Forgotten Dairies
Lest We Forget President Buhari’s Media Chat -By Uche Igwe
During President Buhari’s maiden media chat a few weeks ago, a few points struck me which I wanted to raise. However, I could not do so because of the kind of divisive conversations that overtook the Nigerian public space afterwards. I was a little surprised with the level of sentiments expressed by both those who do not support the president and those who do. Such bitter display of partisanship submerged any chance of an objective assessment of that important dialogue. There were those who suggested that the president is tyrannical in his approach because of his tough stance on two detainees – former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who is facing trials for alleged corruption and Nnamdi Kanu who is facing charges related to treason. I admit to the fact that the president ought to set democratic precedence by obeying court orders. However, such single low point is not sufficient for us to dismiss the media chat as a waste of time.
That chat was an important moment to peep into the mind of the president. Nigerians had an opportunity to begin to see things through their leader’s own lens. It is important therefore that we assess the chat and the man and make extrapolations from the two. Nigerians deserve to know more about a person who will lead them for the next four years. I am not one of those who saw the chat as a flawless one. There are so many things our president need to learn very quickly or better still that we need to cope with about him. For instance, he needs to improve a little more in the area of public speaking. He is a bit old-fashioned, otherwise how would he be referring to the German Currency, the Deutsche Mark that ceased to exist many years ago. Sometimes the president did not hear or understand the questions asked before he went ahead to answer them. Yet, some people insist that it is right to substitute substance for eloquence.
Although the president is a former soldier, my gut feeling is that a person who is willing to subject himself to media scrutiny cannot be described as a tyrant. All over the world tyrannical regimes have been associated with leaders who repress the media rather than those who permit and promote media freedom. For me, Buhari’s willingness to engage the media is an important democratic credential that should not be dismissed cheaply. He had confessed that he has only been a democrat since April 2002. For a man who is now 73 years, it means he has only embraced democracy for 13 years. Can we confidently say that such a man is performing below expectation based on his background?
So many people suggested that the President was visibly angry – now this may just be one side of the story, as many others describe his attitude as a product of passion. Now let us assume for the sake of debate that he was angry: angry over what or and with who? What does one expect when a leader makes stunning discoveries that public funds had been diverted into private pockets; that crude oil belonging to the nation had been illegally lifted and its proceeds diverted into private accounts? Or that thieves and looters litter our political space – those who diverted resources made for the fight against one of the world’s deadliest insurgencies; those who have plundered our economy and are still walking free? He may also be angry, and justifiably so, with the frustrations of the court processes and the fact that the rule of law is taking too long in imposing commensurate punishment on these offenders.
The problem is that many Nigerians have not recovered from the intensely divisive politics that we all witnessed in the last elections. That is why they still see the president’s actions from the lens of his nationality and religion. I guess we should rise above these and give him some benefit of doubt. That was something I took away from that media chat. We have to find a way of re-building the trust that has eroded considerably amongst us. Trust in one another and trust in our government. I am not saying that we should continue to trust governments when they do not deliver. No. What I am saying is that we must try to trust them, while waiting for them to deliver.
I think we should stick to the issues that the president raised. He asked us to use the Freedom of Information Act to demand for the details of his asset declaration, and those of any of his ministers, governors or other public officials mandated to do so by the constitution. On the war against corruption, we may need to take an inventory of those who have been convicted, beyond the media trials, before we can join in assigning the president a pass mark or otherwise. His comments about the whereabouts of Chibok girls were quite unsettling. That government still not having credible intelligence about their location raises a lot of issues about the competence of our security services and even veracity of the whole Chibok story. With what we have heard from escapees, no sensitive government will wait for 209 girls to be assembled in one location before they begin to negotiate. The issue of the welfare of more than two million internal displaced persons, majority of who are woman and children, is an heart-breaker. We could read the body language of the president about the Shitte blockage, when he referred to “excited teenagers almost hitting the chest of generals and pelting missiles at them”. Yet the president must tolerate the political intervention of the President of Iran and allow due process on a matter whose evidence exists in the public domain.
Can we follow up on the declaration that Boko Haram has been technically defeated and their capabilities eroded? We now know that the president feels that both the Central Bank Governor, Emefiele and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu are Igbos from South-East. Are they? What about the debate on the devaluation of the naira and restrictions on foreign exchange? How convincing did he come across? Shall we wait for him to hear from the CBN governor and come back to us? Can we have a conversation about the Treasury Single Account. Whether it is the NNPC having 45 different accounts or the Nigerian military having 70 different accounts, both sound outlandish. However, the president needs to show us the 1.5 trillion naira which he said has been mopped from the TSA implementation. He needs to tell us where the money will be applied in the 2016 budget.
There are many important issues which the president raised during his chat that deserve our attention and further probing. The debate about obeying court orders is in order. However, we must approach it objectively. There are many other areas that we must hold our president to account on. We should not allow unnecessary sentiments and our political leanings becloud our sense of judgement. There is work to be done.
