By Rotimi Fasan
THERE is something now vexing about the manner some members of the Buhari administration ask Nigerians to feel lucky and be happy that their principal was elected president.

In messianic registers that are now jarring one hears them celebrate the coming of Mohammadu Buhari. On the surface this habit looks innocuous enough but it is subliminally a defensive mechanism that speaks to the awareness of these individuals that Nigerians are disenchanted with the Administration and its failure to deliver on its promised change.

I always felt thankful that Jonathan didn’t win the last presidential election for no other reason than the high level of corruption and incompetence that pervaded his government. But I didn’t think Buhari was godsend as some of his minders now want everyone to believe. Nigerians were faced with hardly wonderful options in the choice of candidates among which they were obliged to pick. It was a hobson’schoice, one between the grossly unwanted and the barely desirable. Nigeria deserved better but in the circumstances we found ourselves last year anyone was preferable to Jonathan. Which is to say that one was more interested in Jonathan leaving than in the fact that Buhari was not the best available. Anyway, the best hardly ever wins anything in Nigeria. Those who win are ultimately those who have the means.

So it was that we ended up handing our fate to individuals that, properly  speaking, belong in our second eleven judging by their possessing in deficit  the rigour and vigour that should go into being the leader of the largest black nation on our planet. But we were, as I said, interested in a Buhari victory knowing that we might not survive just another year under that wastrel of an administration led by Goodluck Jonathan.

And in addition to everything else to be considered, Buhari had in some measure what had become totally lacking in the Jonathan conclave of spongers misnamed government: moral integrity and a personal aversion for corruption that was evident in his ascetic lifestyle.

All of this however does not justify the manner some members of the Buhari government are quick to ask us to continually celebrate and be thankful for his election as president when there is virtually nothing we can point to as his achievement. Anything, in fairness to him, other than halting the murderous machine of Boko Haram insurgents from annexing the entire north-east. Otherwise, it is extremely tough to point at anything that this administration has followed through to completion or can claim for itself as achievement that is not in some way tainted. Is it the fight against corruption that is often preceded by much drama but no conviction of the accused moneybags? Is it the promise not to devalue the naira that was ultimately done anyway, and which first plunged the country into an inflationary trend that has since been followed by recession? Just what clear change (read gains) has the Buhari government been able to effect for the good of Nigerians beyond the tiresome promise of a better future that is now being replaced with dire warnings of very tough times ahead?

While the likes of Chief Odigie Oyegun, chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Itse Sagay, in very identical language in the recent past, have been urging Nigerians to be thankful for a Buhari presidency, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has asked Nigerians to prepare for a tough Christmas. Both Oyegun and Mohammed made their respective statements this past weekend, specifically on Saturday 29th October as reported in the press. Different members of the Buhari government have at various times told Nigerians to get set for tough times given the parlous state of the economy bequeathed us by the bygone Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, regime. They tell Nigerians that things would be hard- but for just a while and thereafter all would be well again.

But as time of the promised respite draws near and there is nothing to show for it, then would these Job comforters shift the time of respite backwards and predict more dire times. This is a clear case of failure by kicking the can down the road. It’s refusal to accept that this government is failing and needs to get it together. It is true that 18 months may not be nearly enough to repair completely what is broken about our system. But it is also not too short a time for Nigerians to see positive changes in their lives.

Haven’t we suffered enough? What more tough times can people expect in the wake of what they’ve endured in the last one and a half years? How much of these dire predictions have these Buhariphiles endured or are prepared to face before claiming for themselves the right to tell Nigerians what to expect or how to feel? How much belt-tightening are they experiencing in their personal existence to warrant their thankless preachment? If one may ask, what aspects of their lavish living that is paid for by Nigerian tax payers are they ready to forfeit before second guessing the longsuffering people of this country at every turn?

Folk wisdom tells us that he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. Which is another way of saying a leader must know what battles are worth the effort, knowing when to plunge into action and when it is wise to beat a retreat. But Buhari seems to be punching on all fronts, in all directions with neither means nor method. Now he appears poised to lose it all! He joins issues with past governors in his anti-corruption war one moment, takes on the National Assembly the next and is soon on the heels of corrupt judicial officers thereafter.

He has turned on his own party and is talking as if he could go it all alone. Yet, all the while he claims to be in charge and the very one (not Mamman Daura, his nephew,) Nigerians voted for, the economy lies prone like a drunken giant or indeed like a patient afflicted with cerebral fever as millions of Nigerians are  relieved of their jobs and those who still have a job are not paid while those who still look forward to taking home anything that can be remotely called salary, at whatever time and whatever terms their employers choose, can’t afford anything in the market.

It’s time this administration took stock of its activities. It must determine what aspects of the malaise by which we are plagued need its immediate attention and how far it should go. People-friendly policies must be enacted to enable Nigerians afford a measure of dignified living as a hungry people can never be a happy people. Ultimately ordinary Nigerians, not paid officials, will determine the fate of this government.