Nigerians are Nigeria’s worst enemy: See how Buhari’s no-nonsense reputation grabs credit

Tunde Fagbenle

I’m not alone in observing the sudden and dramatic upswing in power supply in the country in the last few weeks, precisely since (retired General) Muhammadu Buhari took over the reins of power as Nigeria’s President. Many Nigerians have equally noted this ‘phenomenon’ especially in the social media and in group talks. It is the talk in homes; it is the talk in schools; it is the talk in the marketplace.

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The power supply has not only been reasonably regular, it has not come with any of the old fluctuations. Ay, in my home, for the first time in perhaps years we have had power steadily for two days-and-nights at a go; and when it went in the last three weeks it has been for no more than a few hours before getting back! Alas, the generator and inverter – utilities of forced capital investment – have been alarmingly idle.

Erroneously, some have attributed the change to President Buhari’s ‘change mantra’ in a manner to suggest the new government has done something, invested anew, in the sector to bring about the positive change.

Of course nothing of the sort has happened. Buhari-government has not settled down well enough to throw anything, money or person, at the sector if it has worked out what to do in the first place. So what has happened? Where have the DISCOS found the music to which the new dance steps are taken?

What has happened, in my opinion, is sheer attitudinal change by the same people, who have over the years, frequently thrown us without compunction into darkness. In that regard and that regard only, Buhari’s coming and his fabled no-nonsense reputation can take the credit. The mere thought that ‘a new Sheriff is in town’ whose government will not tolerate the corruption and ineptitude of the past and would only in a matter of time call you to question, was enough to make the same people act differently.

Human factor, what many cynically call “the Nigerian factor” has been responsible for many of the ills that plague us. To just think of the billions of naira, nay of dollars, that has been thrown at the power sector from eight years of Obasanjo to four of Yar’Adua/Jonathan, to another four of Jonathan, with not a flicker of light more enjoyed by Nigerians, and then this? Nevertheless, credit to whom it is due, even if the ‘restructuring’ President Jonathan effected in the sector occasioning the arrival of DISCOS and GENCOS did not immediately yield an improvement to the power enjoyed by the people, Jonathan deserves credit for putting in place the structure that has made the new attitudinal change of the operators yield fruit.

The ‘human factor’, the attention to detail, the commitment to excellence, makes all the difference; that much I have told folks over the years.

Take the printing industry for an example. Years back when the popular German printing machine, KORD 64, ruled the printing waves, the job that is produced by the same machine in, say, England seems light years apart from the job our printers come up with here in Nigeria. No one ever believed it was the same KORD 64 that did such seemingly ‘magical’ feat of producing spotlessly clean, glossy, magazines or books, with one copy virtually identical, page-to-page, to all others, even if a million copies were printed! Here in Nigeria our printers would wonder at your state of mind for not appreciating that a spot here and there, unevenness in colour here and there, are ‘inescapable’ of any printed matter, even if only a few copies are done! With glee, our printers would see a perfect looking printed matter and themselves straightaway excuse it as a “done abroad”, an “oyinbo” job!

What goes for the printing industry goes for every facet of our lives.

You visit an office or home, say an IITA in Ibadan, or a Chevron in Lekki, Lagos, not to talk of the premises of any European or American embassy, and you know you are “not in Nigeria”! You know this is an Oyinbo place. Yet majority of the workers, all the labourers that wrought the lawn and environment ‘magic’, are Nigerians. All it takes is for one “oyinbo” to be at the top and it makes all the difference in the Nigerian’s attitude to work, effecting: promptitude, cleanliness, dedication, attention to detail, strive for perfection, etc. It is sickening.

For now, I can sit back and enjoy the unfailing and non-fluctuating electricity that means I can do this column for the hours it may take without panic of ‘NEPA’ striking, as my kids still insist on declaiming the power authority. Hurray!

APC, moving beyond the crisis

When an aburo of mine called me late at night some days ago wondering why I have not commented on the ongoing National Assembly imbroglio that has brought suspension of formal activities at the legislative chambers, I wasted no time in telling him I have no interest in it and so have not followed it in any great detail. Indeed I am disgusted by it all.

In similar vein, another reader, a Mrs. Sinatu Ojikutu, pressed me in her text to “revisit the issue of restructuring”, wondering whether, “now that power has changed hands” what had always been “advocated” by the ‘Progressives’, “sovereign national conference” will see the light of day.

I say, we are an unserious people, the politicians and the rest of us. We are a people who, as the saying goes, want to eat omelette without breaking eggs! We do not want to suffer changes or embark on drastic measures that will bring about the positive developmental changes we want, yet we want ‘change.’

But let me say my two-kobo piece on the ‘shock,’ untoward, welcome-treatment the new ruling party APC suffered at the National Assembly for which they are crying foul from the rooftop.

I have read and heard some of the name-calling and denigration visited on Dr. Bukola Saraki for going against the wish of his party and upstaging the party’s choice for senate president. He is accused of “back-stabbing”, of “prostituting” with his erstwhile PDP (now opposition) party. A lot of hogwash, if you ask me. I don’t know the young man, Saraki; never met him. But I see no difference in him, in his behaviour, or in his character, that is any different from what the whole generation of politicians now on parade, almost bar none, offer of themselves. They all will go to bed, excuse the pun, with anyone, friend or foe, without batting an eyelid when it serves them well. And I don’t want to hear some holier-than-thou cry from any quarter. We have seen them all ‘porting’ from one party to another with ease and as it suits their time and purpose. We have seen ‘sworn’ enemies for whom many followers have gone into mortal battle one day embrace themselves right in public view the next. Examples abound and needless to list here. And what APC has now ‘suffered’ in the National Assembly through shenanigans of ‘treacherous’ voting is no different from what the APC party itself inflicted on the PDP (via Tambuwal) not long ago.

We are at a level of political development that is still evolving, and aspects of UK’s parliamentary system of democracy are mating and confusing the US Presidential system we lay claim to. Methinks President Buhari’s claim to non-interference with the legislature is either naïve or complicit. If it is naïve it is ‘complicit’; if it is complicit it is ‘naïve’! Without necessarily recommending an Obasanjo leadership style – whereby Senate Presidents and House Speakers were changed at his whim through machinations of money and EFCC – Buhari must know that as President he is also the leader of his party and must not give the wrong signal, in words or body language – of a weak or complicit leader.

Lessons learnt, APC must move on, embrace Senate President Saraki warts and all, and build a united front against future onslaughts’; not by some incongruous regional-party style leadership, but by recognising the delicate balancing, the give-and-take, demand of a multi-region, multi-nation, agglomeration.

And that’s saying it the way it is!

Correction: Not Adetiba

In last week’s tribute to Uncle Sam Amuka @ 80, I indicated that “young Muyiwa Adetiba” was the editor ofSunday PUNCH in 1978. Foul, cried Mr. Adetiba. He reminds me that he was way too young and low in the PUNCH hierarchy in 1978 to be the editor. He was Sunday PUNCH editor in later years.

I apologise.