By Odimegwu Onwumere
Many people had thought that General Muhammadu Buhari would pay much attention to giving Nigerians good governance, but for nearly three months in power, all that Nigerians have got are distractions from the once Army Major General.
Each day does not pass by without reading Buhari on the newspapers of how he would probe this sector or the other that worked in the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan government. In short, Buhari is distracting Nigerians with his loquaciousness of probing Jonathan.
It is irritating much as it is a distraction upon distraction everywhere from the Buhari presidency. The height of it was that Buhari spent a month, before packing into Aso Rock, the seat of power, after he was inaugurated as president.
Buhari’s definition of democracy is not suited in the global democracies. It is tiresome and he would say that a Barack Obama stayed for a while before forming his cabinet. Then you ask if America is Nigeria. One can see that we are losing all sense of reason because of Buhari; losing all sense of shame, where we were being told that a ‘Mr. Integrity’ is on the throne.
Nigerians are getting in the way amidst the economy that is out of control, while the government and its All Progressives Congress (APC) members continue to rant. In earnest, Buhari is not here to help, but to distract. Nigerians have found themselves distracted, because the president does not want to contact the people; he wants to do the job all alone.
We are seeing a government that has kept its phone ringing at the acme of its work. What a way of calling for distraction!
It is evidence that Buhari has gone to work thinking of his personality (not Nigerians), having emotional conflicts, by prevailing over all Nigerians with distractions and making himself an unhappy man; and he wants Nigerians to be unhappy in poverty, forgetting that one can only be happy when he or she has disabused his or her mind of all other distractions.
As if a Hilary Duff had Buhari in mind in the following words: It’s hard to stay true to yourself and what you want in life when there are so many distractions and so much craziness going on around you.
However, a national chieftain of the APC, the party that produced Buhari as president, in a recent public outing said that Buhari’s failed-two months in not showing Nigerians were the compass of his government was navigating to, were being spent on reviewing how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ran Nigeria within the years it ruled the country.
Imagine that!
Ruling Nigeria as an Army official he once was, Buhari has refused to listen to calls from here and there asking him not to be distracted. But what the persons who have made this call did not say was that Buhari is the one distracting Nigerians with his ‘snail crawling’ approach to governance and overbearing in being ‘Mr. Integrity’.
The country is stashed and some persons were ignorantly saying and writing that Buhari can lead Nigeria without a cabinet. The irony is that Buhari has spent much energy looking for those who allegedly ate the national cake without any hope in place that he will bake new cakes.
This government is edging towards twilight and no hope of seeing rays of light. Nigerians are overwhelmed that Buhari is yet to make headway. He is wearing Nigerians down with his unproductive government. His much talk is doing little to make Nigeria better.
Buhari has gotten into the presidency he shouldn’t; he is obsessed with the means and not the end. No government that started on that note ever succeeded. A board would always wear down when it focuses its strength on distracting its members. How could Buhari react to everything PDP and Jonathan?
Sometimes some of us ask if this is APC’s pattern of governance: Being very busy and very busy without any action. It’s sad that Nigerians have known that the APC’s ‘change’ and ‘good governance’ it promised Nigerians, ware flukes.
The party which its members called themselves progressives is creating vision, strategic plan, and policies, but only on how to run Jonathan and the PDP down. Does Buhari know that distraction such as his cost the U.S. businesses $588 billion per year, as a 2007 study by Basex estimated?
In the world of management, productivity will never increase if the owners and caretakers of a business do not limit the level at which distractions flow into their firm. Just as email is said to be the biggest distractions managers face among employees these days no matter its usefulness, the war against corruption in Nigeria, has become one dangerous slogan Buhari is distracting Nigerians with.
Let us ask Buhari that if a worker does not put much energy to his or her work in the morning is it in the evening he or she will put that energy. It is palpable to say that Buhari has a disorganised office desk and this can be very distracting to management. His government is disorganised without a cabinet. So, he cannot think and plan well. A company without a board is disorganised.
Odimegwu Onwumere is a Poet/Writer; he writes from Rivers State.
Tel: +2348057778358
Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com