TOP STORIES THE NATION BUSINESS INSIDE NIGERIA SPORT VIEWPOINT HOT CELEBS LIFE & LIVING ☰ Can the change Nigerians expect now begin?
Can the betterment of our lives and country now begin to manifest please? I ask these questions because much time has been lost already. Surprisingly, however, it doesn’t appear the All Progressives Congress (APC) government fully realises that every moment counts, or that it really has no time to waste, or that Nigerians may soon run out of patience with it!
Back in July, President Buhari had announced he would not appoint ministers until September, saying that such appointments “cannot and should not be rushed.” He made this known in an article he authored titled“Nigeria committed to good governance and fighting terror”, which was published by the Washington Post on Monday, July 20, 2015, shortly before he met President Barack Obama during his well-publicised visit to the US.
Then, President Buhari maintained that it was pertinent for him to take his time to select the right persons who would work for him even as it was also necessary for him to put in place rules of conduct and good governance.
“When cabinet ministers are appointed in September, it will be some months after I took the oath of office. It is worth noting that Obama himself did not have his full Cabinet in place for several months after first taking office; the United States did not cease to function in the interim. In Nigeria’s case, it would neither be prudent nor serve the interests of sound government to have made these appointments immediately on my elevation to the presidency; instead, Nigeria must first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place,” he stated.
To further buttress his point, President Buhari mentioned that the examples of previous governments for which it can be said that good management and governance were instituted at a national level since Nigeria’s independence are few. He informed Nigerians it was this lack of governance framework that allowed many of the former political office holders in charge, devoid of any real checks and balances, to plunder.
He said the fact that he was seeking President Obama’s assistance in locating and returning $150 billion in funds stolen in the past decade and held in foreign bank accounts on behalf of former corrupt officials, is testament to how badly Nigeria has been run, accounts for the prevalence of corrupt practices, and why the fight against Boko Haram insurgency had not yielded much result.
Of course, public reactions were varied. While some expressed disappointment at the long delay and felt Nigerians ‘had entered one chance with the APC’ because the President, through the way he carried on, didn’t come across as someone who really prepared for governance despite having contested for the office on three previous occasions before his success at the fourth attempt, others said it wasn’t too long a time to wait for. They explained that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government, which had been in power for 16 years, and which Nigerians had justly punished for its impunity, seeming tolerance for corruption, and under-performance by voting out, created a huge mess that would take some time to clear up.
Despite the arguments and counter arguments, however, it was Nigerians and the country’s economy that suffered for it on many fronts while the waiting game lasted. The hitherto tough living conditions of the average Nigerian got further battered. You hear many complaining of how difficult it is to make ends meet. Even the rich and generally well-to-do were not left out in the “bandwagon of complainants.” There have been several job losses especially in the construction and banking industry as well. Foreign investors also adopted a ‘let’s-wait-and-see’ posture.
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