With the emergence of President Mohammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s democratically elected leader, majority of Nigerians customarily welcomed the administration with joy. That was understandable as candidate Buhari rode to the presidency on the change mantra. Promises were made about how the old would pass away with specific changes to how government business is conducted. Nigerians were besotted with the president and he was hailed as the messiah to right all the wrongs, the same way he was hailed in 1984 when he ousted the civilian administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari.
Several reasons contributed to the sheepish acceptance of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its change slogan. The candidate had and still has a pedigree of frugality and honesty. He is not a man given to ostentatious living. His ascetic, hermit-like visage gave Nigerians hope that indeed a Daniel has come to judgement. That eldorado has finally arrived. On a personal note, the president has not disappointed. He is still the same honest person we voted for. He is still the same man who sees the rot in the country and wants to correct them. He is still the patriot that we have always known him to be. Unfortunately, those positive characteristics, though good in themselves, have not really translated into the new wine in new bottle that Nigerians envisaged.
It is belaboring the point that so much jobs have been lost in the past one year. Only on Wednesday, an indigenous, tomato paste-making company, Erisco foods decided to shut down its operations in Nigeria and take its manufacturing arm to China. The company cited the continued difficulty in sourcing for forex to import needed raw material. The company had begged and even issued ultimatum to the federal government to compel the Central bank to make foreign exchange available, to no avail.
“My business has been deliberately frustrated by the way the CBN has managed forex bidding and allocation. They won’t give us forex to import machinery, machine spare parts and raw materials for processing Nigerian fresh tomatoes into paste in our Lagos factory and they won’t give us approval to use our own money (about $460,000) generated from our foreign operations to import our raw materials. Was how the company described and justified its decision.
Thus Nigeria’s loss is again China’s gains as Erisco would then start importing finished products into the country from China. Presently, the company has a workforce of about 2000 out of which 1500 would be thrown into the Labour market…”we need just about 40 staff to keep the Nigerian company running since what we will now be doing is just restricted to marketing and sales of imported products from our China plant”, the company further announced.That scenario is contrary to the change Nigerians envisaged when they cast their lot with APC. Nigerians did not vote for job loss as it is being experienced since the administration took over governance.  The President’s party promised the creation of jobs, promotion of manufacturing, among some other promises. But some of these have become failed promises.
Nigeria’s story can be likened to the biblical  story of Rehoboam in the Bible. On mounting the throne of his father David, the Israelites had gone to him on bended knees, telling him to lighten their yoke as laid on them by his forebears just like Nigerians have done by rejecting the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) administration and voting for Buhari so he could lighten their yoke. The elders of Israel counseled  Rehoboam on what he should do in order to get the loyalty of the people. But Rehoboam went contrary to the counsel of the elders.
Instead of the wise counsel of the elders, Rehoboam chose to listen to his circle of young (cabals) friends  who advised him to lay heavier yoke on his people. “And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him; and spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. ( 1King 13-14).
A familiar scenario. Nigerians chose APC to make their yoke lighter. But what is happening is contrary to their expectations. The yoke is heavier and most are being chastised with scorpions instead of the whips. Life of the average Nigerian has become difficult. Many husbands have abdicated their responsibilities. They can no longer look their wives in the face. They have been emasculated by the economy. They can no longer function as parents. So what became of Rehoboam and the reaction of the Israelites after Rehoboam’s infra dig? It is not for me to say, but further reading of that portion of the Bible would provide answer.
So why have we come to this sorry pass in spite of the trust that Nigerians have in President Buhari? The answer to this are many and I would not want to go into the earlier past time of blaming the PDP administration of Goodluck Jonathan simply because Nigerians knew they were not being well served by that administration and they opted for another alternative.
President Buhari is honest, upright and beyond reproach. But he is only one among so many other sharks in the system. He can not be everywhere, every time. He is not a young man, his energy is limited. And you now ask; how many of the people working in the present administration share his vision for a better Nigeria? Apart from that, did Nigerians really interrogate the APC and even President Buhari enough on how the change would be effected.
In a corporate organisation, if you were employing a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), you would interrogate him about his vision and how he would achieve those visions. He would give specifics and not give sweeping generalization. Nigerians did not interrogate the APC and pin them down to specifics of how they planned to realize their promises. We all saw how America is conducting its electioneering campaigns.
The two major contenders- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump- have been grilled and exposed for who they are and what they stand for, it was thus easy to know their stand on issues which would guide decisions if either of them got elected as president. They both had three sessions of debate that exposed them to the American public. But  we never had that opportunity in Nigeria to assess our own candidates. Not that debates were not organized, but the candidates that people wanted to listen to did not turn up. Such debates would have helped in decision making irrespective of any propaganda. Nigeria is in recession but the situation has not yet turned to depression, if the economy managers are to be believed though they too seem as confused as majority of Nigerians, speaking tangentially on the economy.
What should be their role. Are they no longer as brilliant as we thought them to be? Why would you allow a company like Erisco to fold its operation with the attendant job loss? Is this not sabotage? Sabotaging the administration indirectly. What stops the CBN from giving that organisation and others in that problem (and there are so many) special consideration in order to safeguard their operations and also save some jobs. If this is not a deliberate sabotage of President Buhari’s administration in its desire to provide and not lose jobs, I don’t know what is.
Honesty, transparency which should be the hallmark in the conduct of government business is practised in the breech and this is at variance with what President Buhari stands for. Most ministries and agencies of government are secretly recruiting without the knowledge of the public. The job is only for children of the “big men”. In one of the agencies, children of such big men are even encouraged to claim states that have low representation in the secret recruitment. Is this not a corruption of the system and laid down procedure?  The Buhari we all know would not stand for this. But he is not a spirit that would know what is happening in most of these ministries and agencies.
So what has really changed? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

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