Muhammadu Buhari: The President Without an Agenda.
As we approach the twilight of President Muhammadu Buhari's first term and with the dawning of his second and final tenure, a question looms large in my heart. The question is quite basic but somewhat complex to answer.
What is the President's agenda?
Not so surpising, I could not provide a suitable answer to my question in five minutes. And for me, any question I cannot answer within that time frame has more to it than meets the eye. So I took up study in the past few days, reviewing the President, his presidency and his political party's agenda - what they have decided to term "Next level".
Other than the ever vague, colorful political promises, I could barely wrap my hands around the man's agenda at such a time as this in our national life. After my ruminations, I came up disappointed, simply because I had hoped to prove myself wrong, that a man cannot seek the highest office of the land four consecutive times without an agenda - alas, against all hope I was proven wrong! I am particular about the President's agenda because I believe we need a measuring rod for his time in office, a basis upon which we can make decisions
Since this administration appears vague, beclouded, indecisive and one without a sense of direction, I decided to employ the wisdom of an African saying: "If you don't know where you're going, you should (at least) know where you came from". And so in the spirit of this axiom, I decided to direct my steps backwards down the road called the Memory Lane. I went a little backwards, stopping briefly at the 2015. Further still, I journeyed twelve years back to 2003, and all I could perceive were mere words, devoid of anything worthy of being called an agenda. This preeminent vagueness is captured in the fine and famous phrase - "I am for nobody and for everybody". My hearts aches and I do wonder at what the General turned democractic president will say when he finds himself in a gathering of world leaders representing us as a corporate entity, and it's his turn to sell, resell and recreate the brand Nigeria. Albeit I did find something. I found a president whose singular agenda is to blame the past administrations; unleash his ever backing but never biting bulldog in an attempt to force everyone into submission; I found a man whose party branded as the heavyweight, who will knock out corruption withheld a single punch of his magical, 'no nonsense' fist; I found a man who promised to scrap the office of the First Lady, only to masquerade it as the office of the wife of the President.
When it became evident to me that my answer would not be answered by the General from Daura, and looking closely at the house - the political home that produced such an incompetent president, what I found was a political marriage concocted only to takeover the vast farmland from her arch-rival, with no clear cut agenda, political plan nor strategem to maximize its claim. This aimless political union began producing incompetent children, like its first born that occupies the Aso Villa. Next in the intrigue was for some supposed members of the political marriage to file for divorce when it became clear to them that only the wives nicknamed 'Burdillion' and those from the Kaduna ancestral home will have access to the family resources, solely in custody of the incompetent first born.
When this political family was asked why it has failed to deliver on its promises to tend, nourish and nurture the farmland, it pointed to the family next door, casting the blame on them. When asked how it intend to cultivate the resource,bthe response was simply, 'Next level'.
Evidently, neither the family nor her offspring led by the first begotten in Aso rock has an agenda to drive the nation forward, it has no clear-cut vision.
A friend and elder brother of mine, said to me, some days back, "Deji, hard times lie ahead, for the Holy scripture says: where there is no vision, the people perish. Now, I believe it is clear why we're sliding down as a nation."
God help us, thank you.
God bless you and may he continually bless the Federal republic of Nigeria.
Adewumi Adedeji,
08082790452.
Writes from, Lagos, Nigeria.
Dejijupiter@gmail.com
#DPresidentDiary.
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