Buhari, Nigerians and Misplaced Regret -By Jerome-Mario Utomi

Nigerians could argue that the entire problem (both real and probable) currently confronting the nation are caused by the inability of the present administration to effectively secure the nation and manage the nation’s resources. From that point, the story is well known. Such an argument cannot be viewed as lacking in merit particularly as the Muhammadu Buhari led administration has no excuse for not engineering prosperity lavishly promised in 2015. The situation becomes a crisis of the sort when one remembers that across the world; well known leaders in the past had upon assumption of office faced a more precarious situation than what President Buhari met on ground.

Yet, such leaders were able to turn around the fortune of their nation.

Take as illustration, in 1932, Franklin D Roosevelt, the Democratic Party candidate, United States of America was elected president in the midst of the great depression. At the time of inauguration in 1933, one-quarter of the labor force was out of a job, with many thrown into poverty. Industrial production had fallen and investments had collapsed.

But within two years of his administration, he revived the economy and moved to the next stage of his agenda. He signed the social security act which introduced the modern welfare state into the United States pension at retirement, unemployment benefits and some public health care and disability benefits. When asked how? he responded thus;”extraordinary conditions call for extraordinary remedies”

Obviously an alluring account, and a lesson that any leader desirous to serve and save his people must internalize, however, beyond this understanding, one can make a stronger case that the problem, failure/failings of the present administration in Nigeria was more related to the failure of followership than leadership.

People often dismiss such a line of thinking even when it is the truth. It is argued that ‘there is always the relationship between cause and effect, especially in efficient causality. The relationship is a relationship of participation; the cause being the whole; the effect being the part. The causal efficiency is directly proportional to the substantial perfection’.

The truth is that the inefficiency of this administration did not just start. It all started just immediately after the 2015 general elections. Despite this awareness of challenges/underperformance, Nigerians, against all known logic, during 2019, voted the administration for the second time.

So in my view, Nigerians are to a greater extent the architect of the current challenge in the country. Tragically unique is that presently, they (Nigerians) are both the victims/causality of such political miscalculation. So, one can understand why the current regret and shout of good old days by Nigerians qualify more as misplaced.

Just before you argue with me, this piece will clarify the above claim by examining the issues, challenges and failures recorded between May 2015 – May 2019 that ordinarily should have acted as an emblematic pointer to Nigerians that there exists deeply troubling development if the administration is voted back to power.