Barrister Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, CFR |
By now,
President Buhari must have come to terms with the fact that his mandate cannot
possibly be immediately realised. What he met in Aso Rock is certainly
different from the Nigeria he had in mind. It’s certainly not the same Civil
Service. The structure he met is definitely more volatile than the structure of
yesteryears. Most important, there is no money like before!
The
President came with his last energy to fight corruption. But by now, he must be
getting to know that in this part of the world, corruption is computerised. He
must have asked himself many times: Where do I start from?
He ran to
the Judiciary to ask for support. For eight years, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was asking for a separate court for the
trial of corrupt persons. He got nothing. Mr. President set up Professor Sagay’s commission, thinking
it was all about getting it right with the right people. While still waiting
for what to do, he went to the Nigeria
Bar Association and begged lawyers not to defend corrupt public officers.
As usual, the lawyers replied that an accused person is innocent until proven
guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction! So what is a court of competent
jurisdiction?
The
President, not finding the respite he wanted, and time being an enemy, went to
the accountants and begged for help. They told Mr. President that the accounts
must be balanced. If the accounts are not balanced, accountants can do
something. But with a balanced account, the entry is closed!
Mr.
President took time to prepare himself on the best way forward. And as the end
of five months in office was fast approaching, he remembered his promise to
Nigeria- Ministers must be ready by September!
At the peak
of the United Nations meeting of the Security Council, the issue of which gate
to use to enter the venue almost made the President miss the meeting. This is
despite the fact that Nigeria has established an office in the United Nations
since 1990. Our representative did not know which gate was appropriate for our
President until the gate was closed!
As the
President proceeds to govern Nigeria, these ‘LITTLE’ problems continue to
surface. They are far from the real problems he has come to solve. But what can
he do? When our oil money was traced to a certain bank, Mr. President was so
excited. He was about preparing a letter of request to bring the signatories
from London where they are resting to sign off the account. The President was
told that the principal signatory to the account was down with last-stage
cancer!
If it were
in the days of Buhari as military Head-of-State, the said minister would have
been home in twenty four hours, even with cancer times two! But since the
President promised to be a true democrat, human rights are another issue. Best
of luck Mr. President!
The problems
of Nigeria that Buhari has come to solve are wicked problems. They include
unemployment, the insurgency of Boko Haram, struggle over resources, praxis of
corruption, infrastructural decay; specifically the issue of darkness and
systemic collapse, all of which commutatively point to ‘a failed state.’
The problem
comes from the collapse of trust between government and the people. Government
doesn’t trust the people and the people no longer trust the government. People
say sometimes when government says ‘good morning,’ it might mean ‘good night!’
Please check your watch!
Institutional
void prevents investment from global investors. It is important to note here
that local entrepreneurs are also divesting at a very high rate. Government
alone cannot provide jobs. Even the few people that government employed are not
being paid their salaries. Government staffers are working for eight months
without salary!
Who breached
the Pyramid of Trust? How gigantic are the wicked problems on Buhari’s hands? (nationalmirror)
Jimoh Ibrahim writes from the MBA
class of the University of Cambridge
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