By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi Buhari apologists say I have never praised Buhari since he came to power. Well, ...
By Farooq A. Kperogi,
Ph.D.
Twitter:
@farooqkperogi
Buhari apologists say I have never praised Buhari since he
came to power. Well, that’s not my job. I am a scholar. But I have defended
Buhari many times in the past when I thought he was unfairly attacked.
For instance, in 2012
when pundits—and Jonathan’s media team—tore him to shreds for saying “kare jini, biri jini” [Hausa for “the
dog and the baboon will be soaked in blood”], I vigorously defended him. Read
my May 27, 2012 article titled, “Idioms, Mistranslation, and Abati’s Double Standards.”
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| Buhari and Babachir |
In 2015, when he was ridiculed for saying “President
Michelle of West Germany,” I also defended him with all the resources of logic
and erudition I had. I explained to Nigerians that Buhari wasn’t “clueless” but
was suffering from age-induced memory lapses colloquially called “senior moments”
in America. Read my June 20, 2015 titled, “Criticizing Buhari Over ‘President Michelle of West Germany’ Gaffe is Ignorant.” (Also
read my June 27, 2015 sequel titled, “Obama and Buhari: Comparing their ‘Senior Moments’.”)
Even when he visited the US in July 2015 and made his infamously
unwise comment that he didn’t give a hang about people from the deep south who
didn’t vote for him, I defended him because I thought he realized his error and
retracted what he said in the same speech. Read my July 25, 2015 article titled,
“President Buhari’s Grand Moments in America.” As recently as November 19, 2016, I defended him against false charges that he contributed millions of dollars to Hillary Clinton's campaign (see "Buhari's Phantom $500M Donation to Clinton's Campaign"). I
can go on, but that’s irrelevant now.
Here is the deal. If Buhari apologists want my “praises”—and
the “praises” of other disinterested, conscientious, and politically unaffiliated
people who criticize this administration— let their idol do the following and
they won’t be able to contain rapturous applause he’d get not just from me but
from millions of Nigerians:
1. Assemble a sound economic advisory team to help him
tackle our economic malaise. You can’t have 6 media aides and have only one
diplomat (yes a diplomat!) as an economic adviser (who, by the way, is assigned
to the VP’s office) in a time of recession and think people won’t call you
clueless and unprepared.
2. Truthfully declare his assets and not the insincere, half-hearted
job his media team did. No one forced Buhari to promise that he would publicly
declare his assets. On February 20, 2015, he said, “I pledge to PUBLICLY
declare my assets and liabilities, encourage all my appointees to publicity
declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment.”
Well, from his partial declaration, we at least know that
Buhari has a house in Abuja even though he had always told Nigerians that he
had houses only in Daura, Kaduna and Kano. Only multimillionaires and billionaires
own homes in Abuja. Perceptive people
know why Buhari is scared of publicly declaring his assets: it would give the
lie to the image of modesty and frugality he studiously cultivated and promoted
over the years. But he can prove us wrong by doing what he promised to do
during the campaigns.
3. Sincerely investigate and prosecute the corrupt people in
his administration. Secretary to the Government of the Federation David Lawal
Babachir has become a byword for unspeakably high-profile corruption. He has
been accused of all kinds of shady deals, including callously shortchanging
IDPs, prompting the equally sleazy Senate to call for his prosecution.
Abba Kyari has been accused of all manner of corruption.
Irrefutable documentary proofs of Buratai’s corruption have been published on
Sahara Reporters. Amaechi has been accused of bribing judges. The list goes on.
Not a word has been heard from the presidency in response to any of these
accusations. But (corrupt) political opponents are hounded, even without firm
evidence, in the name of “anti-corruption” fight.
People who know Buhari intimately say nothing will happen to
corrupt people in his government as long as he is convinced that the corrupt
people are "loyal" to him. Personal loyalty, not national interest,
is all that matters to Buhari. That, in my dictionary, is also corruption. An
invidiously selective anti-corruption fight is itself corruption.
4. Punish people who “padded” the 2016 budget and not merely
transfer them, like Buhari did, to another ministry.
5. Stop the social apartheid that allocates billions of
naira to Aso Rock Clinic while public hospitals that serve millions of everyday
people are underfunded.
6. Obey his own directive to stop foreign medical treatment
for government officials. On April 27, 2016, Buhari said, “While this
administration will not deny anyone of his or her fundamental human rights, we
will certainly not encourage expending Nigerian hard earned resources on any
government official seeking medical care abroad, when such can be handled in
Nigeria.”
About a month later,
he went to London to treat an ear infection. On December 2, Abba Kyari, Buhari’s
ethically challenged Chief of Staff, was flown to London because he had “breathing difficulties.” Even with more than 3 billion naira a year budget, Aso Rock
Clinic couldn’t treat “breathing difficulties.”
7. Investigate and overturn the unlawful, clandestine
appointment of the children of politically connected people in various agencies
of government.
8. Bring down the price of petrol AND make it available by
repairing existing refineries and building new ones from the money saved from
the last petrol price increase. Alternatively, he should encourage private
sector investment in petrol refining— beyond Dangote.
Nigeria’s economy— and Nigerian life itself—is
petrol-dependent in ways I have never seen anywhere. When you increase petrol
price, the price of every other thing goes up and never comes down. I warned
that the last petrol price hike would “ignite a hyperinflationary conflagration.”
I was right. The “hyperinflationary conflagration” is the immediate trigger of
the current recession. When incomes remain stagnant or non-existent and prices of everything go
through the roof, consumption slows or halts, and the economy shrinks. That’s
the textbook definition of recession.
9. Increase the national minimum wage so workers can cope
with the mounting hardship they are contending with.
10. At least bring back the millions of jobs that have been
lost since he came to power. The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, which is a
federal government agency, said, as of August this year, 4.58 million Nigerians
lost their jobs since Buhari became president.
11. Show some compassion. Most policies of Buhari appear
calculated to torment the weak, the vulnerable, and the helpless—the very
people who brought him to power. Since its coming into being nearly two years
ago, the Buhari government has increased petrol price by a larger margin than
any government in Nigerian history; removed subsidies on fertilizer and other critical
products; banned the importation of essential goods without developing local
alternatives thereby creating scarcity, hunger, inflation, and shadowy, underground
networks that exploit the poor; raised tariffs on most things; taxed everything
that moves; is unashamedly stealing from people's bank deposits in the name of
"stamp duty"; is helping private companies to engage in price gouging;
and is generally deepening the misery of everyday people.
12. Visit Maiduguri to sympathize with the people of the
northeast—and to prove that Boko Haram has truly been “defeated.”
There is more, but this is a good start.
Related Articles:
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Nigeria as a Perverse Anarchist Paradise
Coming Petrol Price Hike and NNPC's Subterfuge
Unraveling of the Monumental Fraud in Petrol Price Hike
Petrol Price Hike: Time to Occupy Nigeria Again
Fuel Price Hike: The Language and Grammatical Illogic of a Regulated Deregulation
Reverse Robin Hoodism as Buhari's Governing Philosophy
Nigeria as a Perverse Anarchist Paradise
Coming Petrol Price Hike and NNPC's Subterfuge
Unraveling of the Monumental Fraud in Petrol Price Hike
Petrol Price Hike: Time to Occupy Nigeria Again
Fuel Price Hike: The Language and Grammatical Illogic of a Regulated Deregulation
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