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On Sunday, November 18, 2018, at the presidential Villa, President Muhammadu Buhari; in a beautifully well-attended ceremony, kick-started his presidential campaign for the 2019 general election. He [the President], in launching the campaign, presented a 17-page document, tagged “Next Level”, to Nigerians.
Next Level, according to the President, represents “some of the ideas and priorities that will shape how we will govern and what the administration is set out to achieve if elected for a second term”. This document; Next Level, can be termed also “My Contract with Nigerians” or better still, “My Article of Faith with Nigerians”
It is important to take judicious note that President Buhari has not only presented to Nigerians an agreement [it was not a draft but complete agreement; signed and sealed] encompassing all he would do for us should he be re-elected to run the country for the next four years, starting from May 29, 2019, but most crucial of recognition is the fact that he personally read [an act akin to taking an oath] the agreement to the people of Nigeria. I will explain the importance of this action.
In the past, during the prelude race/campaign to 2015 general elections, many promises of what the All Progressives Congress would do when voted into power were dished out to Nigerians. And these were all kinds of promises, from the imaginable to the unimaginable.
Some of them [the promises] spoke of how electricity would be available 24/7 within 6 months of coming into governance, wiping away of insecurity and insurgence from the North/East in less than a year of ascending the throne. Muhammadu Buhari; as a presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress then, even added a dimension which mocked the understanding of international money market’s rules and regulation, when he promised “making the Nigerian Naira becoming equal to the American Dollar”.
Oh, there were numerous promises from the APC and its flag bearer then but the one l cannot forget in hurry was made by Muhammadu Buhari himself when the Director General of his Campaign Organisation, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, led him to the popular Charlton House on Charlton Road, South East of London on February 27, 2015, to discuss his thought about Nigeria. One thing he did that day which was spectacular was presentation of a statement containing promises to Nigerians if he were to be voted in as the next President. He tagged that statement as “My Contract with Nigerians”.
Unfortunately, both Muhammadu Buhari’s personal promises and that of the All Progressives Congress did not come into manifestation after being sworn-in as President. Nigerians, of course, would not remain quiet in face of failed promises. So, they started reminding both the President and his political party to bring promises to fruition.
It was at the point of the great expectation in fulfillment of promises that Nigerians were told that they did not hear well enough. Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President would always castigate the people, telling them that Buhari promised them nothing. At a point, he [Garba Shehu] even told Nigerians that they [Nigerians] must not input onto Buhari “promises made by others” [probably referring to the APC].
It is for this “interpretation” of Garba Shehu that Nigerians kept their peace, more so when they have been reminded that they had problem with their hearing systems. They have leant, within the past three and half years, to trod along, accepting whatever comes their ways as they cannot hold President Buhari vicariously liable for any failed promise because “he did not give any promise to them”.
It is on the face of the analysis given above that we should welcome this presentation of a 17-page document to the people as a road map to the NEXT LEVEL by President Muhammadu Buhari. He did not only present it, he personally read it before the court of the people. It does not matter either the people that gathered in the Presidential Villa on Sunday represented only members of his Political Party or not.
At least, he read something out from a book to the people about what should be expected of him and his APC in the next four years if Nigerians would be generous enough voting him back to power. A thousand Garba Shehu would not be able to say in the future [that is if the man and his political party are returned to continue in government] that “he did not give us any promise”. This is the good news of this exercise.
Now, let us take a critical look at the NEXT LEVEL, where Buhari intends taking us to in the next four years. I did not read geography but for those who are dependent on compass or binocular for their journeys, the first thing they marked out is the “present level”. It is called the “point of takeoff” at other climes. The wisdom of marking the “present level point” before mapping out the “next level” is for “incubation of derailment” in the journey. It is for the essentials of this technicality that Pilots/Captains or Pilots/Master Mariners prepare and master their navigational chart at the operational rooms [or situation rooms] before embarking on flights or sails.
A navigator can only take a successful operational ‘bearing’ with whatever navigational equipment he/she has from the “zero point of takeoff”. It is for this reason that many may be feeling reluctant to “embark on the journey to the next level” when they did not actually understand what the present level really is.
Which level are we now, most Nigerians may want to ask. Is it the present level of insecurity? Is it the level where life has become meaningless? Is it the level where the culture of giving a befitting burial to our departed souls by slaughtering cows, as it were in the past, has exchanged for slaughtering human beings for any dead cow?
Is it the level where nepotism; the worst type of corruption, has taken over in every fabrics of governance, mostly and exclusively at the federal level?
Is it the level where it is most convenient by the Federal Government to send 40,000 policemen [with other security personnel] to supervise election in just one State; like the case in Osun, when it is most difficult for the same government to send 5,000 policemen to Benue State to stop herdsmen Jihadists from wiping out innocent Nigerians?
Is it the level where corruption is being pursued with annihilative vigour in some areas [so we are led to believe] whereas in other areas, people like Abdulrasheed Maina; a man tagged by the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan as the worst Pension thief in Nigeria history, dismissed from the Civil Service by the government of the day, but brought back into the same Civil Service on promotion by Buhari-led Federal Government, without remorse?
Is it the level where the Federal Government is feeding one man, tagged as criminal by the same government with 3.5 million Naira every month [Federal Government’s Lai Mohammed told us so]; translating into N116, 666.667 per day [feeding only one man] when the same government cannot pay N50, 000 minimum [monthly] wages to worker? Is it the level where the Federal Government budget millions of Naira for cutleries for the Presidential Villa annually as if there is an identifiable place those [cutleries] for the previous year are dumped?
Mr President, there are many Nigerians out there that want to know the level you planted them for now before you should be talking of taking them to the next level. And you owe it a copious responsibility to show them the level you are with them for now, before you can exercise the presidential right of taking them to the next level.
You came to power with solid promises on three fronts, namely:
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Security.
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Employment.
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Anti-Corruption.
Have you delivered on these three fronts? Are there not more workers in the labour market under your administration than they were under the previous government? Can you sincerely say, Sir, with Allah’s conscience, that there is security in Nigeria today as it was before you were sworn-in as President on May 29, 2015? Are you sincerely fighting the war of corruption across all frontiers without exhibiting favouritism here and there, bearing in mind the case of Abdulrasheed Maina and scores of others around you?
My conclusion is that if the Nigerian people are not too enthusiastic in wanting to know where President Muhammadu Buhari NEXT LEVEL would be, it is more the fault of the President who has failed woefully in convincing the masses that massively voted him into power in 2015, the sincerity of purpose in this journey. If they are not sure of today, they should not be blamed for lack of faith on the NEXT LEVEL.
The people might be saying that once bitten twice shy.
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
Twitter: @godwin_buebu
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