By Kabiru Dalhatu Kabir
Preamble:
In 1983 when the military staged a coup d’etat of the civilian government of the then President Alh Shehu Shagari (who died on Friday 28th December, 2018, may jannatul Firdausi be his final home abode), they brought in the then General Muhammadu Buhari to steer the mantle of leadership of the country. That was when General Muhammadu Buhari became fully known to the greater part of Nigerians, because as the then Head of state, he lunched himself in a big and different ways which upto today is being remembered for that. He came as a no nonsense leader who abhor corruption and indiscipline,a s such he made sure that he dealt ruthlessly with anyone who was found to be wanting in any of these two things.
I could remember some politicians of those times been jailed for upto 200 years. General Buhari introduced what was called War Against Indiscipline (WAI), which became so powerful and penetrated even inside secondary schools. I could remember I was in secondary school then and I was one of the WAI brigades cadets in Technical college, Wudil. WAI was so effective that you cannot litter the streets anyhow, one cannot urinate outside anyhow, and so many good things, The country was taking shape, before it was abruptly halted by a counter military coup d’etat in 1984 by General Ibrahim Babangida and his team.
The government of General Muhammadu Buhari was very short, it stayed for only 20 months. People were saying had the government of the General Muhammadu Buhari allowed to stay for just 5 years, the story of Nigeria would have been a different one by now, but unfortunately, as the saying goes, ‘good things don’t last’, it was short-lived and the one after it institutionalized corruption to what it is now. So sad. In fact I could remember in one of the now late President interview, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, after he left government, he told the reporter that General Muhammadu Buhari was drafted into that coup and given to head that government in order to give it credibility and sense of acceptability by the foreign countries, and that was what happened, but when they saw that things are being done differently to their expectations, they generated intentional internal crisis and toppled the government of General Muhammadu Buhari. Had that not happened, Nigeria would have been on another level by today.
Today’s scorecard:
Thirty years after General Muhammadu Buhari was toppled and incarcerated for long, the man came back to the corridors of power as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in a very interesting way this time. I say this because, this time President Buhari after making three attempts earlier through democratic means and could get it due to some obvious reasons, he got it at the fourth attempt. The story in-between is a subject for another day.
President Muhammadu Buhari defeated an incumbent PDP sitting President through a popular, worldly acceptable free and fair elections of 2015, and 3 and a half years now, when we look at the scorecard, we must truly appreciate the progress of the journey so far. President Buhari ascended to the throne at the age of 73, remember he recently celebrated 76 years on 17th of December, 2018. He inherited a very unstable country, the security of the country was at it’s lowest ebb at that time, the economy was in a terrible shape. The country was heading to a serious crisis, but with God, determination and seriousness of purpose, he is able to put the country back on track to greatness again.
Taking into consideration of PMB’S age and other factors, you will believe with me that President Muhammadu Buhari has less or nothing to gain in what he is currently doing to Nigeria. I say this because, a 76 years old man has less to live than the one he lived, so you can always be asking why is PMB worried about a damaged Nigeria which he has no time to benefit from when it is fixed. But we all know that PMB is strongly determined, at the cost of his life even, to make sure that Nigeria is working again, and you will all agree with me that all indices are showing towards that direction.
The first thing PMB did was to make sure that the country is secured. The security situation was very bad when he came on board, more 17 local government areas were in control of the Boko Haram Terrorists when he came, the whole Northern region was under the threats of Boko Haram, we could not go to our worshipping places comfortably and freely, our market places became threats to us, our parks, our schools, our police stations all became attack areas. But all these were reversed and stopped in less than six months of PMB’S coming. He made sure that our military personnel regained back their confidence and fighting spirits. He made sure that those areas occupied by BH boys were recovered by our gallant Soldiers and returned to the owners. Our Mosques, Churches, Parks, Schools and all other areas of threats are now very safe. Even though there are some pockets of security issues here and there, but taking overall assessment, we can say Alhamdulillahi.
On the Economy, PMB tried his best and is still trying to permanently fix our mono economy to a multi dimensional one, given our vast resources. He is making sure that we are no more defending on Oil alone as our only source of revenue as a country. His government is now investing heavenly in our abundance minerals resources and Agriculture in order to diversify and move away from our traditional mono economy, and this is really working and paying. You can see that our rice import has drastically reduced, our people are now back to the farms and we are overcoming the initial hardship encountered. We can now atleast produce more than 70% of the rice we consume in the country, and very soon we will be able have enough of our daily needs and even be able to export. This is achieved plus other wonderful agricultural achievements. Our minerals resources are being looked at and being explored. This is very commendable.
In case of devil called Corruption, we have seen how PMB almost lost his life because of his insistence of fighting corruption head-on. See how more than 45,000 ghost workers were fish out from our workforce, which saved billions of naira to the Treasury. The introduction of Treasury Single Account (TSA) has in no means curved out a lot of bare stealing from our Treasury. That single, but very courageous act destabilized Corruption and all the elements & individuals associated with it within and outside the government. It was a decision that only a strong and committed President could take, and PMB proved to us beyond reasonable doubt that he is one. Before the implementation of TSA, there were some MDAs with more than forty (40) accounts operating in a single organization. You can just imagine how our resources were been wasted and stolen. May be that was the reason why the former President Goodluck Jonathan once said that ” stealing is not corruption”, in one of his live interaction programs.
PMB’s fighting of corruption was what set him against the Elites of this country, and Corruption started fighting back furiously and dangerously. If you could remember, whatever PMB did or do is wrong and unnecessarily attracts attention. But PMB is resolute on his resolved to fight corruption and nothing can deter him. We are on course.
Still on the scorecard, interns of infrastructure, I need not say much because it is glaringly clear all to see, all over the country. the ongoing projects in the country, is just a testimony of this government commitment and seriousness towards enhancing the lives of the common man. I will beat my chest to say in every state there is currently ongoing Federal road construction, and at an advanced stage of completion or completed. There are also some many completed and advanced stage completion of rail projects across the country. Not to talk of so many power projects like the 3050 megawatt Mambila power project in Taraba state that after completion will solve our power issues completely, and many more projects ongoing.
There are also so many social intervention programs, like the N-Power – that took in 500,000 Youths of different skills and categories and being paid N30,000 monthly stipend to teach in various O-level schools. There is the N-builders, there is also the Tradermoni, marketmoni, primary schools’ feeding program across the country and many more that directly impact on the lives of the masses and is really giving the masses a sense of inclusiveness and belonging.
Do not miss the very noticeable improvement in electricity, most places today have between 20 – 24 hours of electricity, and this is achieved without making noise. Look at the tradition of fuel ques during Xmas and new year Eve, is now thing of the past, and so many noticeable achievements which even a blind man can notice.
Conclusion:
All these laudable projects and programs being pursued and carried out by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari are to rebuild the nation in order to regain back our past glory and compete with other countries in terms of developments and other things. You see even President Muhammadu Buhari’s enemy can attest to his honesty, integrity, discipline and incorruptible manner. One can swear that PMB will steal a single Kobo from the Treasury and will not willingly allow that to happen under his leadership, because he has proved himself to be above that. He is just after the well-being of the country.
AND IN ALL THESE DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS BEING CARRIED OUT, YOU EASILY AGREE WITH ME WHEN I SAY PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI HAS LESS OR NOTHING TO BENEFIT FROM THEM, WHICH SIMPLY BRING TO MY ASSERTION THAT PMB IS INVESTING TODAY’S NIGERIA FOR A FUTURE GREATER NIGERIA. What we really need to do for PMB are support and prayers for him to succeed.
He has nothing to loose if he allow the Vultures to continue feasting on our Treasury and by extension on Us, but he insists on giving his all to our greater tomorrow. Thank you PMB, we will surely stick with you to the #NextLevel inshaa Allah.
May Almighty Allah help PMB to succeed, Amin ya rabbi.
Kabir Dalha Kabir
#One2Tell10
