Buhari: Our President, their Deity

This biggest challenge in the assessment of any government is always the counterforce of a marked legion of partisans loyal to it, and willing to employ both literary and physical violence to defend it and malign its critics, often without bothering to address the faults exposed in the critiques.Over the past few months, one is challenged to explain that assessments of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, and even his candidacy years before he was sworn into this Office, aren’t expressions of regrets or mortal disappointments in him.

They are basic civic vigilance required to keep the politicians on their toes because, despite their declared interests, all are selfish or self-serving in different and peculiar ways and extents. But their partisan supporters are quick to remind you, for every honest critique, that their principals or candidates are not fallible.  Perhaps because, at our schools, our teachers are not motivated to point out the difference between criticism and critique in public discourse or civics.

The truth is, for many of us who have registered that Buhari’s honeymoon is over, if an election is conducted even today between him and the ousted former President Goodluck Jonathan, none would have a second thought before casting their votes against Jonathan, whose government almost legitimised corruption, and was cruel to the point of diverting funds meant for counterterrorism to personal accounts of party stalwarts and terminal sycophants. Which was the reason for the populated IDP camps across the north!
Our assessment of Prescient Buhari was exactly the mindset we expected them to exhibit when they were busy singing praises of atrocious mismanagement of resources and disdain for critics of the government. Jonathan failed because they and theirs asked us to give him more time – even sharing his statements that 4-year tenure wasn’t enough to fix Nigeria – while things were falling apart. Jonathan failed because, even after squandering his goodwill and unable to meet expectations of the majority as validated in the March 28 polls, the sycophants allied and formed a sycophantic group paraded as “Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria” to extend the sufferings and dying of the Nigerian.

It’s easy for us to identify with Buhari based on shared religion and region, in their fashion or the style of polarising realpolitik popularised by Jonathan and his wife who almost succeeded in regionalising the PDP. But how would such sentimental advocacy fix the problems of the average Nigerian from Aba down through Oyo to Zaria?
Another mischief, though surprisingly infrequent, employed by some self-styled Buharists in countering critics of the government is reminder that criticism of the government is a ploy to get the attention of the government, unknown that many of these critics are frequently approached for political engagements, which they reject on certain principles or having realised their role is merely to head the propaganda unite of a a government unit.

This is the pitiable low to which public discourse has fallen in Nigeria.
The easiest way to detect the difference between honest and partisan or mischievous criticism of the government is an assessment of the content or subject addressed by the two groups. While it’s legitimate to question paying higher tariff for electricity at the period power outage has become the worst buzzkill in every houseful or seeking to understand the President’s too many foreign trips in just a very short period, there’s no way one may excuse the reactions that trailed the slip by the Minister of Finance, Ms. Kemi Adeosun during her budget defence at the National Assembly.

I was moved to observe that, If one has ever had an occasion to speak to the public or sit on a panel to address a tough issue, then one may get why ridiculing of the Minister, for that arithmetic error that 16 + 6 makes 24, is a misplaced mischief. Everyone of us is not incapable of committing that blunder, whether mathematical or grammatical. She’s only human, and it’s unfortunate that her bid to expose an obvious financial scam by a public institution was overlooked simply because of an easy addition she got wrong!
It’s a slip that can happen to even the world’s best mathematician. One doesn’t even need a formal education to know that 16 + 6 isn’t 24. But however smart one is, one is not incapable of a slip that may get the wrong answer out. Because man is not a computer!

It will be heartbreaking if what she’s exposed – a suspicious financial management system at one of the examination regulation bodies in the country – is lost in memes. I glad that the West African Examination Council has already denied that offensive statement attributed to it, offering to give her a WAEC registration form to sit for General Mathematics again.
We should joke and laugh to mitigate the pains of this escalating economy, any institution suspected of unethical financial dealings shouldn’t be ignored and allowed to go on or get away with their harmful businesses. May God save us from us!