President Buhari and the need for guarded utterances
By: Edebhagba G. Justice


Once again, Nigeria’s most illustrious septuagenarian has managed to embroil himself in yet another insidious fiasco, the likes of which are fast putting the 2015 “Orubebe incident” to weeping shame; in a rather daring display of political aloofness, the President ruffled the bristling feathers of Nigerians with his statement last Wednesday at the Commonwealth Business Forum in U.K., where he brazenly surmised that “a lot” of Nigerian youths are lazy illiterates who possess a misguided sense of entitlement. Predictably, his comment has generated heated condemnation from aggrieved youths nationwide and a fresh new wave of putrid bashing from political opponents, all the while sending his media handlers scurrying around in a futile attempt to do damage control.


Now, it is quite plausible that the President never meant his statement as an insult; however, the fact remains that it was not the most tactful of things to say (especially in a foreign country), and has only led to his opponents capitalizing on his reckless commentary to further propagate the current atmosphere of “irresponsible politics”. As it stands, the current administration is riddled with numerous of such gaffe; on July 22 2015, while the President was speaking in an interview at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), he bluntly uttered the poisonous arithmetic of 95% and 7% (referring to the yawning gap between the proportion of constituents who voted for and those who voted against him, and how it was impossible to treat them both the same way), splitting the country into a dangerous mathematical dichotomy that further fanned the flames of anger and discontent. Subsequently, the country suffered through a bitter series of pipeline vandalism by enraged Niger Delta youths and a bellicose secessionist movement that almost got out of hand. All due to the heightened feelings of marginalization that was made rife by the President’s infamous “body language”, after all, both the Niger Delta and South East are regions which consider themselves part of the “7%”.


October 1st of the same year was another instance where the President in an independence speech delivered from the U.K., warned Nigerians to “stop their unruly behavior” (isn’t that rich coming from someone whose son was skidding around the highways of Abuja at midnight on a power bike till he landed in an emergency ward?), a statement that portrayed Nigerians as an undisciplined and primitive mob in the face of the international community. As if that wasn’t enough, in the same month, he went ahead to Germany where he claimed, with humorous relish, that his wife belonged to “the kitchen” and “the other room”, much to the chagrin of a clearly miffed Angela Merkel. Without seeming to be aware of it, he successfully painted himself as a male chauvinist, lacking regard for women.


Yes, no one is above making mistakes and one may sometimes make innocent remarks that can be erroneously interpreted within the purview of other less benign contexts; but as the President of a multi-polar state like Nigeria, one would expect more than poorly conceived innocent remarks that could lead to increased sectarian tension or have serious negative impacts on the morale and perception of the country abroad. Thus, Mr. President must learn to address issues with a certain level of succinct diplomacy or risk crossing the Rubicon to a point he would rather not wish the country to be.


President Buhari must realize that good governance is beyond abortive attempts at fighting corruption, but also entails good communication with the citizenry; the President’s media aides must do more in prepping the President for media chats, instead of their trademark fire-brigade and obstreperous approach to public relations.


While many of the presidential loyalists and goons are defending the President by claiming that he was only being frank and truthful, or that he never expressly used the word “lazy” in his controversial dialogue (yeah, right, the same way Jonathan never expressly used the words “I am clueless” when he publicly declared that “stealing is not corruption”), the point remains that the sensibility of Nigerians should always be respected, especially by the very people they voted into power. Our President should realize that while his episodic declarations of cosmic truths are very much welcome, his rather uncanny habit of declaring these “truths” in foreign countries and further embarrassing his country and its citizenry isn’t in any way amusing.


http://www.opinionnigeria.com/president-buhari-and-the-need-for-guarded-utterances-by-edebhagba-g-justice/#sthash.WTnAFHli.bXDScrAr.dpbs

He has no thinking faculty.. He's mistake..

His true character is beginning to show. I saw it early after his electoral victory and made amends promptly.

At what age do you want to teach him. Abeg, tolerate him while it lasts

Another crap written by another lazy, irresponsible uncomprehending certificate holder.