Pitying the President

Also published in Daily Trust

Though the plight of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians enduring the current wave of economic hardship, which is said to be the worst ever in the country, is indeed heartbreaking, President Buhari himself attracts pity as well, under these circumstances, albeit certainly not for the same reason, for obvious reason. He, instead, attracts pity in view of the sheer magnitude and complexity of the challenges bedevilling his presidency amid mounting expectations of the extremely exhausted hence rightly impatient Nigerians desperate for change after decades of groaning under excruciating poverty and misery. This, however, doesn’t de-emphasize his obligations as President, let alone justify his failure to deliver, anyway.

Having come to power as arguably the most reputable public figure in Nigeria who has over the decades earned and maintained an enviable reputation for honesty, President Buhari has been caught up in a quagmire represented by the largely apathetic and, in fact, obstructive civil servants and political office holders, on the one hand, and a populace that, though is desperate for change, yet is largely resistant to what real change entails, on the other.

Having to work with largely unlike-minded elected and appointed political office holders to formulate and execute his administration’s policies, and also having to navigate through Nigeria’s notoriously corrupt public service sector, to deliver, President Buhari’s dilemma can’t be overestimated. This is notwithstanding the fact that he shares the same political party with the majority of such elected public office holders (e.g. Senators and the members of the House of Representatives) and with all the appointed ones, of course, as he also supposedly enjoys the goodwill of many others from the opposition parties.

In other words, notwithstanding the popularity of the idea of change and reform that political office holders and civil servants in particular appear, or rather, pretend to uphold, the sincere ones among them who are actually committed to President Buhari’s mission aren’t that many, after all. In fact, the persistent inability of Buhari’s administration to fully settle down and embark on real economic recovery projects almost a year into its four-year tenure, proves the existence of a deliberate and systematic sabotage that some vested interests perpetrate with a view to frustrating the President and maintaining the status quo of opaque and corruption-ridden bureaucracy and impunity, which some extremely few individuals manipulate to perpetrate systematic stealing of public funds, thereby subjecting the vast majority of Nigerians to perpetual economic misery with its attendant socio-political repercussions.  

The yet unresolved scandal-ridden budget issue, for instance, reflects the vehement defiance and insistence of such individuals to carry on the usual fraud that has characterized the process of budgeting in the country. Interestingly enough, though I, admittedly, had never heard of the notorious phrase; “budget padding” until recently, in the wake of the scandalous discovery of the fraudulent changes, reallocations and interpolations in the 2016 budget, my ignorance of the phrase turned out to be quite excused when I watched a video clip of President Buhari himself maintaining that despite serving in various official capacities for decades, he had equally never heard of the phrase before the scandal. On a more serious note anyway, the President’s remark further highlighted the growing sophistication of stealing tactics used by corrupt civil servants in collaboration with corrupt political office holders.

Meanwhile, while the President is expected to overcome these frustrating challenges to live up to, at least, the minimum expectations of the general public, anyway, his dilemma is further exacerbated by the attitude of the general public whose desire for change has not gone beyond voting for him. It’s ironic that, the attitude of the average Nigerian towards change does not correspond to the amount of his obsession with it, especially when it affects his self-centered interests and desires. It seems that, almost everybody simply wants the badly needed change to prevail at the expense of others’ interests, while he continues to take advantage of the situation to perpetrate his illegitimate acts, gets away with it, derives and indeed enjoys the unearned benefits that come with it. Yet, when things get worse, he looks for a scapegoat(s) to blame.

This phenomenon has, unsurprisingly, created seriously unfavorable, and in fact, frustrating circumstances under which no meaningful change can be achieved, no matter who the leader is. Besides, change never takes place in a vacuum. After all, the achievement of positive and sustainable change is a collective responsibility, and until individuals realize the imperative of their respective roles in order to collectively achieve it, leaders like President Buhari would always attract pity, for they would end up frustrated by such frustrating circumstances.