By Kabiru Lawal

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari received the shock of his life during the week. As if his deflated popularity and anger on the streets were not enough to call for sober reflection, the President was shocked at the reception he received at the National Assembly where he had gone to present the 2019 budget.

The President despite being aware of the prevailing tense situation in the chamber, deliberately provoked the already angered legislators by raising his hands with the 4+4 salutations. From that moment and by that singular act, the President heightened and evoked partisan emotions among those who do not support his four more years agenda.

President Muhammadu Buhari display a sign for 4+4 to join Legislators who supported his re-election bid as he addressed a joint session of the National Assembly for the the presentation of the 2019 Appropriation Bill at the National Assembly, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 19/12/2018

He could have made it through his budget presentation speech without irking the already angered legislators if he had avoided innuendos, gestures of 4+4 with untruths deliberately laced in the speech.

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The president’s prepared budget remarks presented another brand of the propaganda the government has been brandishing in the last three years. He came in on a grandiose of an emperor without remorse and sober reflection for the inflation and unemployment rates rising astronomically.

It was more worrisome that the same day the President was presenting his 2019 budget, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, released a damning report about the unemployment rate of the nation that has risen to about 21million of unemployed people. All these woes brought upon the nation by the ineffectiveness of this government to transform the fortune of the nation in the last three years of being in the saddle.

The President did promise to be better than the previous government, basing his campaigns on the failings of the former government, promising to create jobs and holistically leading the fight to end insecurity and corruption in the land.

What did he do with the goodwill and trust he enjoyed as a presidential candidate? He squandered it on the platform of clannishness and bias, shielding members of his party accused of corruption from probe, using the EFCC as an attack dog  to hunt political enemies and members of the opposition.

The anger and rejection that greeted the President’s budget presentation is a reflection of the unprecedented disunity and divide in the country.

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The lawmakers were not exactly angry as the President presented his speech at the NASS, but  they looked unsettled, with little or no admiration which Buhari has always received while presenting his three previous budgets. But the president however received a passing applause only from members of his party as he read his speech.

And then the President went on and began to reel out none existing projects as  achievements of his administration. Boos and hisses ensued, mostly from lawmakers from the areas where the President claimed the projects have been sited. They know the areas more than the President and they know what is and is not in their locality.

The lawmakers’ feud with the President transcends the event at the NASS during the budget presentation.

They were visibly angry that the 2018 budget has only been implemented up to less than 18%, which is the cause of the untold hardship and hunger in the country which does not exempt anybody.

Instead of government been transparent and truthful in its achievements, the president came to the NASS with a catalogue of projects not executed as part of its achievements. This infuriated NASS members who raise their voices against the untruths embedded in the president’s speech.

Once the executive rode rough shod over the rights of the citizens and brought hunger and hardship upon them, it is left to the representatives of the people to stand up and speak for them. This no doubt must have necessitated the reactions of the NASS members

The lawmakers were also angered by the several blackmails and falsehoods that have been told against them by the president’s aides which is part of the unnecessary propaganda adopted by the APC-led government as instrument for governance. The Minister of Budget and Planning, Udo Udoma had in the past blackmailed the NASS that it delayed the 2018 budget which hindered its implementation. He didn’t apologise to the NASS members despite calls on him to do so, even the government did encouraged him as he attempted to incite the public against the NASS members .

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The government in the last three years has shown no regard and respect for any institution nor individual. Roughshod over the rights of the legislature has become the order of the day for the administration.  This too has not gone down well with the legislators.

It is expected that the boos and hisses the President received at NASS in the outgoing week will cause him to soberly reflect on how he has managed the nation in the last three years and tread the path of honour and admit that he has not been a good manager of men, resources and good willing.

* Mr. Lawal, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Gombe.