Why WAI? -By Amma Ogan

The most worrying thing about President Buhari’s decision to reintroduce WAI (War Against Indiscipline), is the moth eaten 31 year-old smell that it emits.

This is why we elected you? So that you could reach back to your ragbag of military slogans from three decades ago? In your thirty years out of office during which you tried four times to get elected as civilian president, you learnt nothing new? Your election was a watershed in Nigeria’s political development, as for the first time an incumbent president was successfully and peacefully, sent packing via the ballot box. In more than one interview Buhari acknowledged that this second chance to govern, or perhaps more accurately, the “first”, was under a different dispensation from the one he had cut his teeth on and therefore marked a break with the instruments of the past.

Even the most crass and ill experienced PR manager would say, just change the name; tweak it a bit, if you really don’t want to do the work required. But no, you just re-paste and rehash the same old same old because there is no difference between the Nigeria of today and three generations ago? Wow. What is going on in those cabinet meetings with all those smart, educated heads? Are they even holding them?

Generally I dislike the act of going back in time to re-quote yourself but the level of painful disappointment this administration is creating leaves me little choice. Fifteen months ago in this column I wrote:

“Buhari has been head of state before. He seized power on New Year’s Eve 1984, from a profligate civilian government, declaring that his mandate was to set the ship of state on a straight course. He did not succeed and it is my opinion that he did not understand how to do so. Hundreds of officials of the ancien regime were summarily detained, and subsequently, summarily released, verdict: course abandoned and about, turn. There were decrees aplenty, some 22 in all, establishing military tribunals with no right of appeal, that circumvented due process; and Decree No 4 making it an offence under the law to criticise any member of government. The mass transit system contract for Lagos was cancelled at some cost in penalties paid for doing so. Retroactive legislation sent young men convicted of drug smuggling to their deaths before a firing squad. These acts are included in Buhari’s legacy along with declarations that made it quite clear this self-proclaimed cleaner upper could not cut it, even with all the powers he arrogated to himself.

It is true that 30 years is a long time in which to look back and reform ones ideas and learn how to do better the things we attempted in our youth.

Is this the case with Buhari?

Sadly, one is left to conclude that Nigerian expectations after the exit of Goodluck Jonathan, low as they were, hopeful simply of a push back on corruption and a disciplined, informed and committed approach to revamping governance, were still too high.

“In this era of insecurity, violence, kidnapping and other forms of social vices, the role of the WAI Brigade in civil intelligence gathering cannot be overemphasised. It is in this regard that I call on you to encourage your members across the country to redouble their vigilance in the local governments, wards and their various villages, so that we can contribute our quota towards building a secure society.”

This is a quotation from Mr. Garba Abari, the Director General of the National Orientation Agency under whose auspices WAI is being relaunched. It is a testimony of how poorly reworked this whole proposal appears when kidnapping, not to mention violence and insecurity, in 2016 can be described as “social vices”. Is that the solution to routing Boko Haram, quelling resurgent militants and rescuing abducted victims? Setting up ‘volunteer’ spies among civilian communities and broadcasting it? Yet another vigilante group that could almost certainly morph into something more sinister?

The very fact that there is no sign of WAI today is evidence that it never worked and is not an answer. A small example: The administration that wants to bring WAI back, managed Nigeria’s woeful preparation for the just concluded 2016 Olympic Games to wit: a stranded contingent rescued by a foreign airline, sports kits arriving three days to the end of the games and athletes sponsoring themselves out of sheer will, determination and yes, uncommon patriotism. At an event where the rest of Africa combined gave its best performance to date, Nigeria, individually, produced one of its worst. The country scored a lone bronze medal for soccer, one better than 2012, under Jonathan where it got none, and 20 years after its best tally of 6 medals the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. It is not the citizens that need WAI, but the leadership.

Since I am on this quoting trail, I will do some cutting and repasting here too since that is the name of the current game.

Last November, I wrote:

“All those lieutenants of President Buhari who rode in on his coattails, will have to show that they are younger men and women with the ability to set goals and produce results and have something to hold up in 40 month’s time when the party will have to face the Nigerian electorate again and tell us why we should give them our vote.”

This president needs help and it must come from his lieutenants who administer and allocate in his name. Nigerians do not want to hear what they were told thirty years ago about lining up in queues and keeping their surroundings clean. Those are boarding house rules for students and may work well for barracks. The naira has tanked, the economy is stuttering, millions are labouring under serious strain, stress and tension are high, “evry korna tight”. What sensible, well thought out measures can the administration take to ease this? Where should it place its priorities? How can it achieve results? Which scenario best lends itself to implementation in our particular circumstances?

Twenty-eight months without our daughters, who we now know are being daily raped, killed, tortured and brutalised by Boko Haram. What is it going to take Mr. Buhari?