PMB: A BRILLIANT GENERAL, BUT MISSING SCRIPT PRESIDENT BY FATAI, AFEEZ OLANSILE

PMB by all indication and standards, is a brilliant General and experienced Warlord who understand the dynamics of operational, tactical and strategic military operations. By military operation, reference is not made to only war, but also military activities such as surveillance, military mapping, campaign, disease control, prompt response to distress call and above all deployment of security apparatus to strengthening territorial integrity and security of Nigeria. But the drama of his life is that, PMB is a brilliant General, but has missing script in democratic governance. The question is how do you assess a student with missing script and how can such a student, know his performance to know areas, he is doing well and areas to scale up his performance.

PMB is global force to reckon with as a retired military general of the Nigerian Army and previously served as military head of state from 1983 to 1985, after taking power in a military coup d'état. PMB enrolled at earlier age of 19 in the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC) in 1962. This has afforded him the opportunity to garnered requisite skills and experienced in military training and deployment of strategic, tactical and operational planning for successful military operations. In February 1964, the college was upgraded to an officer commissioning unit of the Nigerian Army and renamed the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). In a drive to learn more, garner art and science of security, PMB underwent officer cadet training at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot in England in 1962 to 1963. In January 1963, at age 20, Buhari was commissioned a second lieutenant and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta, Nigeria. From November 1963 to January 1964, Buhari attended the Platoon Commanders' Course at the Nigerian Military Training College, Kaduna. In 1964, in a bid to learn more and craft his skills, he facilitated his military training by attending the Mechanical Transport Officer's Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden, United Kingdom. From 1965 to 1967, Buhari served as commander of the Second Infantry Battalion and appointed brigade major, Second Sector, First Infantry Division, April 1967 to July 1967.

From 1970 to 1971, Buhari was Brigade Major/Commandant, Thirty-first Infantry Brigade. He then served as the Assistant Adjutant-General, First Infantry Division Headquarters, from 1971 to 1972. He also attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India, in 1973. From 1974 to 1975 Buhari was Acting Director of Transport and Supply at the Nigerian Army Corps of Supply and Transport Headquarters. From 1978 to 1979, he was Military Secretary at the Army Headquarters and was a member of the Supreme Military Council from 1978 to 1979. From 1979 to 1980, at the rank of colonel, Buhari (class of 1980) attended the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the United States, and gained a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies. Upon completion of the on-campus full-time resident program lasting ten months and the two-year-long, distance learning program, the United States Army War College (USAWC) college awards its graduate officers a master's degree in Strategic Studies.

But the drama of life is, after all his impressive and sterling performance in military affairs in introducing different innovations and setting new agenda for Nigerians in enhancing modest and humane behaviour. PMB has been a President with missing script which made it impossible to evaluate his governance performance. The drama of his life is that, when a brilliant student sits for exams and after the result was released, such student has missing script and all efforts to trace the result prove abortive. This is a student whose, the whole academic staff knows he cannot failed any examination, because he is brilliant, smart, hardworking, intelligent, but at the end, he had a missing script. What a drama of life.

Examination is a way of assessing student performance to know which areas the student is doing well, and which areas the student needs to learn more and craft his skills. But when a student has a missing script, that means no one can evaluate the performance of such student, for him/her to know potential areas to learn more and work smarter and harder. The import of this is that, PMB as a brilliant General with high performance in Military, but as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he has a missing script which by all indications, we cannot assess his performance in terms of democratic governance, transparency, accountability in all sectors of our social institutions such as economy, health, education, politics among others.

A cursory look at the Nigeria Human Development Index (HDI) as a parameter or yardstick in which a country performance should be measure which is majorly premised on a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. As of 2015, Nigeria is ranked as the 125th country in the HDI ranking out of 195 countries. Nigeria has the following data on the Human Development Indicators.

Life expectancy at birth == 53.1 years; Expected years of schooling == 10.0 years; Gross National Income (GNI) per capita == $5,443 purchasing power parity (PPP); Gender Development Index (GDI) == 0.847; Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) == 0.279; Employment to population ratio (% ages 15 and older) == 53.1; Internet users (% of population) == 47.4 (people with active internet). This poor performance in HDI is associated with massive youth unemployment in the land, poverty is rising like Ebola virus, but its kill slower like Corona-Virus; slow pace of industrial drives to absorbed enterprising and innovative youths; the health institutions is becoming nothing to write home about, but they spend heavily on it; people are dying like chicks day and nights as precipitated by banditry, kidnapping, Boko-haram insurgency, religion bigotry, inter-ethnic rivalry and other developmental challenges Nigeria has been facing.

By and large, we cannot say, PMB has failed in all the indicators to assess or evaluate his performance, but in reality, the script to assess his performance is missing, so we cannot grade him, and he has no chance to re-write the examination again, because he has pass the minimum constitutional no 3rd term of office for Presidency, unless he lobby the parliament to change the law of the land for 3rd term. Until this is done, PMB is a brilliant General, but with missing script in democratic governance.

Missing script ke?

The dullard refused to submit his script because he wrote nothing.

Man is disaster squared!

We are because when are always behind Arewa people when Biafra people want to leave the union.