By OLU FASAN

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari turned 79 last week. Congratulations are in order. So, happy birthday General Buhari! The choice of words – General Buhari – is intentional! That’s because I’m happy to congratulate Buhari, the man, the retired general, but less inclined to felicitate with Buhari, the president of Nigeria – since 2015. Why so, you may wonder!

Well, here’s why. Buhari, the president, has been given so much by Nigeria, but he has, so far, given so little back. Buhari has been well looked after, he has unashamedly enjoyed the trappings of power and, with a sense of entitlement, has used the spoils of the system to benefit his family and acolytes. But what has he given back? Little. Buhari has been utterly lackadaisical in running Nigeria’s affairs. He’s an absentee president!

One evidence: President Buhari is more at ease abroad than at home. In fact, for him, home is away! Indeed, Buhari marked his 79th birthday last week far away in Turkey, where he spent three days “attending” the so-called “Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit”. He didn’t have to go to Turkey, but Buhari rarely misses any opportunity for a foreign trip.

In a recent editorial, Daily Trust wrote: “In all, of the six years that he has been in office so far, President Buhari has travelled 130 times to 36 countries altogether, spending about 308 days.”

Yet, Buhari’s globe-trotting has yielded miniscule foreign direct investment – in fact, foreign investors are deserting and/or shunning Nigeria. Notwithstanding, Buhari always jets out of the country for the flimsiest of pretexts.

Now, here’s a president who recently suspended a trip to Ogun State “indefinitely”. Here’s a president who, apart from during his presidential election campaigns, has, in the past six years, visited places across Nigeria only a few dozen times. What’s more, Buhari deliberately avoids trouble spots in the North that’s “bleeding”.

Truth is: President Buhari finds running Nigeria a drudgery. He enjoys the perks of the office, but not the hard graft, not the toil.

Just as well, then, that, last week, in a statement on his 79th birthday, Buhari said: “I look forward to 2023; I can’t wait to return to my farm.” Of course, he can’t wait! Why would he?

He has wasted six-and-a-half years, and, going by his record, is likely to waste the remaining one-and-a-half years. That’s not being cynical. Buhari lacks what it takes to run Nigeria and looks likely to leave the country worse than he met it on assuming office in 2015.

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Look at the problems: insecurity, poverty, corruption, cost of governance, debt, etc. Buhari is unlikely to leave any of these better than he met it in 2015. And because he lacks the zeal for big, nation-transforming ideas, he would also leave Nigeria’s deeply-flawed politico-governance structure more skewed, and Nigeria’s unity and stability more fragile. Of course, Buhari’s acolytes won’t see things that way. In a country where myopic and vested interests override the national interest, and where mediocrity is tolerated and celebrated, Buhari’s supporters are praising him to high heaven!

Take Bola Tinubu. Congratulating Buhari on his 79th birthday, Tinubu said: “I appreciate the unseen work that you have done and continue to do to guide Nigeria ever nearer to its manifest destiny.” Really? What a grovelling flattery! If Buhari’s “work” to guide Nigeria to its “manifest destiny” is “unseen” after nearly seven years in power, it’s insulting the intelligence of Nigerians to say such “work”exists.

It doesn’t, and Tinubu knows it. If he ever became president, Tinubu would, within six months, blame Buhari for the “mess” he inherited. For now, though, he must play safe and ingratiate himself with the president.

Another acolyte, Yusuf Zailani, speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, described Buhari as “father of modern Nigeria”. My heart sank. Where’s the “modern Nigeria”? Is it the one with acute problem of ungoverned spaces, where organised non-state violence holds sway?

Is it the one that lacks the capacity for essential functions, and can’t deliver basic services to its citizens? Or is it the one that’s the poverty capital of the world? Buhari’s acolytes take Nigerians for fools. Truth is: Buhari lacks the grand vision, the great idea, the great inspiration to transform Nigeria into a modern state.

Take the clamour for restructuring. President Buhari could be the “father of modern Nigeria” by leading the process of restructuring Nigeria into a genuine federation. But, at every turn, he rejects the idea.

He won’t convene a political and constitutional conference; he won’t touch the report of the Jonathan administration’s national conference with a barge pole; and he won’t even consider the report of the El-Rufai committee on restructuring set up by his own party. So, what legacy does Buhari really want to leave behind?

Well, in a recent hagiographic piece to mark Buhari’s 79th birthday, Garba Shehu, the president’s spokesman, regurgitated the usual banalities. He described Buhari as “infrastructure president”, saying he reduced Boko Haram to “a shell of its former self” and “abolished grand corruption”.

The last two claims merit no response, because the facts on the ground put the lie to them. And on infrastructure, no president can claim credit for building infrastructure projects with unsustainable debt and unbearable debt-servicing cost.

Shehu also wrote that President Buhari has taken “historical decisions which have changed the country”, citing the signing into law of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAMA, 2020; the Petroleum Industries Act, PIA, 2021; and the Climate Change Act, CCA, 2021.

These are, indeed, significant laws, although implementation remains their Achilles heel. But the same president who signed these legislations into law has just vetoed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, as he did before the 2019 general elections, for partisan reasons. A credible electoral law is a critical nation-transforming reform. But Buhari doesn’t care!

Truth is: Nigeria has given President Buhari so much. Yet, sadly, he might return to his farm giving so little back! Merry Christmas everyone!

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