Buhari As The ‘Moses’ Of Our Time -By Chukwudi Enekwechi

As the Biblical Moses who became a circumstantial leader of the Israelites on account of their suffering under the ancient Egypt, President Muhammadu Buhari has emerged as another interventionist leader in the annals of Nigeria’s history. Circumstantial or interventionist leaders are those that are thrown up whenever a country such as Nigeria finds herself at the crossroads. At such periods in nations’ history when they appear to have descended to the abyss or found themselves in a cul-de-sac, such gifted leaders emerge to rescue the people.

To properly situate our own case as a country, it can be said that Nigeria was indeed in a quagmire before President Buhari emerged on the scene. As a nation, we were in the ‘Egypt’ of corruption, ineptitude, indiscipline, poverty and insecurity. With the benefit of his experience as a former military Head of State, administrator and oil industry guru, he understood the difference between our past as a prosperous nation and our present, where we could hardly meet government basic obligations to the citizenry, hence his four attempts at electoral contests as Nigeria’s president.

With the multifarious problems confronting us as a nation, it was generally acknowledged that we needed a leader to pull us from the precipice. In doing so, such a leader must have purged himself of all traits of corruption and its associated negative effects. Incidentally, the lot fell on President Muhammadu Buhari who has over the years built a reputation abhorrent of corruption and indiscipline. The need for this singular virtue was necessary as corruption posed the greatest impediment and obstacle to our nation building. With corruption spreading like cancer in all facets of our national life, the compelling issues of development was relegated to the background. With this bleak picture of our country, it was only a matter of time before the negative effects will start manifesting.

It has been established that with Buhari in the saddle, corruption in Nigeria has already dropped by over fifty percent. The implication of this is that more resources have been saved and will subsequently be channelled to the provision of basic infrastructure like water, electricity, railways among others.

President Buhari’s antecedents as former Head of State and later PTF chairman aptly demonstrate that he is adequately equipped to tackle the challenges confronting Nigeria. Already, he has assembled a competent team as ministers to help realize the objective.

Granted that Nigeria’s expectations on this administration are high, yet it is vital that we give them the benefit of doubt as they gear up to embark on massive infrastructural development of the country. Already, the Buhari administration has indicated its intention to tackle the erosion and road problems of the South East, South West, North East and South South.

It is instructive to recall that President Buhari had anchored his administration on three key policy areas: tackling corruption, boosting the economy and providing security to the generality of Nigerians. An analysis of the situation will show that power has improved, security of lives and property is being put in place, and corruption has been nipped in the bud to a large extent.

Therefore, it will do us as a country a world of good if we lend our support to the present administration, in its bid to put things aright.

On account of his prudent management of the economy, our value added tax has yielded double revenue by increasing from N500 million per month to about N1billion over the same period. The influx of foreign investors into the country has also witnessed significant increase as they now have more confidence that business can thrive without unnecessary encumbrances or bottlenecks.

President Buhari’s fight against corruption is being waged within the framework of the rule of law, and this has led to some monetary recoveries from those who looted the nation’s treasury. It is needless to say that this approach has tremendously improved our image abroad.

In the area of economy, President Buhari has made diversification the major thrust of his administration, and the implication is that other potentially lucrative sectors of the economy such as agriculture, automotive, mining and textile will be jumpstarted to contribute to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

In the final analysis these measures will lead to increase in our exports, thereby enabling the country to earn more foreign exchange and equally strengthen the naira.

– Enekwechi, a public affairs analyst writes from Abuja