Some recent developments in and around the Presidency actually evoke sympathy for President Muhamadu Buhari, as the enterprise of some of his handlers, seem to de-market him deeper by the day. This by any measure, constitutes an anticlimax which he does not deserve, whereby instead of leading him to consolidate on his positive legacies in the twilight of his tenure, they are heading the opposite direction. In all fairness, it will be most preposterous to hold that in all of the seven out of eight years of the Buhari administration, nothing positive in terms of development has been achieved. In numerous areas of national life, changes have been recorded under his watch, even as the de-marketing of his tenure by his aides, has also progressed unrelentingly, with the cacophony of lament by the citizenry trailing seemingly unheeded, by such handlers.
For instance, at least two voices in recent times, out of the numerous stringent lamentations, have been rewarded with undue vitriol by the Presidency for conveying the mood of Nigerians on the state of affairs in the country. Whereas the lamenting voices were moved to speak out to the President, by the prevailing circumstances in the country – especially the daily worsening state of insecurity, the response from a presidential spokesman – Garba Shehu, simply displayed a most grievous, crass insensitivity for the plight of Nigerians across the country. Is Garba Shehu and his co-travelers intent on leaving Nigerians in doubt, over their connect with the sensitivities of the citizenry, one may ask?
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Leading the latest round of indictment of the administration was the Archbishop of the Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church Dr Mathew Hassan Kukah who in his Easter sermon rued the descent of the country into what he called “one big emergency national hospital with full occupancy”. In a thoughtless response however, Mr Garuba Shehu laughably accused the cleric of speaking out of hate for the Buhari administration, even as he did not establish with cogent reasons, why and how Kukah hates the administration.
Some days after Kukah, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) through its spokesman Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, outrightly called on the President to resign from office, specifically due to the manifest failure of the administration to stem the run-away state of insecurity in the country. In the typical, irascible style of responses from the Presidency to criticisms of the administration, its spokesman hastily and irreverently referred to the NEF as a bunch of “failed politicians”.
Interestingly, responses by several other sections of the general public have also thrown in their weight on the matter even if from different angles, but with a common verdict of failure by the Buhari administration. For example, the Bishops of the Kaduna Dioceses of both the Anglican and Catholic Churches – Timothy Yahaya and Matthew Manoso Ndagoso respectively, have lent their individual weights behind the stand of the NEF. In a similar vein, some social advocacy groups have also toed the same line but with a caveat of concern that the situation could worsen if the President was forced to abandon ship, given the present state of affairs in the country. All that the last interventionists are pleading for is that he be allowed to end his tenure without rocking the boat further, and thereby salvage whatever is left of it.
At this stage it needs to be recalled that the various laments cannot be isolated from the recent spate of terrorist attacks in and around Kaduna State which inspite of being one of the most protected parts of the country, had its underbelly punctured by the murderous assailants. Easily recalled are the recent incidents which include one in which a train going from Abuja to Kaduna was attacked with passengers killed, wounded and some kidnapped. The kidnapped persons are today still being used by their captors as bargaining chips in ransom negotiations with their families and the government. Also in the same vein is easily recalled the earlier incident of a brazen daylight attack by a horde of armed terrorists on the Kaduna Airport, which also recorded casualties in a resulting shoot-out between the terrorists and security agents.
Incidentally, these are just two of the numerous occurrences of daily, murderous attacks which have become the macabre hallmark of the public space, not only in Kaduna and metropolis, but the rest of the northern parts of the country and even the south. Indeed, it is no exaggeration that no part of Nigeria is safe from the ongoing mayhem, except perhaps Aso Rock where Garba Shehu and his ilk, hide and launch their vitriolic at anybody who rightly or wrongly faults the Buhari administration.
Viewed against the backdrop of propriety and public spiritedness, these voices of lament which resonate with the mood of the Nigerian public, easily qualify to earn higher merit than the vitriolic against them by Garba Shehu and company. The issue here is crystal clear that the Nigerian public cannot but be enraged by the endless blood-letting, as the victims of the killings are not mere livestock, but beloved fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters as well as other relatives of fellow Nigerians, for whom the unwelcome deaths of their kith and kin, impose lifelong pains. And they are therefore saying resoundingly, “enough is enough”.
It is for the foregoing reason – being the imperative for the Presidency to demonstrate empathy (if nothing else), that the return of vitriolic for well-intended criticism of the Presidency qualifies as out of place in the circumstances. This situation thereby rules the enterprise of Garba Shehu out of context as an asset in Buhari’s closet cabinet.
Seen from the perspective of posterity, with the end point of Buhari’s Presidency looming and due in barely one year, whatever comes out of the Presidency now constitutes the administration’s end game, take it or leave it. In that context therefore, whatever does not conduce to assuring Buhari of a soft landing and positive rating by posterity after office at this stage, is a liability.
In the same vein too, stand Garba Shehu – and lest we forget Femi Adesina and the grandmaster Lai Mohamed himself as liabilities, in respect of whom a salvage mission to redeem Buhari’s positive legacies must be launched. This is the real challenge facing the President and his well-wishers, between now and May 29, 2023.
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