by Sonala Olumhense

I wish to enter 2016 by voicing my
disappointment at President Muhammadu
Buhari’s inaugural media chat.
Remember, he waited 30 years to return to the
leadership of Nigeria, having been summarily
thrown out in 1985.

And then he battled for at least 12 years to win
that chance, finally realizing that ambition in May
2015. That was seven months before he faced his
interviewers in December’s live interview. And yet,
President Buhari arrived largely unarmed,
unprepared and uninspiring. I do not mean he had
lost his outrage or his reformer-posture; he just
did not arrive with persuasive substance for his
supporters, let alone his critics.

Yes, it was evident that the Nigeria leader intends
to fight corruption. This was his unique selling
point and the single most important factor, which
propelled him into office. And yet, presented with
the prime time opportunity on live television, he
did not make an inspiring case.

To be clear: it is important that he intends to get
every penny from everyone who has stolen from
Nigeria, as tough as that task sounds. But it is
even more important to ensure that those funds
are not re-looted and that, through clear and
specific laws and structural changes, such
practices are discouraged in the future.

I hoped to learn of an informed vision of the
Nigeria he is engineering, but didn’t hear it. I
hoped to learn of the Nigeria he hopes will
emerge of his efforts in the next 50 or 100 years,
but didn’t hear of it.

In other words, 30 years after he must first have
punched the walls of his detention cell in anger,
12 years after he first tried to win the presidency,
and seven months after he arrived in Abuja, Mr.
Buhari seemed to be more outrage than strategic.
Everyone knows that the Nigeria leader inherited a
tough task. But that is exactly why despairing
Nigerians chose a man they perceived to be equal
to the task.

Eight months into this monumental assignment,
Buhari has not made the waves that those
Nigerians expected. Perhaps it was too much to
have expected that he would arrive with a
machete, chopping off the limbs—including the
human among them—of all the problems.
Until the media chat, however, he was merely
thought to be holding his cards close to his
chest.The problem is that at the event, those
cards were not in evidence. Many of his answers
were no answers at all; some were half-informed,
and a few were not inspiring. It is now unclear
whether his government is unwilling, or just being
slow.
I mean this only in description of Buhari’s
performance, not in indictment of his presidency.
In the election of 2015, he was vastly-superior to
his immediate rival, an incumbent who did not
seem to know what time of day it was.

But now, Buhari must show the potential for
which he was elected: vigorous, confident and
exemplary leadership. That challenge requires him
to get to the bottom of the menace of corruption,
which is sadly rooted in some of his friends and
former colleagues in the military. I have written in
the past that unless Buhari is willing and able to
reach those tap-roots of corruption in Nigeria, he
will not win the acclaim of a good job.

The other challenge before him is the nurturing of
democratic values, without which other reforms
would be laughable.

This is one of the reasons why I say he arrived at
his media chat unprepared, claiming his
government would be irresponsible to allow bail
for a man granted bail by a court of law. That, in
effect, defeats the objective.Let me be clear:
nothing would please me more than to see every
thief of federal funds picked up at the first smell
of such a crime and held until jailed and every
penny recovered.

But that is illegal. Outrage—even political power—
is no law, and there can be no democracy without
the rule of law.

It is critical to remember that the oath Mr. Buhari
took last May was administered not by the
Secretary to the Government, but by the Chief
Justice of the Federation. This underlines the
constitution.

https://mobile.facebook.com/Nairaland-Politics-Entertainment-Forum-865944340190897/?v=feed&_rdr

Crap and nonsense sentiment.