WORDS are powerful. They are the vehicles of our thoughts. That’s why, new Presidents, basking in the glow of victory often assume that they can move the public.  After all, they have just won the biggest prize in politics. These are not exactly my words.  These are the words of George C. Edward III, a distinguished Professor of Political Science and fellow at the University of Oxford. President Muhammadu Buhari was in that feel-good mood in May 2015 after about 15 million Nigerian voters chose him over the then incumbent president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2015, Buhari, dressed in a cream-coloured kaftan with a brown cap to match, glowed in that victory. He brimmed with confidence. Many Nigerians were very optimistic that his integrity and experience, sanctified with age would put him in good stead to govern. Within the international community, his victory was equally well received. The assurance that he belonged to “everybody” and belonged to “nobody”, was like rays of sunshine on our troubled political firmament.  It remains a matter for debate if he actually belongs to everybody, and to nobody.
But this is not in doubt: Everybody likes change, particularly when the old order has become hackneyed and no longer the panacea to the present problems. But, as political scientists will tell us, to bring about change, an elected president must require broad public support for the general direction of new initiatives. As Prof. Edward III wrote recently in the Washington Post, “public support is a key resource that modern presidents have typically sought for themselves and their publics’’. They seek such to leverage public opinion and garner support in that country’s parliament.  However, every public support a president gets is based largely on his performance and influence. Sometimes, the initial support the president gets is to give him time to luxuriate in what is fondly called “honey moon”. It’s a time to settle down in the office he has been elected to serve.
We all know that while many members of the National Assembly have not given the President that broad support to push through his agenda, a large spectrum of the Nigerian public had on many occasions bent over backwards to support the President’s agenda even when many of the measures he has initiated have painfully hurt them. In that respect, it’s not unkind to say that this administration, more than any previous one, has put Nigerians at their wit’s end.
2016 began and ended the way many of us didn’t expect. But we are happy we have moved on from those dark moments.  Undoubtedly, some of the events that shaped 2016 caused many Nigerians and foreign investors to lose hope in the country and the change agenda that brought Buhari to power. Many are still riling and reeling over the policies that are choking their lives. But, moving on from the dark moments of 2016, and now in 2017, we can say this for sure: Nigerians are like the Palm Tree. They are resilient. Their spirits are unconquerable. They will always withstand even the most difficult situation that this administration can force on them. That’s what the Bible teaches us about the Palm Tree. It flourishes from within, even under attack from outside.
But the patience of Nigerians are growing thin. I think 2017 is the year Buhari must define his presidency and how prepared he is to lead a diverse nation like ours. The period of living in denial is over. The period of shifting blames for the myriad problems facing the country has become a tired political argument.   The truth is that this government doesn’t appear to have realised the difference between campaign and governing. In campaign, all you need do is convince voters that you are a better choice than the other available alternatives on the ballot. We have not forgotten Buhari got the better of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election, by scoring most votes, call it the popular votes.  But, after taking the reins of power the president seemed lost in the euphoria of the victory.
Maybe, the ruling All Progressives Congress didn’t fully understand the meaning of governing, which involves a deliberate articulation of ideas, negotiations and compromise over an extended period. But it took the President an awful lot of time to assemble a cabinet. And when he did, it was not the stardust that he promised. That, we must repeat, is partly responsible for the lack of adequate response to the problems begging for solutions.
This year will prove whether the APC at the centre is ready to govern. Nigerians lived through 2016 dangerously. They barely survived. Hope faded in Nigeria. Great recession swallowed everything we got. With recession came the collapse our standard of living. Inflation galloped to unprecedented rate of 18.4 percent, the worst in over three decades. Prices of essential food items went wild. Naira took the gravest beating, depreciating to almost N500 to the USD.
Getting Nigeria out of recession and driving the economy to recovery and growth must top government’s priority this year. This government should realise that it is fast losing the trust of the people. Everything that is necessary must be put in place to stimulate to bolster the economy. As I said in this column last week, the economy remains Buhari’s Achilles heel. If by the end of First Quarter (Q1), things remain the same, Nigeria may go under receivership. In deep trouble. If that happens, this government could be more clueless than the previous administration it tarred with that brush.
Nobody is saying Buhari will solve all Nigeria’s problems. But when the people elect a president over other available alternatives, it should be seen as a duty to perform, not a prize  won. It, therefore beats one’s imagination that nineteen months in the saddle, government officials are still playing the blame game, and you ask: why did we vote out the previous man in power? It was because many voters, rightly or wrongly, believed Buhari had better ideas to steer Nigeria in the right direction.
This is my unsolicited advice for the way forward: First, the President should, of necessity, retool his Cabinet with strong managers who will control the career bureaucrats and not become their captives. These are men and women who can give the president unvarnished truth and lay out the options for decisions that he will have to make this year. Buhari needs people who know how to build support in different sectors. Some of the appointees in the present Cabinet have become spent forces, no longer useful to what we require to provide positive change. President Buhari should leave the details of administration to these tested and proven managers and concentrate on determining national priorities and direction.
That Nigerians are yet to see any significant impact of this government is largely because the President has not properly defined the boundaries of his office. So much attention has been focused on the fight against graft. While that is not a bad idea at all, and we must commend him, some members of his Cabinet seem to be making that fight against corruption unwinnable for him. Buhari should ask himself: what does Nigeria wants, not what he wants for Nigeria.
Leadership has often failed us basically because our leaders confuse their own destinies with that  of the country and that of the citizens. Destinies are not the same. It will be in the president’s best interest to win over millions of Nigerians who have been hurt terribly by government’s flipflop policies or lose them for the rest of his tenure. The present moves by some politicians to float a mega party spring from discontent in the polity. The ruling party should not pretend it doesn’t matter.

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