By Gbemiga Olakunle
After his extended medical vacation in London which lasted more than 100 days, the King – President Muhammed Buhari has returned to the country to the warm embrace of his countrymen and women with wild jubilation in some quarters.
This was to be expected because the President must have read or listened to the news of his own obituary not once or twice. His eventual return to the country in good health, is a miracle indeed. The President, no doubt, is a bundle of testimonies in that regard. To the natural eye, the President’s ailment must have been cured through advanced technology in medical practice as demonstrated by his doctors and other members of the medical team that attended to him.
But the truth of the matter, which the President himself can also attest to, is the work of unseen forces/powers that won the battle to save his life which enabled him to regain his robust health again. Of course, at the helm of affairs/operations of these positive unseen forces is God – Himself who is the creator and author of life. This miracle of healing might be in response to the intercessory prayers of some concerned Nigerians both at home and abroad.
God must have given him a second chance not just for his sake alone, it might be for the purpose of allowing him to complete/fulfill his mandate to the nation that is still at a crossroads on a number of burning national issues which should attract Mr. President’s attention now. In other words, these issues that are featuring permanently on the front burner of our national discourse should be the main focus of the president. He should not allow himself to be distracted by the noise of the confused crowd in the market.
The suspected authors of “Hate Speeches” should not distract him with their scrunitisation of government’s policies and actions. At the same time, the president should not be carried away by his praisesingers who are urging him to declare his intention to run for a second term in office even when there are myriad of issues that his administration are still battling with during his current tenure. While some of the members of these two groups of people may be genuine with the nation’s interest at heart, the majority of them may be political jobbers who are looking for what to eat to satisfy their hunger or lust.
While the President was away on medical leave, the Boko Haram sect has suddenly woken up from to terrorize the people of the Northeast again. Nobody knows whether this resurgence is due to political or religious motives or act of pure criminality.
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, while holding the forte for his principal did his best to checkmate the excesses of this dreaded sect and ensured that the victory already recorded in that area is not reversed again; but obviously there is an extent to which he could go in his acting capacity lest some cabal members tag him as an over-ambitious public officer who wanted to upstage his principal. And so, he tried to manage the crisis until the return of the King.
Still on the issues that threaten our national security, although a major feat was recorded while the President was away as regards kidnapping with the arrest of Evans and other kidnap-kingpins, yet this issue has assumed the status of a national phenomenon to the extent that our highways and even neighbourhoods are not really safe from these evil men and women that are prowling around looking for targets to kidnap for ransom or kill for rituals. May God save us from their evil dragnets. And so Mr. President should focus on addressing these worrisome security issues that also include incessant Fulani herdsmen – farmers clashes with their attendant causalities especially in Southern Kaduna, Benue and Enugu states.
The President should also address the lingering problems in our educational sector, which have forced the lecturers in our public universities to go on strike at intervals of every three to four years, thus causing some of them to lose a semester or a whole session in their academic calendars.
Equally important and deserving the President’s urgent attention is the state of our health institutions. Medical tourism to India, London and America has been identified as a major channel of capital flight from this country, claiming billions of naira yearly. Ironically, statistics have shown that more than 50% of medical practitioners, especially medical consultants who are practising in Britain and United States of America are Nigerians.
That means these medical specialists can compete with their colleagues all over the world but there are no well– equipped facilities and conducive environment at home to enable them practise their profession. And hence, they had to migrate to much better environments that will not only enhance their practice, but where they will also be well–appreciated. That is why some privileged Nigerians, who have the means, have continued to troop to these better climes in search of solutions to their health challenges.
While the President was on vacation, the issue of separatist tendencies assumed a frightening dimension with the IPOB’s agitation. And of course, some of us recommended restructuring with main emphasis on devolution of power as a realistic way out of the unfolding crisis. In my previous article on this issue, I observed that the nation is actually practising a unitary system of government even though it is a Federal Republic in theory. In the said article, I advocated true federalism with a view to ensure that the federating units should be empowered to control at least 50% of the resources that may originate from their respective territories. I further advised that the recommendations in the 2014 National Confab Report should be considered. It is good that the President has indicated his intention to discuss restructuring with the Council of State and pass it to the National Assembly.
Whichever way, Buhari should note that the buck stops at his table. And people should be encouraged to engage themselves in productive and resourceful national discourse without being tagged authors of hate speeches. Some of them may be driven to engage in whatever they are doing out of genuine concern for the state of the nation while others may be attention seekers who are playing to the gallery just to disturb the peace of the nation for their own selfish reasons.
It is the excesses of this group of people that the Federal Government should checkmate and not attempt to silence the voices of genuine agitators that are campaigning for fair play and a more equitable distribution of resources in the country.
Olakunle writes from Abuja