Yes, I can bet the laptop on which I write this piece that when Muhamadu Buhari set out on his recent journey to Aso Rock, he did not expect to see anything near the confusion that now surrounds him.
There was this wise old man in my village who when confronted with a very bad situation, sighed and exclaimed, ‘the world has burst both its tube and its tire!’ Indeed, Nigeria appears to have burst both its tube and its tire.
Ask any Nigerian today why he would not pay you the money he has owed you for three years and he will ask you whether you have not seen what Buhari has done to our economy. It does not matter that the guy has all his life been a habitual debtor.
This coming week, just ask your employer for a raise or a loan. Be careful how close you are to him when you ask. He would most likely holler at you as if you have gone raving mad. Then he would ask where you think he would get the money from. Hear him: “are you not in Nigeria… Can’t you see what Buhari has done to our economy?”
Poor Buhari! He is now responsible for everything that ails Nigerians. He is the reason why we can’t pay our children’s school fees. He is the reason why we can’t pay our rent. It does not matter that we were late with the fees and rent five years ago. Is Buhari not the reason why my friend can’t put his wife in the family way even though the instrument he requires to make that happen has not worked properly for years? Guy, if your babe asks you for money any time soon, you don’t have to worry about how to explain to her that your bank account has been dormant these past three years … “it is that man Buhari!”
Yes o! It is the man Buhari that is responsible for no piece of meat in our pot of soup, no beer in the fridge, no money in the bank, no sun in the sky and no smile on our faces. I don’t know if Muhammed Buhari knows that he has become Nigeria’s bogey man, the explanation for our every failure. If it is not Buhari, it is “change!”.
I don’t know if Nigerians should be blamed. After all no one begged Buhari to become our president. In fact he tried many times before to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but failed. This ought to be a lesson for all of us to be careful what we keep asking God for.
Does it not look like providence has played a cruel game on our president? Finally, Muhammed Buhari has got what he asked for but when he started his journey to Aso Rock, our country was earning about 108 dollars for a barrel of crude oil. There was money to spend. Shortly after Buhari got there, oil price suddenly crashed to about 30 dollars a barrel. Instead of managing an economy, Buhari is managing a crisis. The Nigerian economy has burst both its tube and its tire!
I have said it elsewhere that the good luck of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan never left him. Those of his friends who are crying that he ‘lost’ the last election are crazy. So, Buhari won. What exactly did Buhari win? He won the headship of an economy that defies every economic logic. He won an economy that is selling much less oil at much less price and catering for an ever increasing population with decayed infrastructure. He won an economy in which the government cannot even pay the meager salaries of its workers. Have you ever owned a car that you rarely drive because the car is always with your mechanic? The car drives you instead of you driving the car. If it is not carburetor today, it is alternator tomorrow or fuel pump or water pump or oil pump or some other pump. Nigeria is in that situation.
Unfortunately, despite our dire situation, I do not see a change in mood. Instead of blaming our rickety car, we are blaming the mechanic. For too long, Nigerians have taken from their country and given nothing in return. For many years, we drove our country through all kinds of pot holes and gullies and damaged all the shock absorbers. We did not change the tube. We did not change the tire. For many years, we ate our capital and the interest. Now that there is nothing to eat any more, we are blaming Buhari.
It appears to me that Nigerians want a miracle man and not a president. We want someone that can conjure food out of stone and turn water into wine so that we can continue to party. I do not see that we understand what is going on or that we are ready to do the hard work necessary to create a better tomorrow for our children. We want to eat omelets without breaking any eggs.
Unfortunately, the world does not work that way. Meanwhile, let us continue to blame it on Buhari.
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