The tempest in Nigeria had doubled, and in some cases tripled, under the disastrous government of President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Sai Baba is not the sole cause of Nigeria’s problems, but he has pushed Nigerians to endure additional hardships. Like Umar R.A would smile and sob whenever he remembered the dark days when he made his god with Meccan dates, worshipped it, and still feasted on it when hunger struck; whenever this writer recalls the days of his stellar support for the “godsend Buhari,” the superficial things he did to sell Buhari to his people, laughter and sadness would strike in unison. For, we thought Nigeria was sick then, but now it is in the intensive care unit, gasping between life and death.
Crippled economy, instability, starvation, commodity price increases, frequent strikes, corruption, and disdain for the rule of law; honestly, I’m not sure how many teeth there are in Adipele’s multi-layered dentition. But one thing is certain: Baba Yussuf has failed Nigerians so miserably that his wife once expressed her rage as a result of her “sense of justice, and not confrontation or disrespect.”
Nigeria is ranked sixth in the 2022 Global Terrorism Index, owing to Boko Haram, unknown gunmen, killer pastoralists, kidnappers, and other agents of doom who have disrupted Nigeria’s calm. Unfortunately, Nigeria is no longer sitting on a powder keg; instead, it is lounging on an atomic sofa, which we pray will not explode.
Human lives have been devalued to the point where people are occasionally slaughtered in certain sections of the country, with no media coverage. Boko Haram in the North, UGM in the East; bloodshed has spread across states, and ‘Press Release’ is the highest we can expect from a government that promised appropriate security and welfare for Nigerians. Armed herders rarely strike in the South because to their dominant ideology; when people are not killed in large numbers, farmers and farm produce face the brunt of the damage.
According to World Poverty Clock, a data-driven website, 80 million inhabitants living in poverty made Nigeria the capital of global poverty before India claimed the ignominious title in March 2022. Could Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper have been referring to the Buhari government when he said, “Those who promised us paradise on earth never produced anything but hell”?
The constant strikes are merely another bottleneck that has crippled this dictatorship. The plight of university students who have been confined to their homes for more than four months due to the Academic Staff Union of Universities strike continues to send chills down the spine. Millions of young people are losing their time and future in universities, while wealthy politicians fly their children abroad for excellent and uninterrupted education. This recalls to mind the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s policies as Premier of the Western Region, which barred his cabinet members and their families from receiving medical attention or sending their children to school abroad. If the policy had been followed up to this day, the ongoing ASUU strike, let alone the kidnapping of younger pupils at schools (such as the Dapchi, Kankara, and Jangebe students), would not have happened.
Victims of the March 28, 2022 train attack from Abuja to Kaduna remain in their abductors’ cave. The 11 who were released on June 11, as well as those who bailed themselves out, did not deserve to be kidnapped in the first place. The continuous kidnappings have caused concern among Nigerians. On the whole, gasoline station waits can return whenever they choose. Despite Nigeria’s status as Africa’s top producer of oil, now buy fuel at all-time high prices. The bittersweet reality is that the 13,000-megawatt installation has yet to address the nation’s chronically low supply. Perhaps, until there is more output than the existing 5,000 megawatts, 85 million Nigerians who do not have access to light would be able to grin.
Buhari’s anti-corruption drive capitalized on our emotions, yet the same corruption has harmed his regime. From former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal’s ‘over N500 million’ grass-cutting scandal to the N47 billion fraudulent contracts awarded by the former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr Nsima Ekere, to the N80 billion fraud of the suspended Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, and many others, it is safe but sad to say that the country is still rife with corruption and public theft.
If there is one thing the Buhari regime could do to improve its image, it would be to stop boasting about the country’s infrastructure development. For, unsafe and hungry inhabitants are unlikely to gladly go by rail or use the “beautiful roads” that Sai Baba is constructing around the country, paths that predispose them to hazards and kidnappings. With this regime’s underwhelming performance, the “change” motto becomes clearer: transition from bad to worse, rack to ruin, as the ruins continue to fall apart. Nigerians thought Buhari was gold, but he’s only gold plated. As his regime forced us to admire previous corrupt administrations, may the next administration not offer us any reason to praise Buhari’s.
