Abu Najakku is one of my favourite columnists. He writes for Daily Trust newspaper. I read one of his pieces entitled “Buhari doesn’t need to be ‘smart’ “ which I want to share with you my dear readers. Happy reading:
Abimbola Adelakun, a columnist for the PUNCH newspaper, has a lot of misgivings about people giving credit to President Muhammadu Buhari for the little turnaround in our national fortunes, whether in terms of increased electricity supply or rising foreign reserves or the fight against corruption or Boko Haram.
Both before and after the election, Adelakun had been one of the most painstaking critics of the Buhari candidacy and now, the Buhari Presidency. Apart from her pretty-looking prose, Adelakun has continually drawn attention to the possible gaps between the Nigerian problems and Buhari’s (lack of) understanding of them or the capacity to solve them; the contradictions of “change” as the mantra of the All Progressives Congress and how Buhari is an unfit representation of that change. She wonders how a political party that professes change could field an old
man, 72 years old, and say he would spearhead change. She huffily queries what it is that Buhari has done in the last few weeks that could have affected our national life.
Adelakun had never contemplated the possibility of a Buhari win of the 2015 presidential election. On October 23, 2014, in “Why Buhari may not defeat Jonathan”, Adelakun had asked: “In the few months before election, is there any possibility that Buhari will have a better run this time and probably defeat Jonathan?” Her answer: “It is doubtful.” In the same article, she had come to a painful judgement: “Even though many Nigerians are probably weary of Jonathan’s government by now, they are still practical enough to understand that another four years of Jonathan’s government will not kill them.”
Earlier in “The Honesty Buhari Needs”, published on August 29, 2013, Adelakun had opined that what Nigeria needs is not a man with a good image but someone who has a vision, and the energy and charisma to drive it, and that he (Buhari) is just not that person.” Now Adelakun wants Buhari to be smart and not slow and steady.
But once upon a time, we had a smart set of rulers. They were led by a smart President named Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who initially endeared himself to us by claiming to be shoeless when he was a child. Dr Jonathan was very smart; he would weave his entire Presidency around the word transformation and was going to transform everything Nigerian from agriculture to Z-list.
President Jonathan was very smart indeed. During the Presidency of Umar Yar’adua, he had stayed at the background and never strayed from the trajectory constructed for him. Even when Yar’adua fell terminally sick, Jonathan never showed ambition and it took the Senate’s Doctrine of Necessity to get him sworn in as the next President.
Jonathan was smart; after giving his word that he would only finish the remainder of the tenure of his predecessor, Umaru Yar’adua (may Allah bestow mercy on his soul) and serve one term, he turned round to say he was good enough to contest, win and lead for four more years. Even when he was confronted with the fact of his commitment by some of the participants, Jonathan was smart enough to put up a very strong denial.
Jonathan’s smartness would be demonstrated in his party suspending and expelling and frustrating some hitherto top guns of the Peoples Democratic Party. Chief Alex Ekwueme, Ken Nnamani, Seriake Dickson and Umaru Dikko, all headed committees designed and briefed to completely hand over PDP to Jonathan. But then, some smart party men (PDP is a party of the smart!), would opt out, dealing the party an irremediable blow.
‘Smart’ Jonathan neglected Nigeria’s refineries and instituted a regime of colossal importation of petroleum products backed by massive subsidies. All you needed to be paid millions in both local and foreign currencies were some dubious papers signed by officials of NNPC or its subsidiaries. Though Jonathan established a committee chaired by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhede, which discovered sleaze in the subsidy regime, the president was not interested in the prosecution of those allegedly involved because their surnames read Ali, Tukur, etc. The conscienceless importation of petroleum products transformed millionaires and even paupers into billionaires.
Jonathan was also smart enough to transform Asari Dokubo, Edwin Clark and Tompolo into very wealthy persons, with the first two said to be university owners. The massive multi-billion naira contract given to Tompolo “to protect Nigeria’s maritime shores” has never been denied by either the giver or the beneficiary.
Jonathan got Sambo Dasuki, his National Security Adviser, to go to Chatham House to chatter about serious security in Nigeria that well did not exist regarding the then impending general elections . Sambo decided that the army would not be available to provide security for the elections slated for February and the polls would be pushed back by six weeks to enable the Nigerian armed forces defeat Boko Haram. Related to that, Professor Attahiru Jega was discovered to have got out of control and had begun to flaunt an anti-PDP technology called card reader.
When, however, Jonathan lost the presidential election to Buhari, he was ‘smart’ enough to concede defeat.
In a July 30, 2015, article titled “Buhari is slow and steady but is he smart?”, Adelakun dismissed the notion of ‘slow and steady wins the race’, charging that the president has not shown the required intelligence to resolve the country’s myriad of problems. Her conclusion? “Buhari should know that being slow and steady is analogue. In this digital age, one needs to be smart as well.”
History has shown that Jonathan is neither smart nor digital; he also didn’t possess a good image. Buhari doesn’t need to be smart. He just needs to assemble an honest and patriotic cabinet that will help him restore basic services, fight and punish corruption and remain accountable. I dare say that, in our current circumstances, a good image is a starting point.
This article was first published on this page on 13th August, 2015
ref: http://www.leadership.ng/columns/459781/abu-najakkus-advice-2
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