Good Governance Is Not Buhari’s Style. By Seyi Oyetunbi
Seyi Oyetunbi
Mr. Femi Adesina has repeatedly told Nigerians to either align with Buhari’s style of failed governance or brace up to contest in 2023 general election. Or quash their unsolicited opinion; even when he was reminded that Buhari is there because Nigerians voted for him, and by that string, he (Buhari) remains the subject of the state. What you heard from him is exactly or an euphemistic tone of the president’s perception of leadership. If only we understand what good governance is, we would have sent Buhari packing from our political space, 4years ago.
Buhari cannot out-perform his capacity, the same way we cannot expect a 5litre gallon to take in 10 litre of water. We have seen his best in his first term, this second time is a period for the former dictator with kakistocratic mindset to sleep hard and snore harder in power. Whatever he is doing or not doing with power is his style, and no body is permitted to whine; even when it is at the expense of the governed, this has been the point Mr. Adesina has been trying to drive down into our hands. That is possibly one of the most dangerous jokes I have heard all my life.
The only rationale for our heightened tolerance of malgovenance is simple: a large number of Nigerians don’t know what good governance is and few who know it are bought, compromised and lost in the struggle for a working Nigeria. I cannot recollect who said “a sick country cannot be managed by a sick president,” but that statement truly explains why we should hibernate our hope for a new Nigeria, with Buhari at the helm of affairs. Mr. President with his cabinet members is convinced that Nigeria and Nigerians deserve nothing better than his obsolete style of dictatorship. The day we become concerned about things that matter will be the end of political catastrophe in Nigeria.
Anytime I take a pew to watch CNN, Aljazeera and other international news stations, and I see Britons and Americans infuriated about their governmental policies, I find it uneasy to beat-down the thinking that Nigeria and good governance are two parallel lines that can never meet; under this callousness earthen under leadership. If Americans and Britons can protest, lament, spit fire at their public office occupants, inspite of the ocean of life supporting amenities they can access, I feel Nigerians should pack their mats and mattresses and match forward to the streets of Abuja to oust president Muhammadu Buhari, who is retiring in power.
The state of governance in the most populous African state, from all indications shows that our leaders have failed and are drastically failing.
Basically, you would agree with me that the essence of social contract: reason for (the populace) submitting to be governed is for government to do that which we cannot do for ourselves. What has Buhari done in the past 5years better than gagging the media, institutionalizing corruption and defending failures with excuse of 16years ruins of their sister party?
The standard yardsticks to measure good governance are: following rule of law, efficient, accountable, transparent, responsive, consensus oriented, participatory and inclusive. On this basis, can you see how far we are from good governance? It is indeed unfortunate that we tolerate failure. We are too apathetic and indifferent about happenings in our political space. This is costing us so much.
May be we should say to ourselves that we have roles to play in government-when a policy is made, reaction from the public follows. Do we really react to anything they offer us? Instead, we try to look at things the way they position us to look at things like zombies. We sometimes prefer to whine behind closed doors and resort to asking God ‘why’
God cannot do that which we can do for ourselves; he is too busy with things we cannot do. Governance is what we can do, and what we should do.
Nigerians have misplaced their priorities, rather than demand good and fair governance from the political elites they voted into public offices they chose to put “success in the prayer equation”, forgetting that nothing comes by just prayer… Nigerians need to put action into words and demand good governance from policy makers.