I hear some people saying President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve a second term, or that he may as well just resign before his first elapses. What nonsense! Are those people living in Nigeria at all? I suspect they are all these people in “the abroad” who think they know it all and can dictate to the original, follow-come (and stay-at-home) Nigerians. The gospel (according to The Punocrat) truth is, His Excellency, President Buhari has performed excellently well in office, and is one the greatest leaders Nigeria has ever had. Tremendous evidence has shown it. Opinion polls, conducted by the BBC (Buhari Broadcasting Corporation) and BMC (Buhari Media Centre), have established it. And I, known for speaking the hard truth since I was a day-old baby, am about to validate it.
To begin with, Baba has shown great wisdom in the appointment of cabinet ministers. The children of anger, in their characteristic bad belle, said he waited half a year before appointing ministers, yet they are no angels, blah! Blah! Shior! How could they not have seen that Baba was only trying to delay the misery and inevitable display of incompetence? We all know death cannot be avoided, but at least it can be delayed. In his foresight, Baba knew the kind of people who awaited him as co-players in the executive arm of government, and he delayed their coming as much as he could to conserve tax payers’ money and reduce the agony to the barest minimum for Nigerians.
I mean; how could we have survived six more months of Abubakar Malami, the pro-corruption Minister of Justice and author of confusion; the non-performing Adamu Adamu of the Ministry of Education who is always in the news for the wrong reasons; and Solomon Dalung, described by sagacious Mike Asukuo as the man with the beret bereft of ideas. Not to forget our beloved Mama Taraba who has mistaken the field of play for the players’ bench in the spectators’ gallery and is just waiting to become governor come 2019; or our ever-gallant Propaganda Minister who has not been known to dish out proper facts, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. Six extra months with these fellas would have been simply suicidal. And Baba saved us from this. Sai Baba!
President Buhari is also a great economist who understands the concept of division of labour. He understands that Nigeria is too big to constantly travel to all the geo-political zones, so he just sticks to where his face is familiar for optimal results. This is a genius move because, by so doing, he has been able to maximise the office of the Vice President and delegated some of the tiring legwork to our good, loyal Prof. And why should he bother visiting the South-South when there is a Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, with annual budgetary pies and everything? The ignorant ones will interpret this as tribalism, favouritism, bigotry or any of these other words they just learnt from Merriam Webster Pocket Dictionary; but they are very wrong. It is merely the age-old application of the age-old rule of division of labour.
Oh, and they say Baba is selective in his anti-corruption war. They point at the cases of his protection of Abdulrashid Maina, Babachir Lawal and Usman Yusuf, the reinstated NHIS chief. My goodness! I have never come across a more embarrassingly silly argument. You call a thing an anti-corruption war, and you expect a soldier to turn against those fighting with him? – or at least by his side? Who does that? Baba is an astute military man and he evidently understands military tactics. Rule number one: at all times, know who your enemy is (in this case, the opposition). Even if your allies are no different in character as the enemy, you must never treat them as the enemy. It’s a basic rule of survival. There really is a lot Nigerians have to learn if they keep throwing about these claims.
And, yes, security too. Boko Haram is still on rampage, they rant. Herdsmen from a certain tribe have joined, they cry. 110 Dapchi girls have been abducted, they say. Buhari does not know what he is doing and does not deserve a second term, they conclude. But I wonder, really, what are second terms truly for? Is it not to finish off a job that is yet to be perfected? And if that job is done in the first term, what again is there to do please? Slow and steady wins the race people! Justice rushed is justice crushed – and so is development. If Nigeria becomes a paradise today, it is the same people that will find it difficult to adapt and say it is all too sudden. Ahem! At least, the figure has dropped to 110 from the 276 in the Chibok case of 2014. And it will continue to get better – gradually.
Don’t even get me started by suggesting that Baba should do quick-quick and implement his entire manifesto in just four years. If he does that, he will be running contrary to the law of the land that states unequivocally that every President has not only the right but is duty bound to seek a second term. I am in fact sure it is written somewhere in the 1999 Constitution. So fellow Nigerians, the change has come, the change is good, and everything good deserves a second chance. Sai baba, sai Buhari till 2023!
To be continued – if you all still do not believe me.
