the rallying point for secessionist outcry arising from complete neglect by Buhari, Buratai and his friends. The Buratai that could not capture a more dreaded Abubakar Shekau suddenly becomes a ‘hero’ for capturing someone that pose no inherent danger to Nigeria than the bandits that Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, a former soldier who lionizes bandits with courtesy visits and support.

Igboho remains in diplomatic prison while Gumi and his friends operate freely. If Buratai had captured Shekau before the latter committed suicide, Nigeria could have gained insights into the modus operandi/vivendi of Boko Haram; unravelled the kidnap of Chibok schoolgirls, pinpoint the exact location of Leah Sharibu and freed several captives. Nigeria could have had intelligent discernments into Boko Haram’s links with its sinister friends ISIS. Buratai bungled that chance only to chase after an insignificant ethnic militiaman.

The transmogrification of Buratai and his fellow defence buccaneers has not improved security in Nigeria. However, the presidency thinks otherwise. We know that the Kaduna-Abuja highway and other entryways into the national capital are now a death trap. Bandits appear, kill maim, kidnap and vanish at will. They snatch and grab passengers for ransom. There is no safe haven on roads in any part of northern Nigeria. That includes Buhari’s home state of Katsina where his governor calls for the institutionalisation of the state of anarchy. Unlike the folkloric story of the fox and the three little pigs, our leader huffs and puffs but does nothing to reinforce security. We are all exposed to mortal danger under his inept leadership.

As we were bidding goodbye to 2021 our president did not offer medals to chivalrous soldiers or extraordinary field commanders. Instead, he announced the promotion of Buratai’s equally indolent successors, the same ones whose inefficiency has retained Nigeria’s position as one of the most dangerous places to live and thrive.

As they say, the apple does not fall far from its tree. Under a free and fair electoral system and a political party of conscientious people, Buhari’s first four years of disaster was enough to retire him into political oblivion. However in Nigeria, he ‘won’ a contrived second term and has since perfected the act of showing us his ‘I-don’t-care’ shoulder. He flies out at will, bores the nation with soporific speeches at intervals and now reminds us how he could hardly wait to enjoy his retirement at our expense. Sadly, he has neither the courage nor the conviction to honourably resign.

With the tacit connivance of the National Assembly, President Buhari has stamped the authority to inflict pain on the nation with his so-called withdrawal on a fuel subsidy he once described as a scam. With the consequences of that action alone, 2022 is not a happy new year, it’s the perpetuation of pain and suffering.