Escapism as symptomatic of Buhari's leadership inertia

Escapism as symptomatic of Buhari's leadership inertia

Few years ago, I was a guest of my dear friend in Rivers State. This my friend, I must admit, is a person of great means and one who is always very bothered with the Nigerian tragedy. After dinner, we were in his garden to enjoy the cool breeze of the night. It did not take long for our discussion to drift to a familiar genre – the Nigerian condition. On that occasion, my friend told me a story I would never forget.

There was a certain man in his village that had two wives. Each of the wives had six children for the man. Unfortunately this man whose tremendous wealth led him into marrying two wives – the first being his legitimately married wife; and the second his concubine – fell on hard times. Five of his children had gained admission into institutions of higher learning. The man was hard pressed on providing for his household. But rather than concentrating on how to tackle his mountain problems, the man hit on the expediency of gallivanting and hedonism. He would travel from one city to another on the flimsy excuse that he was looking for a way out of his numerous challenges, hoping that when he comes back, the problems in his household would have vanished.

Unfortunately for him, each time he came back from his sojourns, he discovered to his chagrin that these problems had become more complex and virulent. In the course of time, his two wives deserted him, his children became deviants and social outcasts. Eventually, the family imploded and his children and their mothers went their separate ways.

Over time, I have reflected on this tragedy of family destined for greatness but wasted on the altar of recklessness and inability to manage success and God’s gift; and came to the conclusion that this man’s family was ruined as a result of the man’s escapist attitude to problem-solving. Escapism here is the tendency of a person to ignore the reality of his/her existence, a routine of indulging in day- dreaming or hedonism. Escapism, in effect, is a mental inclination of a leader to run away from reality in the hope that one day those sad realities would disappear.

This escapism is the Achilles of leadership and is the quickest route to society’s collective immolation. Until the ineptitude of the present Buhari presidency came to the fore, not a few Nigerians thought that Muhammadu Buhari had the Midas touch to turn around the future of Nigeria. For those who harbored this impression, I do not blame them. Obviously, they lacked a sense of history; they failed to understand that a leopard never changes its colour, no matter the weather. A leopard is a leopard- period.

That Buhari failed miserably in his first coming as a military dictator is not in doubt. That his regency as Nigeria’s maximum dictator from 1983 to 1985 could not account for the millions of money recovered from politicians is also a statement of fact; that as a military dictator Buhari inaugurated a most bizarre economic policy of trade-by-barter as his response to Nigeria’s economic risorgimento is a fact cast on stone. That he lost out to Ibrahim Babangida in a high-wire power game in 1985 is also located on accusations of leadership idiocy and in aptitude and this assertion could be gleaned from Gen. Dogonyaro’s radio broadcast of August 25th 1985.

Discerning Nigerians knew that Muhammadu Buhari lacked the requisite credentials to move Nigeria forward. However, the Buhari mantra of change found resonance among many Nigerians, who were genuinely frustrated by a tepid PDP leadership at the centre. Since his emergency as Nigeria’s president, Buhari has left no one in doubt that he has no policy direction. A reading of his inaugural address to the country on May 29th, 2015 would confirm his lack of vision and mission. 

Unprepared, therefore, for the onerous task of leadership, Muhammadu Buhari appeared to have been stupefied and overwhelmed by the Nigeria conundrum; and like the man in my friends story, Buhari has resorted to escapism as a strategy to solve Nigeria’s myriad of problems. For several years, Buhari sought to take power back to the north especially the Fulanis. Make no mistake about this – Buhari understands the perception of Nigerians about corruption and this was why he adopted political saintliness as a selling point. He succeeded largely in deceiving unsuspecting Nigerians about his anti-corruption credentials. The truth is that Buhari always likes to benefit from corrupt politicians but never want to be seen as corrupt.

Since his emergency as president of Nigeria, Buhari has hardly spent two straight weeks in Nigeria. He has embarked on 26 foreign trips, spent over 2,880 hours outside the presidential villa on foreign trips alone. In eleven months of his presidency, Buhari has visited Niger Republic, Chad, Ghana, Germany, South Africa, Benin Republic, USA and China. In some of these trips, his mission is not diplomatic but merely to receive traditional titles or national honours. His visit to the Republic of Benin is a typical example. The least number of people on the several delegations that have accompanied him on each foreign trip is twenty. The question is: What time does Buhari have to attend to urgent issues of national importance? He is Nigeria’s petroleum minister. Presently, Nigerians are reeling under the crushing weight of fuel scarcity with a liter of fuel selling as high as ₦250.00 yet our minister-president in busy globe-trotting. 

I have listened to apologists of the Buhari Presidency labouring pedantically to rationalize the president’s incessant foreign trips, arguing that Nigeria would be the ultimate beneficiary. In what way, if I may ask? Buhari’s idea of stimulating the Nigerian economy is anchored on external borrowing from China and the Western countries. Today, Nigeria’s external debt is in the region of $60 billion, which is over ₦11 trillion. But you and I know that Nigeria’s external debt was cleared under the Obasanjo administration and yet Buhari is working so hard in the reverse to ensure Nigeria goes back into the miry clay of global indebtedness.

This is indeed tragic for a country in dire straits like Nigeria. Does Buhari think that the solution to Nigeria’s problems lies outside the shores of this country? Only a man bereft of ideas and historical binoculars would come to such ridiculous conclusion. This is a man who promised Nigerians that in three months of his presidency, Boko Haram would became history. In eleven months, Boko Haram has become even more brazen and daring. 

Boko Haram has become history only in the sense that it has become more virulent and cancerous. This is a man who promised to improve electricity generation within five months of his administration. In eleven months, Nigeria is generating almost zero mega watts of electricity. This is a man who promised to fight corruption. In eleven months, we have been thoroughly entertained by jesters posing of corruption fighters; taking from the so-called corrupt and redistributing to even more corrupt and rapacious political class. This is a man who has been indicted and condemned by history as a coup plotter, murderer and corruption personified; a man posing as a sanctimonious, pious and saintly person, that would muster courage to tell Nigerians that Gen. Sani Abacha was not a corrupt man. For any Nigerian to come to such shameless conclusion, that person must be worse than Abacha basically because Gen Sani Abacha would go down in history as the biggest Nigeria thief of the 20th century.

What does all this tell us? It tell us that the clouds of God’s judgment are gathering over Nigeria; that this judgment will be intensive and far-reaching; and that like the man in my friends story, Nigerians would soon go their separate ways. So President Muhammadu Buhari should brace up to the challenges on ground, return to Nigeria and stop shopping from one global capital to another in the hope that by time he finishes his globe-trotting, our problems would have vanished. This is time for leadership; not for moonlight plays. For now Nigeria has no leadership and like a rudderless ship, the Nigerian vessel is headed for destruction.

-Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo