The token gesture of reducing the number of ministries by the President notwithstanding, there is no evidence that the cost of governance has gone down significantly to the extent of impacting positively on the lives of average Nigerians. Information in the public domain about the billions of naira earmarked for the renovation of Aso Rock clinic, feeding in the Presidency, purchase of exotic BMW cars, and maintenance of aircrafts in the presidential fleet indicate that the despicable Animal Farm syndrome characteristic of political leadership in Nigeria is still with us despite the propaganda of change by the APC.

For instance, there is no way Nigeria’s economy could have been successfully diversified just after three hundred and sixty-five days in office. This is because, assuming that the federal government puts in place appropriate policies that, if implemented, would lead to increased output from the manufacturing sector or guarantee more efficient and profitable exploitation of solid minerals and other viable sources of foreign exchange, several years of consistent and determined efforts are required before positive results would begin to manifest in these sectors. And, concerning the campaign promises to achieve parity with the dollar and increase Nigeria’s share in the international oil market, it is clear to anyone with a simulacrum of knowledge about the determinants of global currency regime and uncertainties in the demand and supply equation of oil that none of these promises can be realised in this dispensation. Having said all this, I am sure that President Buhari and the sycophants around him are aware, as already pointed out, that one year is indeed enough for well-informed Nigerians to reach a reasonable judgement on the overall direction his government is headed regarding the key sectors of our national life.

On security, for example, failure of the Nigerian military to subdue Boko Haram and rescue the over two hundred secondary school girls allegedly abducted from Chibok was seen by critics of Dr. Jonathan as evidence that his government cannot provide adequate security for our people. Concerning the fight against corruption, the former President could have done better, but his temperamental weaknesses, the shambolic federal civil service system and nefarious activities of the vicious cabal or “invisible government” prevented him from mounting a credible anti-corruption programme.

A sizeable percentage of Buharimaniacs who swallowed lock, stock and barrel the dizzying propaganda of change from the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2015 elections, especially the presidential contest, now regret that they voted for President Muhammadu Buhari.

By making morality a matter of acting according to rules purportedly set by a divine being, faith-based ethics ignores the most important component for developing moral consciousness or awareness, that is, making children learn appropriate moral principles through practical examples from parents, teachers and adults generally. If the humanist approach to morality, which gives primacy to the well-being and happiness of individuals on earth not to an imaginary blissful existence in paradise, becomes widespread, eventually a new generation of more reasonable human beings would emerge equipped with inner conviction that the rightness or wrongness of a given action cannot be rationally decided without considering its effects on sentient beings that might be affected by that very action. Moral absolutism, which posits God as the ultimate foundation of morality, is clearly untenable. Thus, it is essential that each individual should periodically re-examine the moral principles he or she lives by, based on the recognition that morality is the product of human evolution and does not transcend the existential conditions peculiar to human beings in this world.