State of the nation: The trial of Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is being hobbled by rising insecurity in the North East, currency crisis and leadership war in the national assembly. Also lopsided appointments and slow pace of government have worsened his case and made his one month in office lack lustre. OLUSESAN LAOYE reports

With only a month into his administration, President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress, APC, have continued to sink into crisis which no one can at the moment predict when it will end. The party and the government since they were formed and inaugurated have not known peace as it has jumped from one controversy to the other, with the latest being the issue of appointments President Buhari has so far made and the national assembly leadership crisis which has continued to widen the division amongst the members of the APC both within and outside the national assembly.

Up till now, members of the national assembly in both chambers of the senate and House of Representatives have not been able to come together due to the incident that took place at their inauguration and election of the leadership. The manner in which Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara emerged has continued to create sharp division in the party which has defied solution and also questioned the APC change mantra.

Right now, the situation appears to be getting out of hand and even speaker Dogara and Saraki from the look of things have become lords on their own and are daily challenging the authority and supremacy of the APC. They have continued to assert their independence and autonomy outside the influence of their party and the Presidency which should be their rallying point. But with the way things are going, Nigerians have started doubting whether the party and the government are really prepared to provide the desired change promised during the campaigns in the run up to the general elections.

What is giving Nigerians and political observers concern right now is the defiance of Dogara and Saraki who have continued to shun the Presidency’s invitation for a truce in their respective chambers. It was believed that both of them have never attended any of the meetings held with President Buhari since he came to power to resolve the crisis in the national assembly which their emergence created. Although President Buhari has claimed that he is in charge of the party as the President, Nigerians still doubt his grip on the party because they could not see the rationale behind his not being respected who failed to honour the invitation when he was allegedly summoned by Mr. President.

Hon Femi Gbajabiamila and 30 other members of the House of Representatives had met President Buhari over the crisis in the House and pleaded with him to resolve the matter. It was learnt that Dogara who was supposed to be at the meeting never showed up until the end of the meeting. His action according to political observers was an indication that he was not prepared to compromise his stand and that he was not ready too to jettison his alliance with the PDP that paved way for his emergence as speaker.

His action was also interpreted to mean that he must have brushed the APC apart because his stand that the list brought by the national chairman of the party over the principal officers was bluntly ignored and he based his rejection on the federal character clause in the constitution. It was also believed that the speaker and Saraki are not working alone and that they are acting a hidden script which is not yet known to anybody and which would soon be revealed.

Gbajabiamila who talked to the press after meeting with President Buhari, though, expressed optimism that the president would resolve the matter, but his countenance betrayed his optimism that he may have lost hope of any resolution of the matter given the attitude of Dogara who has shown that he will not shift grounds.

Political observers are of the opinion that Gbajabiamila could have felt that way because there was no commitment from the President at the meeting that they would be able to convince both Saraki and Dogara to shift grounds and toe the party’s position.

The other issue bothering Nigerians and which President Buhari is being criticized concerns the appointments he has made so far. At the moment, the President is accused of favouring only the North in his appointments and some people have started kicking against this. His latest appointment was that of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC), Mrs. Amina Zakari and that of the Department of State Security Services ((SSS)), Lawal Musa Daura which is now generated serious controversy in the polity. The opposition is already feasting on it and called for the removal of the new INEC Chairman. When the former INEC boss Professor Atahiru Jega was quitting, he handed over to Ambassador Ahmed Wali, but less than 24 hour after Jega’s appointment, President Buhari reversed it and appointed Zakari.

The argument of the opposition was that President Buhari should not have changed the appointment and should have left it as Jega did. It was argued that Buhari had a strong link with the new acting INEC boss and that she is close to Mallam El-Rufai who is regarded as one of the right hand men of President Buhari. Zakari had served with El Rufai when he was the Federal Capital Territory Minister as Secretary Health and human services, secretary agric and rural development.

The national publicity of PDP Olisa Metuh, argued that the presidency over ruling Jega was untidy and that the president’s action could create bad blood in the commission. He was also of the opinion that Zakari was appointed for a purpose and that she would be handed a script. Also, it was argued that her appointment was meant to favour the process of the election petition in the tribunals across the states.

Findings by the Hallmark showed that Jega only handed over to Wali because he too would soon end his tenure on August this year, and at the end of the day, it would be the turn of Zakari who still has a longer period to spend at INEC. Although it was discovered that President Buhari changed the appointment because he later discovered that Zakari was senior to Wali despite the fact that they are both senior commissioners in the commission.

Other appointments so far made by Buhari which is causing ripples and which is making it look like he is one sided are the appointments of the Director General of the SSS announced last week Thursday. Daura is from Daura in Katsina State, North West and his appointment has started generating comments just as the other appointments like that of Mordecai Danteni Ladan as head of department of petroleum resources, Ahmed Idris from Kano as the accountant general of the federation. Already the Head of Service, Barrister Danladi Kifasi is from the North. It is being speculated that more northerners are in the waiting to take charge of other key positions in the NNPC.

What is also bothering the opposition and some notable people from the South is that they are now beginning to see the government of Buhari as a Northern affair because they are not sure that he would be comfortable to appoint a Southerner in sensitive positions in his administration. Although some of the APC members have expressed that it is too early in the day to start accusing the President as a result of the appointments he has made so far, others believe that what is presently happening has shown the true reflection of what his administration would be because there is no further argument that the North is now back in power which they have missed for over 12years.

While reacting to the allegations that the government of Buhari has started showing bias and preference for a section of the country, his spokesperson who is the only visible person right now in his government, from the Southern part of the country, Femi Adesina has come out to defend the presidency in all the appointments that were done on merit. Adesina has argued that the President was not bias, sentimental or sectional in the choice of people he has appointed into offices since he assumed office, saying that those appointed deserved them. He said that the President based what he did on credibility and performance to meet the expectations and yearnings of Nigerians who elected him into office. He argued that President Buhari is not the President of a particular section but that of the whole country saying, that Nigeria is his overall constituency.

But those who criticize the president felt differently. Comrade Adeniyi Sulaiman of the centre for human right and social justice was of the opinion that Buhari has not shown any sign that he was ready to compromise his stand on what he believes in. He said that Buhari has shown clearly with the few appointments he has made since May 29 that he was ready to favour the North.

Also a constitutional lawyer from the South East, who is also a human rights activist, Dr Anthony Agbazuere was of the opinion that Buhari should do what will favour all the six-geopolitical zones and that he should not create the impression that a particular section of the country is being marginalized. He asked the President to ensure that people of the South East are well positioned in his government. Dr Agbazuere who also commented on the leadership crisis at the national assembly argued that the presidency and the APC should bury their pride and allow peace to prevail. He was of the opinion that any attempt to deal with Dogara and Saraki would rock the boat of the APC and the Presidency a situation which could consume both President Buhari and his vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

In his own reaction, comrade Moshood Erubami, President of the Voters Assembly of Nigeria posited that it is rather too early to start casting aspersions on President Buhari over his recent appointments, saying that from what he noticed he has been making his appointments based on seniority in all the government agencies concerned.

On whether there is the likelihood the South West being marginalized by the government of Buhari, a PDP chieftain, Senator Lekan Balogun said that he has no slightest doubt that the South West or any part of the country would be marginalized. He also expressed the hope that with the self discipline of Buhari, he would be able to deliver on his promises. He pointed out that what should be Buhari’s priority  is how to ensure gainful employment for the people of the country irrespective of the areas they come from, saying that there is too much poverty in the land.