In the next two months, it will be one year since the inception of the Buhari administration. It will be a period of reviews, reckoning and analysis of what has happened and what has changed through the policies and activities of the administration. The same exercise will be repeated at the state level and should be the case for local
governments where elections took place.
At the federal level, the honeymoon between Nigerians and the new administration has lasted for a fairly long time and is winding down as the people are faced with the challenges of everyday life. The ghosts of the previous administration are fading away and using the ghosts as excuses for non- performance is becoming very
difficult to sustain.
Nigeria is a broken nation. Nigerians understand that their country was raped and pillaged for the sixteen years of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) rule, most especially during the Goodluck Jonathan years. A year ago, we
elected President Muhammadu Buhari. We elected him to perform miracles.
Nigerians want miracles, and quick results and no one should blame them for seeking immediate relief after so much
suffering. That there is no relief yet does not bode well for this administration.
Nigerians are justifiably impatient and a bit angry that the change they were promised and voted for is excruciatingly
slow. The government and those who are the face of it should come to the understanding that the people’s sentiments are crucial. They should appreciate the feelings of bewilderment of Buhari’s supporters, which are increasingly compounded by a strong sense of mistrust and betrayal.
If this government must stave off civil unrest, they must find a way to calm the anger and frustration in the country
exacerbated by power cuts, long queues at petrol filling stations, and an atmosphere of general discontent.
It is painful to bear the burden of a problem one did not cause. The vast majority of Nigerians are nursing
the wounds of plunder and sustained financial exploitation that was visited on them.
The masses of our people have for years lived on pittance and wages they barely subsist on. The cost of living
has outstretched their incomes farther than bearable. Inflation is galloping. Power supply is epileptic. Many have no idea where the next meal will come from. Our communities need roads, water, modern health facilities and better
schools. Many parents cannot afford a decent meal for themselves and their children. Nigeria has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of out of school children in the world! Many parents cannot afford to send their children to school and many cannot parent their children because they are working too many jobs or logging
long hours in an attempt to feed them.
Workers who spent their entire life serving the country are consigned to a life of scavenging in old age because their pensions are not paid.
Some die while standing in pension queues, struggling to get their legitimate earnings and what is due to them.
These salient facts are not secret, the government knows, and the citizens are on the edge having borne so
much in silence.
When the government calls for patience and understanding, they should be seen as making sacrifices. What is
good for the ordinary Nigerian should be good for their elected representatives. There can be no continued justification for the maintenance of eleven aircrafts in the Presidential fleet. The recent purchase of luxury vehicles by the Senate President and his confederates is not only unfair, it is unjust, profligate and insensitive.
Apparently, they are unconcerned about the signals that are being sent to the country by their actions.
Otherwise, they would have been more sensitive to the economic plight the country is in and they would have realised that there is no justification for the purchases and the big line items in the 2016 budgets, given the plight
of Nigerians and the many intractable problems that are crying out for government spending.
Every arm of government should imbibe the new culture that we do not have the latitude to spend as we wish. Our spending should have a direct relationship with our earnings.
Good governance is about inspiring people to a higher purpose, and this can only be done by example.
– Balogun Emmanuel Funsho, from Kabba, Kogi State.
07034444976, irule9ja@gmail.com
