02062021 - Attacks on INEC offices won’t stop 2023 polls —BUHARI

A look at Buhari’s hailers and his
haters
LAST Saturday, May 29, makes it exactly
six years since President Muhammadu
Buhari first took the oath of office during an
elaborate ceremony in Eagles Square, in
Abuja, the country’s capital. It was his first
four-year term as president. Since that first
oath-taking ceremony, the President has had
to take the oath of office one more time for a
second four-year term that started in May of
2019. At this point of his presidency, Buhari
has spent more than two-thirds of his
presidential terms. It is, therefore, an
appropriate time as any for Nigerians to
appraise his performance. Long before now,
the Buhari scoresheet as president has been
a subject of animated, often-polarising,
debates. Yes, even before Buhari’s multiple
bids for the presidency, long after his
unceremonious ouster as the head of a junta
that sacked the Second Republic, met with
success at the fourth attempt, his suitability
or otherwise as president has been the
subject of acrimonious arguments.
No sooner was he sworn-in than his
performance or lack of performance became
the basis of mudslinging that has shown no
sign of abating even six years after. Events
of the last two years, specifically the state of
(in)security, be it social, economic or political,
with terrorists of various shades, insurgents
and bandits, running amok; mass loss of jobs
and two-digit inflationary rise, and the future
of Nigeria as a political entity being constantly
put in question, the role of Muhammadu
Buhari as either a performing or nonperforming
president has again come under
sharp focus, ever more stridently.
Thus, on this occasion of the sixth
anniversary of his administration, it was
again time for both the praise singers and
dirge masters to roll out the drums,
respectively to celebrate or mourn. But this
was not an activity that the arm of the Buhari
administration now infamously known as
‘’the Presidency” was going to leave to
outsiders alone. One of the duo of
presidential media aides, Femi Adesina, was
quick to roll out the drums. But unlike in the
past when the songs from Adesina had been
unmitigatedly upbeat, he was on this occasion
prepared for a nuanced, even if still-gushy
appraisal. He conceded in the opening
remark of his somewhat starkly long and
boring release, that the economic, social and
security situation of the country has been
very challenging.
As would be expected of a paid mouthpiece
on a public relations assignment, Adesina
did not dwell in any relative detail on the
specifics of the challenging circumstances
he wrote about in broad, generalising
strokes, before quickly moving on to highlight
in very elaborate terms that did nothing to
sustain the reader’s interest, due to the
boring officialese in which it was written,
what he would later call “teeny-weeny bits
of what the Buhari government has done in
these spheres of national life’’.
Adesina offered very generous appraisal
of his principal’s handling of the country’s
infrastructural sector, celebrating railways and
road constructions, a number of which he
says are already slated for inauguration by
the President, from the South-West, through
the South-East, South-South and the North-
Central to the North-West and North-East.
On the economic front, he celebrated the
different poverty alleviation programmes of
the Buhari government. The administration’s
effort in the agro-allied sector is not left out.
In all, Adesina gave his principal a
resounding pass mark reminding those who
care to know that there are yet more
‘’wonders’’ waiting to be performed by the
Buhari administration.
For the sake of Nigeria, I would want to
believe Adesina and, therefore, look forward
What this country needs
are citizens, women and
men, young and old, who
can see things and people in
terms of their own merit,
people without fixed, apriori
allegiance to any position,
individual or group
to those wonders that the administration will
perform that it could not convincingly
perform in the previous six years. The
problem of this present administration is not
so much that it has lost much of the goodwill
it enjoyed at the beginning as that it is
determined to live in the bubble of the
alternative reality it has created for itself no
matter what the facts on the ground say. That
should not be surprising about an
administration that has been hijacked by
interlopers who, in the guise of “the
presidency”, now speak, take decisions and
act in the name of the President. Even when
the President must be held accountable for
all that goes on in his administration, there
is no doubt that a clique, perhaps, a
triumvirate that includes Abubakar Malami,
Garba Shehu and Sabiu Yusuf/Mamman
Daura, are largely responsible for those
contentious decisions that have brought the
Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 2021—17
country to the brink of separation.
Garba Shehu too has been defending the
indefensible in the name of celebrating the
achievement of the administration whose
history he is doing only next to Malami to
write in infamy. The important thing to note
here about the hailers and haters of Buhari
is that they all operate in absolute terms.
While for the hailers it is all rankadede, as
with them Buhari cannot set a foot wrong,
for the haters it is mostly bamuso, nothing
Buhari does, no matter how useful, can be
good. Which then makes both the hailers
and the haters who cut across ethnic,
religious, professional and educational
divides, undesirable anachronisms unfit and
unable to make objective assessments of the
Nigerian situation under Buhari.
But what this country needs are citizens,
women and men, young and old, who can
see things and people in terms of their own
merit, people without fixed, apriori allegiance
to any position, individual or group. When
they see what is right or wrong, they say so
within human limitations, no matter what
the stakes are. That they supported a Buhari
policy today does not mean they should
support it tomorrow if there is no reason to.
That they were fervent supporters of Buhari
over Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, does not
mean they should remain Buhari’s
supporters for ever even when evidence
shows he has performed less than even he
promised to. Where such citizens exist, they
would be able to examine the Buhari
administration in terms what it has got wrong
in the context of present concerns. Indeed, a
full account of the Buhari administration will
only be possible after the administration has
taken its exit.
Until it does, however, honest Nigerians
should not be afraid to say that in six years
the Buhari administration has accentuated
the fault lines of our fragile nationhood more
than any other administration in recent
memory. No government before this present
one practised nepotism to the level the Buhari
administration has now taken it. Nor has
the general decline in security been this bad
in peace time Nigeria. The economy itself
has been ailing well before COVID-19.
These are the facts of a national malaise that
is not inevitable. To see this and remain silent
is to be unpatriotic.
08055069060 (SMS Only)
For DSO, a little consideration
for the ordinary Nigerian
THE monetisation and other
advantages of the Digital
Switchover, DSO, remain the
most compelling narrative of this
convoluting story. The
entertainment sector will open up
with foaming opportunities. The
league of talents available in the
sector will suddenly sponge up
the opportunities – whether in the
movies, music, comedy, live
theatre shows, technical and
every aspect of the entertainment
sector, will suddenly become some
kind of attractive pie that every
entertainer with a little gift will
scramble to have a piece of. And
all of us writers will have more
stories to write, build up a dome
of adjectives to decorate an
industry that continues to search
for its best days.
This is the one story the Minister
of Information and Culture, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, loves to tell. I
cede that to him with all respect.
And when he tells the story, he
waxes lyrical like Unoka in Things
Fall Apart, seducing listeners with
his flute, and perhaps those
hearing the good news from the
Minister will jostle for positions of
advantage to reap from an
opportunity unfolding piecemeal.
The nation is bleeding for good
stories. Every little strand is
important to drop in the mix.
In spite of some spice of nihilism
in a seemingly obliterating
situation, I love good news and
try to go overboard in search of
some crumbs to sweeten our
situation. This is why I am
contributing this material with the
prayers that it be considered
dispassionately even by those who
grumble that the Simply Tech
Column haunts them
unjustifiably.
And there is no need to feel that
way. The DSO process is a very
big thing, bigger than personal
convenience and predilections,
and Nigeria, with the exaggerated
claim of being the biggest economy
in Africa, is far behind in
execution. This is very painful and
only a few people will understand
why. While we talk of the business
benefits of the DSO, some people
fail to actually reason that one of
the most important components of
the DSO is the social inclusion in
the value chain which unfolds into
benefits for the ordinary TV viewer.
This is why the NTA, for me,
presented a rare piece of good
news last week, when it reported
the meeting between the lower
house of the National Assembly –
House of Representatives and the
National Broadcasting
Commission, NBC, to discuss
ways of ensuring that the DSO
process runs smoothly and also
provide benefits for the ordinary
Nigerian. It was a smart and
needed move by the House and
efforts should be channeled into
such meetings to prevent the
process from atrophying.
Odebunmi Segun, Chairman,
House Committee on Information
and National Orientation, in the
report monitored by this writer,
was very concerned about
government expenditure in the
DSO and how such expenditures
were being managed to profit the
ordinary Nigerian out there.
The DSO process is far
from being foolproof;
there are too many
contradictions and
checkpoints that can abort
the process any time; but
the process should be
niftily managed for the
sake of the people
Government, he informed, has
subsidized 908, 000 Set Top Boxes
to be given out free. How far have
we gone about it and how many
have been activated? he asked.
For a simple recall, DSO means
Digital Switchover from analogue
broadcasting to digital
broadcasting. Although some
countries have since concluded
the process, Nigeria is only now
struggling along. A cardinal
feature of the process is that when
concluded some television sets will
be unable to access TV
programming, thus making the
Set Top Box, which will help
convert these signals, mandatorily
indispensable.
In the United States,
government gave out two coupons
of $40 each to TV homes. The
South African government is
giving out free Set Top Boxes
through the SABC. “Important
notice. If you see this message,”
the station says, “go to your
nearest Post Office to register for a
free government subsidized
decoder…..to continue receiving
a television broadcast.”
It thus become very expedient
to give considerate concern to the
position of the ordinary Nigerian
in the DSO value chain. This is
the fellow who earns the minimum
wage of N30, 000; the fellow for
whom there is little respite because
even that amount, now less than
$65, is not being paid by the state
governor who justifies this
aggravating wrench with
dwindling revenue from Abuja.
A Set Top Box which some
nations, including South Africa,
are giving out free, costs N10, 000
at the moment. A state
government which acquires 10,
000 Set Top Boxes will have to
shell out N1bn. This is a lot of
money, especially in the face of the
economic tailspin facing the
nation, and this math staggered
me last week into thinking that the
DSO was heading for the rocks if
some ingenuity was not
introduced into the process. The
ordinary folk cannot afford it and
government may not want to be
involved, pleading a worsening
economic reality.
But here is my appeal. An
attractive spinoff of the DSO is the
Digital Dividends which will cede
the broadcast frequencies given up
by broadcasters to the
telecommunications industry.
When former DG of the NBC, Mr
Emeka Mba, tested the waters,
one of such frequencies was
ingeniously sold to MTN for about
N34bn. There are two left, this
writer was reliably informed. Even
when I am the first to admit that
the worsening security situation in
the country will likely attenuate the
value of the remaining two, there
may still be the compelling need
to put them up for sale. While such
monies would necessarily go to
the Federation Account, it is my
appeal that a significant
percentage be given to the NBC
as seed fund to acquire Set Top
Boxes for some TV homes across
the country.
While one was pained by the
insipid participation of the Lagos
State Government in the DSO
launch in Lagos recently, my
prayer is that as the exercise berths
in Kano, the state government and
the local councils should be fully
mobilised to be part of the process,
and explore the possibility of
funding some Boxes for those who
can’t afford them economically. In
addition, businesses, as part of
their corporate social
responsibility, CSR, should fund
some Boxes while wealthy
individuals should give some kind
considerations to the ordinary
Nigerians by funding their little
window to the world.
This is what I think. The DSO
process is far from being foolproof.
There are too many contradictions
and checkpoints that can abort the
process any time, too much of
dredges that won’t be healthy to
wash up. But the process should
be niftily managed for the sake of
the people. Some of us will also
need to manage our badly
concealed interests, expectations
and plain but irritating
meddlesomeness. The ordinary
Nigerian needs a little space. You
can’t take food from his table and
also take his television. That will
be wicked.