Below is an excerpt from Musa's writeup on Sahara Reporters


For Nigeria, we have always prayed to have our
own Mandela. In this sense, we were looking for
someone with that Midas touch, charisma, and the
benevolence to heal our national wounds, unite
our country, and steer it out of the trap set by its
past greedy leaders. We thought we had one in
Obasanjo. However, it turned out within few years
of his ascension to power in 1999, that we were
damn wrong.

Then came into the picture another
retired General, Muhammad Buhari, who has
everything to be our Mandela. For close to 13
years he was the major opposition leader and
perhaps its only genuine face in the country’s
democratic terrain. His untiring commitment to
building our democratic institution saw him
contesting in 3 presidential elections at a stretch;
losing in all but only to have the last laugh in the
4th one. Some pundits even draw some parallels
between him and the legendary Abraham Lincoln.


The most interesting things about Buhari’s wining
presidential election are three. One, his victory
united the northern Nigeria, which was hitherto
factionalized along ethno- religious and sectional
divides. Two, he built the much needed alliance
between Yoruba nation in the South-west and the
political class of northern Nigeria. Three, he came
on board with an incredible CV of incorruptibility
and is seen by many as a no-nonsense leader
armed with armamentarium to rid this nation of
ills of corruption, indiscipline and insecurity.
Fourth, he has tremendous goodwill across the
board which he can always leverage on to tweak
the system to ignite national rebirth. But so far,
one can say something is amiss here. This
effervescence and goodwill is fast-subliming
without the driver realizing it.


It is pertinent to remind us that there is no quick-
fix to Nigeria’s ills. We are quite aware of the
degree of our nation’s problems. And this
pathology, more than anything, calls for its
present leadership to be more circumspect and
responsible. It needs to operate within a different
wavelength that would keep our momentum of
change rolling. These expectations are also the
reasons why there are murmurs echoing some
frustrations about what has been going on so far.
Perhaps there is something strange about the
Aso-rock villa that keeps its occupiers from
stepping up to the challenges. They get easily
irritated by criticisms and see their actions (even
when derailed) as the ultimate measure of
sacrifice. Why are they easily scared about
visiting victims of tragic insecurity in Borno? One
finds it difficult to rationalize Buhari’s
nonchalance in this regard. In his 8 months on
the throne, he has visited no less than 8 countries
and at least 4 states within Nigeria- but Borno
was never on the card. Painfully, one of his
spokesmen even compounded the issue by
making assertion to people trying to embarrass
him with the recent escalation of attacks on Dalori
that left nearly a hundred people dead. I am sure
no revolutionary leader would be this cold; not to
talk of our Nigeria’s Mandela! It is disappointing
to say the least! And this is not the way to
squander goodwill.


Certainly, there are many signals that call for
Buhari to pause and readjust his belt. So far, the
snippet of this 2016 budget analysis by BudgiT
(an NGO) has shown so many similarities to the
curious figures that typified previous
governments’ budgets. I wonder what luxury
awaits any president at such critical time of fast
receding foreign reserve and unbreakable sliding
of Brent oil prices to have the latitude to spend
millions of naira for reactional activities in the
villa. What is there to maintain in Aso-rock
building with 3 billion naira? Unless if Nigeria is
going to install Bill Gates or Steve Jobs in the
villa’s ever reappearing computers, one cannot
explain the allocation of millions for this subhead.
We do not have to defend this. As stakeholders
we should not make only mere rhetoric and
innuendoes out of our hard-earned change.
Indeed these are things begging for
comprehensive answers from the budget office.
The whole thing seems like a mockery of zero-
based budgeting process the government is
piloting. Perhaps Soludo was right by tagging it
as a rehash of Jonathan’s- dubbed and delivered.


At this juncture, I want to appeal to Buhari to
review his steps in a deeply reflective and critical
manner to see if these fit well in his own image
and vision. He is at liberty to pick his own
advisers to help steer this nation. People he can
trust particularly to handle the economy. I feel like
his team is missing Pat Utomi. At the moment he
appears very slow in appointing his own best
eleven and even seems distracted by globetrotting
tendency.
Many of us are worried about some of
the figures we have seen. We want the
government to reflect on this and make amend
where necessary. Purposeful leadership is all
about personal sacrifice for the comfort of the
majority.

Before Buhari became the president he
had no access to 3 billion naira not to talk of
dreaming about earmarking such on a clinic he is
going to patronize as the number one citizen. In
essence, my appeal to all our leaders is to always
treat public funds the same way they treat their
own legitimate savings. I am confident that
Buhari can do better. Yes, he can!



Ibrahim Musa is a graduate student in
Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Health
Science Center, Texas A&M University, College
Station. Texas.


saharareporters.com/2016/02/05/how-not-squander-goodwill-mr-president-ibrahim-musa

Just one word, you can't give what you don't have.

Thought provoking... Have we made the wrong choice?

Thank God . We still have patriotic citizens who know when to speak out.

Leave trash for LAWMA

The people get the kind of lenders they deserve

so the three thins na to unite north then yoruba and north and finally no corrupt cv?
ok o
so na yoruba and hausa/fulani get the zoo abi? i agree o
then why force SS/SE to join in what they dont wanna be part of and from write up is for the unity of SW/NORTH?

Many Nigerians don't seem to realise we have a president that can be likened to a postman who delivers a package with little clue about its content. How could a president present a budget that's full of errors, ambiguities and distortions to the National Assembly with so much fanfare without detailed vetting and scrutiny? Nigerians should pray that the country is not traded off while he watches haplessly.

I believe things will change for the better.

Maybe he's right.

Bubu the Dulladinho