A LOT of Nigerians who believed General Muhammadu Buhari was a befitting replacement for former President Goodluck Jonathan are now being given reason to have second thoughts. The irony of it is that Pa Muhammadu Buhari, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is the one deflating their balloons of enthusiasm.

Jide Akintunde told me a story about an exemplary Christian in his former church who was unemployed. Everyone in the church was impressed with his piety and devotion to God. Therefore, the prayer squad took it upon themselves to fast and pray for him to get a job.

The Seventh National Assembly, NASS, ended on a disgraceful note when it passed forty six(46) bills, on which they have been seating, in ten minutes. Some of the jesters, called Senators even tried to add insult upon injury by defending the absolutely indefensible. The former Senators probably never heard that “it is better to keep quiet and be considered a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” If the 7th Assembly ended in disaster, the 8th had started in chaos which might have doomed it from the start. Yet, these possibilities were pointed out in 2013 – when the APC first got started. In August 2013, the following columns were published on these pages.

In July 2010, renowned law Professor, Itse Sagay, raised an alarm that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid in the globe. Sagay found that a Nigerian Senator earns N240 million ($1.7 million) in salaries and allowances while his counterpart in the House of Representatives earns about N204 million ($1.45 million) per annum. Realizing that an American senator earns $174, 000 while a UK parliamentarian earns about $64, 000 per annum, Sagay condemned the Nigerian situation as “a breach of public trust”.

The issue of non-payment of salaries to workers in some states of Nigeria has been kept on the news front pages for two weeks running now. This is a good development that has brought more publicity to the sufferings of Nigerian workers. Not that there was not adequate awareness of this fact before, but we all pretended it was not an issue of concern except to those affected.