President Muhammadu Buhari’s appeal for forgiveness last week must have come as a surprise to many Nigerians. It was more surreal than normal. After nearly eight years during which he operated as a man with divine powers to govern, no one expected Buhari to stoop low to appeal for forgiveness. The request for forgiveness must be considered against the background of so many things that went wrong during Buhari’s two terms, from 2015 to 2023.
Speaking on a Sallah Day homage last Friday, an occasion that marked his final visit as President on the Eid-el-Fitr holiday, Buhari asked Nigerians to forgive him in any way he might have offended them, saying: “All those that I have hurt, I ask that they pardon me.” Continuing he observed: “God gave me an incredible opportunity to serve the country. We are all humans, if I have hurt some people along the line of my service to the country, I ask that they pardon me.”
It is unclear how Buhari’s appeal for forgiveness would go down with families who were victimised and suffered immensely owing to policies enunciated and implemented by Buhari during eight years of his government.
Consider Buhari’s scorched earth policy – politically, socially, culturally, technologically, educationally and developmentally – directed particularly against Igbo people who occupy the South East region of the country. Buhari’s highhanded policies and programmes aimed at Igbo people will not appease or impress the people.
I do not believe Buhari’s apology will rectify the eight years of insecurity and sporadic killings by terrorists, bandits and kidnappers who took the lives of so many Nigerian citizens. Should an apology be sufficient to overlook eight years of inaction, lack of leadership and direction or poor management of the economy? Would Buhari’s apology be adequate to fix a public university system that was disrupted significantly owing to periodic squabbling between the government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)? Could that late apology replenish decrepit infrastructure that was abandoned by the government? How quickly would Buhari’s apology end widespread corruption the government said it would fight but failed to confront?
For eight years, Buhari and his ministers bragged about the magnificent achievements of the government. Well, if the government achieved wonders, would Buhari have offered a national apology? I am not persuaded that an apology would be necessary if Buhari’s government performed above public expectations.
As Buhari approaches the end of his second and final term in office, the public has a right to assess the achievements of the government that was high on propaganda and low on practical and verifiable achievements on the ground. To what extent did Buhari and his government uphold their programmes, policies, numerous promises and capital projects that did not take off or were abandoned halfway?
Owing to the conflicting evidence between what the government said it had achieved and the facts in the public domain, there is now cynicism in the public sphere about the significance and implications of the apology that Buhari tendered.
After Buhari’s election in 2015, he requested that he should be given extra time to implement the ground-breaking and radical changes he promised during the presidential election campaigns. The nation waited. Unfortunately, the longer people waited and put their lives on hold, the longer the period of frustration, disappointment, anger and hopelessness that people endured.
In 2015, Buhari made bogus pledges and swore to annihilate the Boko Haram insurrection in the North, to suppress ethnic-driven uprisings across the country, to create a stable society by enhancing law and order across the country, and to halt rising youth unemployment. In eight years, these tall objectives listed by Buhari’s government became unattainable promises.
This is the time for truth-telling. Currently, life in Nigeria is no better than the life of animals in a zoo wrestling to find food to sustain themselves. At home and outside their home, Nigerians are terrified of being abducted, killed or seized and used as a bargaining coupon demanded by bandits and kidnappers.
Consider the following facts about Buhari’s undistinguished performance. Across the country, there is widespread poverty and injustice. The number of Nigerians living below the poverty line has grown exponentially. The poverty line is the estimated minimum level of income needed to secure the necessities of life. Poverty has disrupted many people’s social lives. Under the same government, corruption has become an approved way of doing business, both in the public and private sectors, despite the government’s anti-corruption mantra.
One of the hallmarks of failure of the government is growing insecurity and rapid collapse of law and order. Insecurity has encouraged widespread impunity. Law enforcement officials are overwhelmed.
In eight years, youth unemployment rose sharply. The government had no answer and has probably given up trying to fix the problem. Many university and polytechnic graduates are unemployable, not because they lack the qualifications. The higher education sector is not designed to produce graduates who are job-ready. The system emphasises paper qualifications rather than skills development.
At the end of every academic year, universities and polytechnics produce graduates who are unemployable and, therefore, cannot be absorbed by the public and private sectors. No new jobs are created, a situation that exposes lack of planning, preparation and sensitivity by a government that has run out of ideas on how to address a troubling national problem. Not only has the quality of university education depreciated, the quality of graduates has also become poorer.
Healthcare in Nigeria is a shame. It does not exist. Infrastructure is in even graver condition. The government boasted an unbelievably high number of roads constructed or renovated under Buhari. In October 2022, Buhari personally bragged that “this administration has constructed 408km of roads; 2,499km of Sukuk roads and maintenance of 15,961km of roads across the country.” He claimed that more than 3,800 kilometres of new roads had been built nationwide.
Beyond roads, Buhari also said his government had achieved significant successes in agriculture, the economy, infrastructure, security, health and anti-corruption. The problem is that no one can find these achievements on the ground.
All the outrageous claims were exposed soon after. In an embarrassing turn of events, Buhari’s wife, Aisha, apologised publicly on Friday, September 30, 2022, for the harsh economic conditions and worsening state of security in the country under the leadership of her husband.
At the 62nd Independence Day Special Juma’at Prayer and Public Lecture, Aisha Buhari said: “The regime might not have been a perfect one, but I want to seize this opportunity to seek forgiveness from the Ulamas and Nigerians in general. We all need to work together to achieve a better Nigeria.”
Seventeen days after his wife’s apology, Buhari boasted about his government’s wonderful achievements. He said: “In recognition of the importance of critical infrastructure in economic development and the quest of this administration to leave a lasting legacy, we have implemented high-impact projects across the length and breadth of the country that meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians…”
It is against this painful background that people have grown more critical of the government’s inability to improve their welfare and security needs.
For eight years under Buhari, Nigeria operated like a circus guided by no laws. In that environment, members of one ethnic group were treated as more special than members of other ethnic groups. Members of that ethnic group were placed in top government jobs and given the implicit message that they were free to go wherever they liked, to do whatever they liked, to commit crimes, to abduct people, to sexually assault women arbitrarily, to seize people’s property and community lands illegally, and to shoot at anyone who condemned their lawless behaviour. That is the Nigeria that Buhari built within eight years.