It is now fair game for just about anybody to lob criticisms at President Muhammadu Buhari and the Supreme Court justices over their differing stand on the expiry date for exchanging the old naira notes. There is nothing wrong with criticisms that are meant to stir political leaders to action, to get them to take responsibility, to inspire them to perform and get them to demonstrate sensitivity to, and awareness of, citizens’ basic needs.
The past two weeks have exposed serious fissures in the political foundation of Nigeria and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The ruling APC is a house imperilled. Everyone is shouting but no one is listening. All the noise emanating from leading members of the APC is driven by selfish interests of the noisemakers. APC state governors are exhaling fumes through their nostrils. They are angry with President Buhari for insisting that the deadline to exchange the old naira notes must stand. The governors are in league with the Supreme Court that ruled that the deadline given to citizens to exchange their old naira notes should be extended.
One loquacious state governor even warned the President that his decision to disregard the Supreme Court ruling on the expiry date of the old naira notes amounted to an invitation to anarchy. There was also the utterly weird and baseless allegation made by Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai who claimed without evidence that there was a plan to install an interim government. It was good to see the Presidency laugh off that hare-brained allegation.
The battle lines appear to be drawn but only in the sand. Leading the pack of angry governors is el-Rufai who has been speaking recently as if he was crowned the king of Kaduna Kingdom. His statements have fittingly been described as pompous, full of hot air, but have been derided openly in the public sphere. Some of his allegations against Buhari and the Federal Government could easily be construed as treasonable. But he is lucky to be protected by the immunity clause.
El-Rufai’s recent broadcast to the subjects of his kingdom suggested misleadingly that he has taken over the presidency of Nigeria or that he has sovereignty over the people of Nigeria, or that he is even the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Watching him speak in such an arrogant and unrestrained manner gives one the impression that el-Rufai could be driven or consumed by dark forces unknown to him.
Nigeria is already a disaster but the current disagreement between APC governors and the Presidency provides a perfect ground or recipe for political catastrophe. The leaders of the APC are laundering their dirty linen in public. Wisdom has deserted the party. There is no one politically experienced or respected enough to pull the rebellious and recalcitrant governors into line.
No one knows where the current angry exchanges would lead. One key concern is that wrangling within the APC will distract attention from the current hardships that have overwhelmed citizens in terms of difficulties they experience in securing the new naira notes, painful encounters with POS operators who extort money from underprivileged people, scarcity of petroleum products, as well as the disruptions caused to citizens getting ready for a general election that is due in four days.
Nigeria is an unlucky country cursed by outlandish forces. It is also a country that self-destroys, a country in which political leaders sow the seeds of instability and watch ordinary people fight to destroy themselves. In this lawless environment, no one pays attention to everyday challenges that confront the larger population.
I have never seen a country in which the principal leaders of the country, comprising the President, state governors, the Supreme Court justices, and the governor of the Central Bank disagree forcefully and openly without respect or regard for one another. Someone said the other day that Nigeria is well and truly finished. That must be true.
The only thread that sustains the country’s unity is hope that the presidential election on Saturday, February 25, would produce a candidate who will unite the country, heal the financial and emotional wounds created by the Central Bank that embarked on a silly currency re-design project without proper and adequate arrangements put in place to cushion the effects of the hardships that might follow the onset of the exercise.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has proved to be the most erratic and inconsistent institution in Nigeria owing to the incompetence of the governor and other senior officials. Consider this. The CBN has issued numerous directives on how the new currency should be dispensed to the public and how commercial banks should attend to citizens. The CBN has also issued uncountable deadlines concerning when the old naira notes would cease to be legal tender. But the same CBN has reversed virtually every directive and policy statement it issued over the past one month. That is clearly a demonstration of lack of ability by the CBN.
Those who say Nigeria is a joke configured to look like a country might be right after all.
Where does all the confusion leave ordinary people who are burdened with the toughest existential challenges that confront the country since the attainment of political independence 62 years ago? Nigeria seems to thrive in the face of disorder and riotous conditions. How did Nigeria survive the past eight years of lack of leadership, widespread corruption, debilitating state of insecurity marked by kidnappings and banditry, unbearable economic difficulties, collapse of university education and deterioration of basic infrastructure and social services?
In the face of all these, Buhari and his principal officers have continued to regale us with tales about the government’s achievements that no one can sight, touch or feel. There is nothing on the ground to show the government has achieved anything worthy of note.
During the 2015 presidential election campaigns, we were promised improved socioeconomic conditions, if Buhari was elected President. Voters delivered the votes to Buhari but the APC and Buhari failed to fulfil their own promises to voters. Eight years later, the 2015 election campaign promises became the greatest game of deception played on the great majority of Nigerian people.
The APC was installed in 2015 in the manner of magicians manufactured overseas and imported to transform Nigeria. The people lived that daydream for eight good years. That’s what you get when you believe in the power of magicians. In the end, a combination of old age and frail health conspired to keep Nigeria stagnant without any significant progress in terms of economic growth, infrastructure development, improvements in healthcare, developments in air, land and sea transportation, good network of roads, and available social services.
We deceive ourselves. We were deceived in 2015 and 2019. If we allow ourselves to be deceived by the same ageing and clueless politicians for a third successive general election, we would have demonstrated that we are as crazy as the politicians who have been on the leadership ladder for so long.
This election is about knowing what we want and going for it. It is about being conscious of the kind of leadership we desire to change our lives in positive and productive ways. It is about looking forward and not backward. It is about putting our future welfare and wellbeing ahead of the temporary temptation to be induced by instant gratifications of our stomach. It is about being aware of the limitations of politics of ethnicity, regionalism and religious beliefs. Finally, this election is about being aware that a mistake made on February 25, 2023, could damage our lives for much longer than eight years.