I am not surprised that Lai Mohammed is still blaming the past administrations for the economic difficulties of this hour, that is Lai being the quixotic Lai Mohammed. What the Buhari government fail to understand correctly is that responsible leaders don’t engage in the losers’ lark of blaming others for misfortunes. While the previous political administrations may have their failures, they were compassionate enough to avoid pursuing the inhumane primeval economic policies of the past fourteen months.
In the words of the central bank governor, the present financial pressure on the people is a direct result of the discordant and illogical economic directives from the top. After fourteen months in government, the Buhari Administration is still unable to convince Nigerians of how its economic policies will free Nigerians from financial hardship.
Instead of a vigorous pursuit of economic rejuvenation, this administration is ensnared in divisionary fights, ethical and political scandals, human rights abuse, and a wasteful search for the way back to the past. The lack of articulate pursuit of people-oriented economic answers is the cause of the growing fourteen months financial squeeze on the people, not whatever Lai Mohammed spew up in his last press release.
For reality sake, one cannot continue to take Lai Mohammed too seriously; he is known for casually adjusting his narratives to suit his convenience. Now that Lai Mohammed is narrating blames instead of performance, it is appropriate that we point him where the blame belongs. Obasanjo did whatever he was capable of doing with the paltry three billion dollars he met in the national reserves and an oil price of $12 a barrel. We all lament the squandermania of the Jonathan era, yet the Treasury has $33 billion net balance as of the last day of his presidency. Although things weren’t rosy during the Jonathan administration, they were not half as bad as now. Only a Lai Mohammed can blame something else for the failures of the last 14 months.
Nigerians demand a change from an inept and craven leadership that is unable to enumerate correctly and accept the harsh impacts of its non-performance on the people. If the Buhari administration cannot lead Nigeria back to glory, it should do the honorable thing; quit and allow responsible leaders lead the nation. The narratives of the chickens are finally coming home to roost after 16 years of mismanagement is only a façade to cover an egregious non-performance.
It will serve the Buhari administration well to tell us our current external reserve based on average oil price in the past fourteen months, $33 billion net reserves as of May 29, 2015, and the increasing economic squeeze on the people. Our foreign reserves should be growing if the war on corruption is as effective as we are all made to believe, and if the present economic hardship is truly a sacrifice for a better future. Anything short of growth in external reserves points to a very dishonest, inhumane, clueless, and incompetent leadership.
Finally, I ask the Buhari administration to concentrate on how to ease the economic pain on the people. Nigerians are tired of excuses and blames. We demand performance from the party that paraded themselves as competent enough to give Nigerians better life within six months in office. It is not acceptable for the same set of people to remain in campaign mode and continue to blame others fourteen months into their failed policies and disastrous performance.
The point simply is this; winners and performers find a way to achieve results responsibly irrespective of the obstacles. The losers and non-performers are irresponsible whiners who will blame their failures on just about anything, and seek every justifiable excuse in the book to absolve their non-performance.