Is Buhari Already Confused? Read Etcetera’s Opinion

He is the reason our cities have all lost power and we have
reclined back into the dark ages. He is the reason why thousands of wild
dogs/Boko Haram roam our streets and rip our children apart. With democracy
being an institution where we worry about how many people ‘agree’ about certain
things, APC must be concerned that Nigerians are actually seeing that Buhari is
not the messiah we need.

When I wrote that Nigerians shouldn’t celebrate Buhari yet,
a lot of his sympathisers reached for my scalp with all types of derogatory
vocabularies. Now, just a couple of days into his regime and even before the
flag is hoisted up the pole, the same people have started singing the same old
song that he is too slow. Just like in the time of Jonathan. Why am I not
surprised? When I talked about Buhari’s age, they said presiding over the
affairs of a country is different from being a bricklayer. Why is Buhari now
wishing he was younger? What has “changed” him? Didn’t he know his age before
“borrowing” money to acquire the form to contest for president?

Listening to APC and President Buhari’s excuses of just
being in government for only few weeks is like watching a doctor on ‘Grey’s
Anatomy’ pounding on a patient’s chest until another doctor has to pull him off
and say, ‘Sir it’s over!’ That’s what I want to say to President Buhari. Sir,
it’s over! We are tired of having president with excuses. You didn’t give us
these excuses in any of your campaign speeches. Nigerians, it’s time to move
on! There will be other disasters. There will always be presidents with excuses.

The president will cut down the cost of governance. He won’t
have as many ministers and advisers like Jonathan. How is approving the
appointments of two media aides with the same job description cutting down the
cost of governance? What is the difference between a Senior Special Assistant
(Media and Publicity) and a Special Adviser (Media and Publicity)?

The issue of applying the rule of law in certain matters of
state that demands immediate and urgent attention is not why we voted for
Buhari. For Christ’s sake, the country is in dire straits. We are in desperate
times as a country and as such, the streets won’t accept these excuses.
President Buhari shouldn’t be telling Nigerians that he met an empty treasury.
We want to hear of measures his government is taking to recover the stolen
funds. This government seems overwhelmed and confused already like what we’ve
had in the past.

He should also understand that not having his cabinet in
place at this point in time is dangerous. President Buhari should know that he
can’t govern this country alone. It will take all hands on deck to get this
country back on track. He cannot be the president and the minister of defence
and petroleum all by himself. He can’t be at different places at the same time.
Being the president of a huge country like Nigeria is different from being the
managing director of a business.

One does not “run” the Federal Government. You can run a
train and you can run your own small business, but the Federal Government of
Nigeria is bigger than the largest enterprises of this world.

Equating any portion of the Federal Government to a business
stretches the meaning of metaphor. No business is attacked by other countries
or has to deliberately kill people, or has a board of 469 National Assembly
members, majority of which are trying to bankrupt the company in order to make
the CEO look bad, nor does any company operate within transparency of allowing
thousands of journalists to pore over their affairs, or carry your opponent’s
opinions as if they were facts, or react to hundreds of lawsuits per day from
its own employees, or thousands of lawsuits per day from third parties. No
private company is responsible for accomplishing its mission within tens of
thousands of laws that deliberately operate against its efficiency.

No private company has a board that authorises spending via
commitment of financial resources and then separately approves their payment or
its equivalent debt. No business operates from the need to pass legislation in
order to change direction, or to accomplish its primary objectives,
(environmental safety, energy independence, internet security, university
research, election compliance, full employment policies, taxation reform,
anti-terrorism, healthcare reform, and intelligence gathering). No organisation
has the responsibility to send soldiers to defend its allies or be responsive
to the impact that changed laws, policies, and tax provisions have upon other
nations, friend and foe alike. And finally, no organisation is responsible for
administration and enforcement of tens of thousands of laws, rules, and
regulations against millions of separate entities.

Is President Buhari capable of providing direction,
implementing a NASS approved budget, prioritising and recommending budget
changes, negotiating legislation, submitting qualified candidates for the
courts, appointing and supervising staff and cabinet members, including the
joint chiefs of the military, and effectively communicating volatile,
uncertain, complex, and ambiguous issues to the Nigerian public? Absolutely,
NO!