Ex-president Buhari, missed opportunities & verdict of history (Part2) ~ by Godson Moneke
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The actions of the former president while in office were very disturbing. I could not cover the major flanks in my previous write-up and I doubt if anyone can comprehensively do because they are mind boggling. However, this is the second part of the tale of woes and wickedness which the Buhari government visited on hapless Nigerians who trusted and expected him to be their REDEEMER. Leaders are cavalier about this issue of trust and believe that there is nothing retributive and karmic about breaching a solemn trust. To such people, TRUST is just a five letter word which has nothing to it other than its ordinary dictionary meaning. The Buhari government lied to Nigerians all through the eight years he was on the saddle about his piety and fidelity when he was deliberately doing the exact opposite. The paradox in all these is that a government in which so much hope was invested to clean the Augean Stable became the most corrupt government in the history of Nigeria. We had a government whose leader was ostensibly in a rat race with ‘God Knows Whom’ to become the wealthiest former Head of State in Africa. Shameful, isn’t it? About 130million Nigerians wallow in abject poverty but the biological children of Buhari were physically SPRAYING US$ on musicians and others In Daura, to mark a triumphant return from a CONQUEST EXPEDITION. We thought that President Buhari offered himself for service but never knew that Buhari and family came for the poor Nigerians to feed them. It is a SHAME!!!!! That public spraying of foreign currency by members of the former first family showed how insensitive they were to the plight of the average Nigerian while they were in office. The actions are egregious to say the least.
The legal tender in Nigeria is the Naira but to demonstrate the contempt in which everything Nigeria is held by him down to its currency, the former first family had to spray the US$ to rub it in that they and their orbit were above the laws. After all, they appointed the governor of the CBN which made it a criminal offense to spray Naira at parties and other social occasions. Nigeria has often been described as a criminal enterprise but it appears that people do not know how deep the rot is. That explains why criminals who wear the cloak of leaders continue to have a field day. I am using Buhari as a metaphor for these plunderers but I know that there are a lot of hardened criminals in his nest of so-called leaders. At the last count, there are more than 23 trillion Naira projects sited in Daura, the hometown of the former president in the last 8 years. These include Federal Polytechnic, University of Transportation, Maradi Rail, Women and Children Hospital, Air force Reference Hospital, School for People with Special Needs, Air force Response Air Wing, Nigerian Army 171 Battalion Base, Forwarding Base, NDE Center, Mini Stadium, SDG Skills Acquisition Center, Zango Road, Sabke Dams , 73km 132KVA line, 400,000 liters Solar powered Water Supply, SDG School Projects, etc. The project sited and executed in Daura alone with our common resources is more than what that government did in any other geopolitical zone in the country. What do you call that if not senseless brigandage and pillaging of common resources? No past president exhibited 3% of the audacity to site as many federal government facilities in his hometown and village. A PROVINCIAL PRESIDENT INDEED!!!!!!!!
The major feature of a totalitarian and villainous leader like Buhari is the growing army of sycophants who egg him on even when he is committing BLUE MURDER. I was therefore not surprised when some fly by night biographers were competing among themselves to write his BIOGRAPHY projecting him in good light just for a mess of porridge when all and sundry knew that Buhari was a pitiable failure lacking in basic patriotism. A president who created more holes and openings to make it easier for the resources of State to be corruptly siphoned by his cronies and accomplices cannot be asking people to write his biography if he never set out to deceive Nigerians. The so-called biography is nothing but an attempt at REVISIONISM akin to whitewashing a sepulcher. Real leaders permit writers to craft their biographies when they have left office and not when they are in office. What was done in the name of biography of Buhari was nothing but a shameless exhibition of SYCOPHANCY by all the people involved in that infamy. . The minister is the Chief Executive of the ministry and president Buhari, apart from being the president of Nigeria also held the petroleum minister portfolio. Therefore, he was both the de facto and de jure minister of petroleum resources which was the haven of corruption and graft in Nigeria. The oil theft, corruption and sleaze in the sector under the direct supervision of president Buhari was of a scale never seen in the history of the country. When president Buhari was outside government, he told the nation as a former minister of petroleum resources and military head of State, that there was nothing like PETROLEUM SUBSIDY and that it was all a fraud by the then PGEJ government. When he eventually became president of Nigeria, the PAYMENT OF SUBSIDIES which he had earlier decried BALLOONED FROM THE DISPUTED DAILY CONSUMPTION BASIS OF 35MILLION LITERS TO THE ROOFTOP BASIS OF ABOUT 80MILLION LITERS PER DAY UNDER HIS VERY NOSE. The professional protesters kept quiet showing that there was no sense of ALTRUISM in their posturing and ill-informed actions a priori. How can former President Buhari as the petroleum minister explain to Nigerians that he authorized fat salaries payments for the staff of the four non-functional refineries throughout his 8 year tenure? We just heard that the NNPC terminated the CRUDE FOR PETROL SWAP CONTRACT WITH FOREIGN REFINERS. The question should be; WHAT HAPPENED? IT APPEARS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO DESTROY THE RECORDS ON THE PHANTOM SUBSIDY PAYMENTS. We must stop FRAUDSTERS from taking Nigerians for granted. People should be held accountable for their actions. WHY DO THIS WHEN ANOTHER GOVERNMENT IS TAKING OVER? WHAT IS NNPC HIDING? Dr. Ibe Kachikwu was a former minister of state for petroleum resources under Buhari but when he could not be co-opted as a willing accomplice in the corruption mess, Buhari quickly dropped and removed him as a minister. The NNPC, the major parasternal of government bypassed its governing board of which the minister of state was Chairman and got Buhari to approve a contract of $25B even on a sickbed in London. Though there was a governing board for the NNPC, President Buhari made them irrelevant and redundant by always indulging the GMD who operated with arrogance because of the ready support and acquiescence of the president. The GMD showed so much contempt for the Honorable minister of state who was his immediate boss and the president condoned it because the GMD was doing his secret bidding. Under Buhari as president, the Nigeria Air purported launch happened and the swindler minister, Hadi Sirika was from his home state of Katsina . Everybody knew Hadi Sirika was filthily corrupt and you believe Buhari knew nothing about the fraud? Minister Sirika was on the Nigeria Air project for 5years (2018-2023), the Buhari government appropriated billions of Naira on it and in the end could not go beyond stage one of the process of obtaining the Air Operating Certificate (AOC) . He ended up deceiving Nigerians with a repainted Ethiopian Airline aircraft for the dubious launch of the shambolic Nigeria Air. The loquacious Labor minister of state, Festus Keyamo claimed to have spent billions of Naira to empower youths in all the 774 local government areas without verifiable records and evidence. It was a government of scammers and fraudsters.
So much have been said about petrol subsidies payments by the federal government that one worries at whether its purported removal is not a smokescreen. The removal of fuel subsidy can only lead to hike in fuel pump prices to the extent of the removed subsidy, but where there were no subsidies ab initio, the pump prices would not change. Therefore, THE PURPORTED REMOVAL OF A PHANTOM SUBSIDY SHOULD NOT LEAD TO A HIKE IN FUEL PUMP PRICE. There are many questions begging for answers which nobody in the federal government has bothered to provide. What is the true average daily consumption of fuel in the economy? My hunch tells me that it should not be more than 25 liters per day but I am skeptical that there is any subsidy payment in the light of the Direct Sales-Direct Purchase Agreement. I challenge the federal government to do a forensic audit on both the average daily consumption of the PMS and existence of subsidies payments using reputable teams of INTERNATIONAL FIRMS OF AUDITORS (who benchmark international standards in competence and professional ethics). This is the only way of putting the controversies surrounding these to rest. This should precede any talks about the REMOVAL OF FUEL SUBSIDIES. WE NEED TO BE SURE THAT THERE IS SUBSIDY IN THE FIRST PLACE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. What is the landing cost of the PMS in the context of the DIRECT SALES-DIRECT PURCHASE AGREEMENT signed with the OFF-SHORE REFINERIES/CONSORTIA? I challenge the federal government if she is sincere to publicly publish the names of the Sellers and amount of petrol subsidies paid to them in the past 8years. This is how to show transparency and honesty. Are there Subsidies paid at all in the light of this DS-DP agreement? To who were the SUBSIDIES PAID? You cannot claim to be paying humongous sum as subsidies without records. Are the sums claimed to have been paid as subsidies not OUTRIGHT THEFT FROM THE FEDERATION ACCOUNT? Mark you, President Buhari was the petroleum minister and the buck stopped at his table. That is the meaning of ACCOUNTABILITY IN LEADERSHIP. PERHAPS, WE MAY FIND A SMOKING-GUN FROM THIS INVESTIGATION. Who are AIDING AND ABETTING THE SMUGGLING OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS ACROSS NIGERIA’S BORDERS MAKING SECURITY AGENCIES APPEAR WEAK? Some payments were made on the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, what is the state of affairs on that project? I once had a discussion with one of the ministers in the Buhari government who admonished me in confidence that rather eulogize the anticorruption posture of the Buhari government, I should be asking for good governance instead. It was not as if I did not know that good governance included anticorruption but the import of that statement was that Buhari was not as clean as he made Nigerians to believe. This was sometime in 2016, the ministers already knew by then that he was fake. Buhari was the president of Nigeria for a total of 8years but the question is; what did he stand for? In what ways did he positively impact on and improve the lives of the average Nigerian? Were Nigerians better off with him as president? These are germane and important questions necessary to arrive at a fair verdict of history.
The country operates a constitutional democracy in which there are three branches of government at the federal level namely; The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. The overbearing actions of the Executive branch have made the other branches look like departments of the Executive branch and not independent branches of government on their own. The Executive branch determines who will head the legislature or there would be no peace as happened during the 8th National Assembly led by Senator Bukola Saraki. The Code of Conduct Bureau and the Code of Conduct Tribunal, the quasi-judicial agencies of the Executive branch were used under President Buhari to harass heads of these other branches of government. For the first time in the history of this country, the Buhari government used the Code of Conduct Tribunal headed by somebody who was facing indictment for bribery and corruption to remove a sitting CJN to ensure he had a smooth sail in any election petition in 2019 and rather than resist that inglorious move, the CJN’S colleagues in the judiciary acquiesced to President Buhari, their oppressor either out of fear or selfishness . Former President Buhari put a big stab in the heart of democracy by this action and that cut has remained the deepest since then. Those who are eager to write biographies of President Buhari should not conveniently forget this aspect of him. He should carry the shame of this act of indiscretion to his grave and history should chronicle it against his name. This is because it has grave implications for the constitutional democracy which we practice. The 9th National Assembly is practically a rubber stamp legislature, it allowed Buhari to have his ways in all circumstances, yet what did he achieve? INEPTITUDE, INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION! There were no checks and balances on the activities of the Executive branch as the legislative branch ought to practice, Buhari was given a free rein. The leadership of the National Assembly behaved like appointees of the Executive branch who were beholden to it just to make sure that the president felt good and not give excuses for non-performance yet what happened? The president carried on like an emperor who did whatever he wanted without fear of retribution from any other branch, yet what happened? President Buhari undermined the other branches of government and made nonsense of the doctrine of separation of powers implicit in the presidential system and constitutional democracy which we practice. Buhari government knew that the Refineries were not functional yet he was steadily pumping billions of US$ into them under the guise of fathom TAM and rehabilitations using them as CONDUIT PIPES to siphon Nigeria’s money for the benefit of his cronies and allies. Large sums were approved as defense and police budgets in addition to numerous extra-budgetary allocations during Buhari’s 8year tenure yet many Nigerians lost their lives to the activities of Boko Haram, Armed Bandits, Murderous Herdsmen, Kidnappers, Ritual Killers, Unknown Gunmen and Armed Robbers and the country currently contends with insecurity as a major problem.
We had a government which fancied production of voluminous normative papers which are hardly translated into concrete actions but only intended to bamboozle Nigerians and rip-off the system. Money is expended based on beautiful write ups which are hardly implemented once the allocated funds are expended. A government which operates with a nepotistic orientation cannot turn around to be talking of COMPETITIVENESS which is a global phenomenon. For example, almost all heads of security agencies came from a section of the country and Buhari saw nothing wrong with that in a multi ethnic and multi religious country such as Nigeria. In fact, most geopolitical zones were not considered for such appointments under the Buhari presidency notwithstanding that there were enough of such positions to go round all the geopolitical zones in the country. How many active manufacturing companies did Buhari meet in 2015 and how many did he leave when he was exiting in 2023? What was the INDEX OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION when he took office in 2015 and what was the situation when his tenure expired in 2023? How many production factory machines were humming in 2015 as against when he left office in 2023? After all, the government signed an EXECUTIVE ORDER ON EASE OF DOING BUSINESS. His was a government of REVOLVING CHAIR (motion without movement) . How many new manufacturers did the Buhari government attract into Nigeria’s economy throughout his 8year tenure? Small-scale industries are the heartbeat of any economy , Nigerian inclusive, President Buhari’s records in promoting such enterprises throughout his 8year tenure was unflattering. How much did the Buhari government invest in Dangote Refinery and what informed that decision when we had four refineries which we were non-functional throughout his 8year rule? What were the terms and conditions of that investment? Is Dangote now richer than Nigeria? How was he able to build a Refinery and Nigeria can’t? A leader who embraced cronyism and ethnically colored cartelization as an economic policy cannot go far. Would you call a president who was notorious for commissioning uncompleted projects a man of integrity? That was vintage President Buhari because he commissioned uncompleted Dangote Refinery, uncompleted Second Niger Bridge, uncompleted Kaduna-Kano Highway and numerous uncompleted projects. The current government should learn from these foibles of the immediate past government. Lightening does not strike twice at the same point. The Igbos say; OZOEMEZINA!!!!!!
*Godson O. Moneke, a quantity surveyor, economist, sociologist, administrator and sociopolitical advocate wrote from Abuja. Readers are permitted to share.
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