Mr. President, Don’t Squander This Goodwill

No government anywhere in the world succeeds outside a groundswell of sympathy, support, loyalty, benevolence and sacrifices encapsulated as goodwill from the governed.

It brings to mind Adolf Hitler, at the height of his satanic misadventure (holocaust) to the entrenchment of Nazi German, enjoyed the support of a majority of his indoctrinated and hypnotized people.

Observational evidence gleaned from the political space since the dawn of this democratic dispensation affirms leadership mismanagement and colossal squandering of the goodwill of the people offered on a platter of gold.

With the benefit of hindsight, Nigerians were ready to pluck out an eye each and offer them to Obasanjo if he so desired, to get the energy/power sector working and keep the refineries running, but what did we get, a father to a failed nation as the nation missed a golden era that could have launched her on a path to economic recovery, national resuscitation and digging a firm foundation became a mirage after eight years of his rule.

If we thought Obasanjo was a joke, Buhari was a sheer disaster. Never in the history of this country will Nigerians trust a man in the person of Mr Integrity, ever! For a country up to the neck with the atrocities of the PDP pillage and national waste, Nigerians rallied around, broke the jinx, sent the incumbent scampering for shelter, and for the first time in our history, handed over the mantle of leadership to the opposition – the man from Daura, but as a parting shot he declared, it was easier to tend his cows than lead Nigerians and left behind a country sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines. The worse ever since 1914.

The present administration has covenanted Nigerians with the Renewed Hope mantra! One so inspiring and reassuring deserving nothing, but a chance. So, Nigerians seem ready to take that chance for a man touted as the most prepared presidential aspirant since 1999. Tinubu is a man you can take anything away from, yet his most vicious critics acknowledge his capacity to harvest the right skills. He has promised a government of national competence, and the nation could not have asked for more but a little addition of character to the competence. Nigeria has never had a short supply of competent men but suffered a deficit of men of searching character.

 With the ministerial and MDAs lists in view, it is imperative to apprise Mr President that the massive goodwill he currently enjoys comes with a grave price. No seriously-minded person or entity trivializes its consequences.

The audacious fuel subsidy removal and naira float by Mr President are both tactical and strategic, but no doubt, buoyed by the unprecedented goodwill Nigerians are offering. It is worth the while to draw his attention to the fact that the honeymoon is short-lived, so the job requires urgency and near-mathematical precision.

Mr Buhari could not remove the oil subsidy, take or leave it, because he had squandered the goodwill of the people on the altar of ethnicity and incompetence, stating the facts. Garba Shehu’s posturing that such gross failure was to enable the APC to win the election is not only shameless but nonsensical. Shehu should exact his energies on more productive ventures or enjoy his fortunes quietly.

Nigerians are ever willing to sacrifice for the nation, but time and again, leadership disasters sponsor suspicion and trust deficits such that government calls in that direction are regrettable because ours has been repeated leadership misfortunes.

So, what will justify this goodwill in the next six months or one year without prejudice to the substantive court cases, is not just audacious declarations, but clear and deep-rooted policy direction and purposeful governance with no room for political vengeance or vailed ethnic nepotism that characterized the immediate past administration and of course, the current president has demonstrated fidelity.

When Jonathan fired Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the nation was outraged, not necessarily because he was a saint but because the government had lost its goodwill with the people, and the opposition masterfully harvested that deficit. However, the suspension of Emefiele, one of the most confused CBN governors and the sacking of Mr Bawa received the endorsement of Nigerians not necessarily because these were the worse from the stable of Mr Buhari but the fact that Nigerians are extending their goodwill to this current president.

In light of this goodwill, Mr President must enshrine justice, equity and fair play. He must respect the rule of law. So, if there are no substantial grounds to keep Emefiele or Bawa in confinement, these men should be subjected to the legal processes and granted bail pronto. That is how to honour the goodwill of the people.

This government must consciously deviate from the highhandedness and vindictive posture of the immediate past government. The Dasuki debacle readily comes to mind, and if the Supreme Court declares Nnamdi Kanu not guilty, so be it; even when his approach appears barbaric, uncultured and uncivilized, his continuous incarceration makes nonsense the democratic trajectory.

• Mr President and his foot soldiers should know that Nigerians are not suffering selective amnesia over his position on the subsidy removal a few years ago when his party was still in the cold. The dynamics in the fuel subsidy scam have not changed since then, and neither is this an attempt to celebrate Goodluck Jonathan, but Nigerians are willing to suffer this untold hardship on top of multidimensional poverty to give renewed hope a chance. Again, this is a dose of goodwill and must be reciprocated appropriately within the shortest possible timeframe.

If Mr President is fully conscious of the weight and measure of goodwill Nigerians are extending to him, then the refineries should be up and running in no time despite the possibilities the Dangote Refinery puts on the table. The other day, some of Buhari handlers were cataloguing Dangote Refinery as an achievement of his administration while the national assets (refineries) rot away. 

Respecting the goodwill of the people amounts to uncovering why these refineries just refused to work because Dangote refinery is not the messiah that will deliver Nigeria from the fuel imbroglio suffered for decades. While we celebrate and commend Dangote, we must not forget in a hurry that the man is not running a charity that will distribute fuel to Nigerians. If nothing fast is done about our refineries, the nation just handed Dangote a monopolistic ticket, and no capitalist smiles sheepishly with such enormous power.

With that in mind, It is imperative to pierce the veil on this NNPC and ask frank questions. One never seems to stop wondering why President Yar’dua recovered the public refineries sold to Mr Dangote, yet the Federal Government of Mr Integrity and his team invested heavily in a private refinery why abandoning our national assets.

In addendum, it will amount to total disregard for goodwill if there is no promising shift in the Nigerian power/energy sector because it will mean Mr President dropping the ball too early in the life of his administration. Nigerians desire to see rigorous engagements to push the frontiers of development as promised during the electioneering campaigns and not the kind of shenanigans displayed by Mr Buhari after his elections.

Nigerians await clear direction about community policing, taming the bandits and terrorists once and for all because there are allegations that some of these criminals arrested were left off the hook by orders from above, and that should be gone forever.

Some argue that the Federal Government should negotiate with these criminals and bandits, but the question that readily comes to mind is on what basis?

The argument that the same treatment meted to the agitators of the Niger Delta militants should extend to these terrorists should turn the searchlight on these shameless proponents. 

This country is near ruination, so evaluating and criticizing the government should be viciously constructive, dispassionate, yet patriotic because this country must work.

 It is time the president takes Nigeria to the bend because he currently has a truckload of goodwill, and believe it or not, more people are praying for him to succeed.

He should be smart enough to know that his success transcends party affinity or ethnic colouration, so he should run away from every antic that destroyed the socio-cultural and ethnoreligious harmony we have enjoyed as a people.

In conclusion, so far, the early steps of Mr President affirm his political mastery, audacious savviness and readiness to write his name in gold, but the secret remains a consistent pursuit of the heartbeat of the people, and we are not asking for much.

May our hope be renewed and the president not bungle, but maximize the goodwill! of the people.

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