I listened to a radio presenter two weeks ago playing the album Kollington Ayinla released after armed robbers snatched his Volvo car in the late ’70s.After every two lines the Fuji maestro would release a high-voltage curse: “tiyin buru o”(yours has spoilt).The presenter allowed Kollington to download this curse about five times and asked: “Is it not Volvo Alhaji said they stole from him?”

There can be no questions about President Muhammadu Buhari’s military credentials. The president is a retired major-general of the Nigerian Army, celebrated for his many successes in the field of battle.

In my articles during the presidential campaign, I had wondered aloud whether a President Muhammadu Buhari would share power with the touted National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I also answered the question by saying that knowing the professional and cultural background of Buhari, and against the precedents of our political history, he would gradually relegate Tinubu to his proper place as just one of the big men in the ruling party, on assuming power.

The recurring experience of pervasive social stress that comes with fuel shortages seems to have become an abiding motif in the tapestry of our social and economic life, despite our nation’s benevolent endowment with substantial crude oil revenue. Nonetheless, there is the popular local adage that you do not wash your hands with spittle when you are standing by the riverside; similarly, it is inexplicable that so much social agony can be caused by our ‘inability’ to adequately refine the surplus crude oil endowment in our backyard into petrol and other derivatives.

NOTE: The first part of this series might create the impression that this is political commentary. Even the Editor was alarmed enough to call me about it. Readers need to understand the reason for the historical summary. Every promise involves two elements, the promise and the entity making the promise. Nigerian political history has demonstrated that political alliances don’t last; and the promises made are never fulfilled. APC is another coalition whose sustainability will determine the fate of the promises made to us. Please read on.