One Month Later: President Buhari ‘Sai Change’ Or ‘Sai Patience’ By Omonile Olasunkanmi

President Muhammadu Buhari’s days in office so far has been everything short of the fanfare, glitz and
glamour with which Nigerians welcomed his emergence as the new commander- in-chief. Buhari’s journey to Aso Rock broke many records which are not unknown to majority of the Nigerian populace. Worth mentioning amongst them are; first opposition candidate to gain more popularity and acceptance than the incumbent, he was the man that led an opposition party from a simple minority, confined to a geo-political zone to a nationally acclaimed majority, he was also the first to be on the receiving end of a conceding phone call in a presidential race in this country!

The ‘change’ mantra of his party resonated amongst Nigerians so much so that all you needed to win was to place a picture of Buhari alongside yours on your campaign poster. In Niger state for example, the now minority People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was so knocked out an incumbent senator was said to have fainted on learning not just that she won’t be returning to the red chamber of the national assembly but the ridiculous margin with which she was defeated. The governor who was vying for a senate seat and his anointed gubernatorial candidate were also dished the same meal, cold!

Nigerians hoped president Buhari would carry his record breaking charade to the seat of power and for the first time be a president that will do the job he was elected for – serve the people- but his attitude and ‘body language’ in the last 30 days are pouring cold water on whatever hope there might be that our dear nation will thrive under his watch. The faith in Buhari before May 29 could move mountains but what’s left of it these days is struggling to move morsel s of amala even for the hardest of workers especially in states such as Osun, Imo, Kogi etc

One month is of course too early to completely write off a man who is expected to last 48 but the early signs are nothing close to encouraging. Baba’s biggest achievements so far have been moving the military command centre to Maiduguri which is looking like the biggest motivation Shekau and his blood suckers ever got considering the bombing spree the news was greeted with, getting loads of promises from ‘President Mitchell of West Germany (whoever that is), dissolving a nonexistent NNPC board and constituting a 4-man committee made of governors to investigate an allegation of financial misappropriation when we have relevant agencies like the EFCC, ICPC, police etc. sounds military style to me.

The constant whining about how much, when and where Goodluck Jonathan’s administration looted is becoming boring and an unnecessary distraction that Baba has no plan whatsoever on which direction the nation should go. Even Steve Wonder can see the country is in a bad shape and Jonathan contributed largely to that.

President Buhari should as a matter of urgency determine whether or not he wants to probe previous administrations and empower the relevant agencies to take care of that. He must tackle boko haram within the next month as promised, help fix the power sector while looking for other sustainable means of revenue generation to the government’s purse. Enough of petty excuses and cheap propaganda of whether or not he ordered the sale of jets or called for his in-laws arrest. Those won’t get us anywhere.