That Buhari’s Disappointing New Year Speech

Whenever you find a nation obliged to scrutinise, even infer opinions on actions and inactions of its leadership over and over again, especially in a period of despair and deep gloom, as we appear condemned to do within the nation space called Nigeria, it is certainly symptomatic of something fundamentally troubling and inexplicably flawed with the prevailing conditions of that nation and indeed, its leadership.
Nothing really evinces this more than the barrage of divergent outpourings that has been trailing President Muhammadu Buhari’s New Year Message to the nation. The outpourings, most of which range from the sublime to the ridiculous, agree on one fact: the President is yet to find clues to ameliorate the anguish of beleaguered Nigerians.
Presidential speeches the world over, as in the case of the western nations, usually dwell extensively on critical aspects of national problems and challenges and set feasible governmental agenda that rekindle the hope of the citizenry. But Buhari’s New Year message to Nigerians, glutted with jaded homilies, empty promises and false claims, expectedly came to grief for not offering solutions to the nation’s misery or providing clear indices for national development and progress.
Buhari had told Nigerians in the broadcast that his administration would intensify efforts in advancing road, rail and power infrastructure in the country this year. He particularly promised to construct standard guage rail lines to cover most parts of the country to enhance transportation and boost the economy.
Apparently engaging in self adulation over projects initiated, articulated and implemented by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, especially in the transportation, power and agricultural sectors, Buhari said: The Abuja Capital Rail Project has reached 98 percent completion from the 64 per cent when we assumed office. Only test runs remain before start of operations”.
Apart from failing to tell Nigerians what landmark projects the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government has initiated and executed so far, Buhari, though acknowledged the hardship experienced by Nigerians during the Yuletide as a result of long queues at filling stations nationwide, failed to proffer solutions to the lingering fuel scarcity, just as the growing unemployment, fallen value of the Naira, poverty, misery, looting of the nation’s foreign reserve, diversion of funds for insurgency-related matters, amongst others, never got a mention.
Curiously enough and in flagrant and arrogant display of supine callousness on the vexed issue of restructuring the country and for which his party, APC, had since constituted a committee, the President foreclosed any possible review of the present structure and preposterously branded Nigerians as “very impatient”.
Ostensibly dismissing repeated calls by well-meaning Nigerians to restructure the country and chart a more equitable and progressive path to nation-building, unity and stability, Buhari claimed rather erroneously: “When all the aggregates of nationwide opinions are considered, my firm view is that our problems are more to do with the process than structure”.
While The Tide would not want to join issues with our beloved President on the other aspects of his distastateful speech, we make haste to say that his opposition to the much-touted restructuring of the country leaves much to be desired and reinforces the urgent need for him to have a rethink on the issue of restructuring and the imperatives of fiscal federalism.
It is irrefragable that Buhari’s almost three-year administration has wrought more hardship on Nigerians. And for a leader to have glossed over all the myriad problems of his 180 million people in a speech of that nature smacks of abject political naivety and insensitivity which can hardly be brooked in saner climes.
Even more worrisome is his offensive tone of finality on the restructuring debate in this period of our national life, when clarion calls for ways to retrieve Nigeria and its people from the nadir of socio-economic and political asphyxia have been deafening.
We, therefore, advise President Buhari to don the cap of statesmanship which his office demands.