The pledge by President Muhammadu Buhari to run an inclusive government in the next four years beginning from May 29 has been greeted with profuse pessimism and less optimism.
President Buhari, who won a re-election penultimate Saturday for a fresh term of four years, made the promise in his acceptance speech after being declared winner of the rescheduled presidential election.
But he did not stop there. He has also told Nigerians to brace up for the tough decisions his government would be taking in the course of the four years to move the economy in the right direction.
Buhari, a Fulani Moslem from Katsina, North West geo-political zone of Nigeria, rode to power in 2015 on the crest of vaunted claim of integrity and impartiality. He had promised to be fair to all, saying in his inaugural speech, “I am for everybody, and I am for nobody.”
But the President did not stay through to his words as his appointments in the last three-and-a-half years have shown. Observers say that his actions and inactions in office belie his fair play pledge.
They also noted that his skewed appointments and distribution of democracy dividends in favour of his side of the country were not consistent with his promise.
Although the promise of an inclusive government by the President may have excited some Nigerians and is said to have momentarily calmed frayed nerves, a number of other people have however, wondered if a leopard can ever change its spots.
In a recent interview with our correspondent, Ayo Opadokun, a pro-democracy activist and former secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), said: “Come to think of it, how will that happen when you have a Nigerian security council where the President who presides over is from Katsina; the director of state security is from Katsina, and you also now have the newly appointed director-general of National Intelligence Agency also from Katsina. With all these, how can other people from other parts of the country be assured that they are safe?”
The Executive arm, which the President controls, spent the greater part of the first tenure in rivalry with other arms, particularly the Legislature.
Top on the list of the demands by the Nigerian masses are critical issues such as revamping the economy, transparent and well-focused corruption and insecurity fight, and an inclusive government that will leave no section of the country crying of marginaliastion.
As the 9th National Assembly opens soon, some analysts, who spoke with BDSUNDAY also emphasise the need for a robust relationship among the various arms of government. The issue of the Executive –Legislative and Judiciary relationship is paramount.
Speaking with BDSUNDAY, Majeed Dahiru, senior security expert and newspaper columnist, who expressed some doubts about Buhari’s capacity to achieve his set goals, because of his antecedents, however, stressed that for the President to achieve his objectives, there must be a fundamental paradigm shift in some of the fundamental directive principles of state that questioned Buhari’s first four years in office.
“First of all, he needs to create a situation where every citizen has a sense of belonging. We do not want to have a situation where some citizens are feeling less Nigerian than the others while some are feeling more Nigerian than the others. This should be a condition preceding any form of socio- economic development strategy because with this all hands will be on deck,” Dahiru said.
According to him, “The first thing is to demonstrate leadership and statesmanship by first uniting this country through his appointments, through his utterances, statements and body language. He must indicate the willingness to unite Nigeria after a much fractured election and going forward he must put the best hands to man critical jobs irrespective of their party affiliations or geographic, ethnic or religious backgrounds. This is the only thing that can guarantee hope to revamp the battered economy,” he said.
On the Executive- Legislative- Judiciary, relationship, Dahiru said the responsibility for that lies with the executive and with the judiciary, nor the legislature. He stressed that the executive must set an agenda devoid of malice, hate and devoid of exclusionist tendencies.
“The executive must lead by example; it must submit itself to the rule of law in dealing with others arms of government. The executive must resist the temptation be disruptive and display tendencies that will amount to executive recklessness. The legislature is there to contend with the executive at all issues and that is the beauty of democracy. The only thing is that both arms of government must be guided by national interests and this is even more so on the side of legislature.
“If the executive sends a clean budget to the legislature, a budget that does not have corruption taint, no over-invoicing, no inflation of figures, the legislature will have no choice but to legislate accordingly. But when you send a corruption-riddled budget to the National Assembly, you will not be able to prevent certain members who have corrupt tendencies from taking advantage of the situation to enhance their corrupt interests too.
“You cannot accuse the National Assembly of constituting a stumbling block to your development agenda when you have not come clean. You must come clean and you must respect the principles of separation of power. You must not suspend the rule of law. There was a tendency in the Buhari’s first term to criminalise due process, to vilify liberal democracy as anathema to development and this must be reversed, the narrative must be pushed back. The basis for integrated development is the rule of law within a constitutional democratic framework,” he said.
Also speaking to BDSUNDAY, the Director of the Centre for China Studies (CCS), Charles Onunaiju said that for the economy to make progress, the President needs a very important think tank to build actionable policy based on proper interrogation of the Nigerian economic and social realities.
“So, for me, if the President wants to succeed, there is the need to create a presidential think tank. People with depth must be recruited to interrogate realities and flesh our actionable policies.
“Secondly there is the need to reexamine Nigerian institutions because the way they are currently cannot realistically serve the people. We have lived in denial and falsehood for over 60 years. Service delivery is poor; officials serve themselves first before they serve the people. Democracy is about accountability and there is no better way to account other than the improvement in the living conditions of the people. Any other form of accountability that is not reflected in the continuous improvement in the quality of lives of the people is not democratic accountability.
“That is the only way to measure the progress of democracy, you cannot have more people sinking into poverty and you are talking about democratic progress, it is fraudulent. So, to do this, we must revisit and interrogate these institutions and ask how well they serve to improve the material condition of the people,” he said.
On the Executive-Legislative cooperation, Onunaiju said separation of power should not be mistaken for rivalry, adding that it is not about the arms of government digging into their trenches and confronting one another.
“This will do the Nigerian people great disservice; it does not bring democratic returns to Nigerians if these institutions do not harness their potentials to the benefit of the Nigerian people. Separation means that they work in harmony but show understanding about the autonomy and independence of each others. They should get the people to be more involved instead of just waiting for the four-year ritual of elections and the people will retreat to the various enclaves,” he urged.
Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani noted that the elections have come and gone but Nigerians must work together for a common purpose of developing the country.
He therefore, urged the President to as matter of urgency embark on policy reforms that will restore hope and confidence in Nigerians in terms of electoral reforms that will guarantee electoral transparency.
‘’We also want him to ensure that issues of security, criminality and respect for human rights and compliance to due process are also at the centre of what his government should do. We also want the government to focus on the issues of fiscal regime, talking about economic reforms and looking at taxation, trade liberalisation and reforms in the oil and gas sector, which is one of the major sources of our revenue,” Rafsanjani said.
Urging the President to stick to the commitment he made in the area of inclusiveness, Rafsanjani said it was necessary because Nigeria is his constituency and not about those who voted for him but everybody.
“So, he should ensure fairness and inclusiveness as he promised. We also want the President to commit to the fight against corruption through strengthening and supporting the anti-corruption agencies by ensuring that they actually carry out their duties and responsibility in a manner that will discourage corruption and corrupt people.
“We urge him also to ensure Executive- Legislative cooperation and respect for all other arms of government,’’ Rafsanjani added, even as he advised aggrieved persons to seek redress in court.
Reacting to the electoral process and the need for reforms, the Executive Director Development Dynamics, a civil society organisation, Jude Ohanele, said the country is suffering from consequences of an analogue election process, which was foisted by law, stressing that the earlier Nigeria amends the Electoral Act to bring in technology to make things faster and easier the better.
“What we have now is by law, which is most unfortunate and of course, with the level or politicking and bickering and the low mindedness of our politicians, you can see the escalation of irregularities during the elections,” he said.
He noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a bit lower in standard now compared to the INEC headed by Attahiru Jega, adding that Jega was more proactive in taking corrections. He urged the current INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu to streamline the process to avoid unnecessary delays.
Zebulon Agomuo and Innocent Odoh
