Democracy Day Disappointments

Any adult Nigerian who believes one word of Nigeria leader Muhammadu Buhari’s “Democracy Day” speech two days ago needs a doctor. But let us step back a little bit by two weeks: to May 29 when General Buhari took to the pages of Newsweek in a signed article he called “Post-Coronavirus: Africa’s Manufacturing Moment.”

It was a reminder of a previous one, “The Three Changes Nigeria Needs”, which Buhari penned for the Wall Street Journal in June 2016.

It would have been remarkable had Buhari’s new article revealed how he has made those three changes in his five years in office, but of course he has made none.

But if you didn’t know Buhari has again written for the foreign press, you are not alone; some people in the government say they didn’t even know.

It is widely-known he does not like to speak to Nigerians. He gives the impression that sounding concerned and committed before the international community is far more important than actually serving his own people.

Curiously also, although he holds the Nigeria job, he wanted to speak for Africa.

He wrote: “In this new, post-coronavirus age, Nigeria—and Africa, more broadly— wish to benefit the world, not be a drag on its resources or seemingly forever in need of aid. At last, after years of poor governance, we have the people, the purpose and the political will for this to change.

“What we need now is for the vision of others to match our own. And Africa is positioned to play a critical role in the remolding of a post-coronavirus world that centers around manufacturing.”

It is unclear why the will of the giver must match that of the taker. Or why manufacturing would be the first concern of a people who are hungry.

He wrote: “Our young population is increasingly well educated; governance reform, while not universal, is growing in strength in most African countries such as my own, where our sustained actions against the seemingly perennial scourge of corruption and malfeasance are well-recognized; and the energy, infrastructure and key natural resources needed to power and supply largescale manufacturing facilities are in place.”

He was referring, by the way, to the same youths he denounced two years ago in the

United Kingdom as freeloaders; and tendering as an achievement his verbal onslaught on corruption. But particularly astonishing is the declaration that Nigeria now has the energy, infrastructure and key natural resources to power manufacturing. We have, Nigeria?

Curiously, Buhari also disclosed that he owes his strides to his late friend and infamous kleptocrat, Sani Abacha, that former leader being one Buhari is on record as saying he never looted anything.

Not that Buhari named anyone, though: he simply expressed “thanks to close to a billion dollars of funds stolen from the people of Nigeria under a previous, undemocratic junta in the 1990s that have now been returned to our country from the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland.”

As Buhari finally admitted that Abacha was a thief, I wondered whether, as he wrote those words, he was grimacing, given that as far as undemocratic Nigerian juntas go he was a front liner in the Abacha regime, and led one himself in the 80s.

Nonetheless, the funds to which he refers are far larger than a billion dollars, but since assuming office in 2015, Buhari has defined such concepts as accountability and the rule of law with a wink or an asterisk. At the intersection of those two concepts, for instance, he has famously refused to obey court orders to account for billions received by his and previous governments.

Which is why, on Friday, he arrived at his Democracy Day desk and had no problem saying he is “focused on ensuring that Nigeria would always be governed by the Rule of Law and I would do my utmost to uphold the constitution and protect the lives and property of all Nigerians.”

Clearly, none of that is true. Nigerians continue to point out every day how Buhari routinely violates the constitution or ignore it. They lament how, under his watch and despite his outlandish claims, insecurity is flourishing. Boko Haram remains undefeated, armed Fulani herdsmen have compromised agriculture in swathes of the country, while kidnappers and armed robbers take advantage of our prostrate security outfits.

These are all possible largely because of that first “need” Buhari identified to the world in 2016 but has neglected: credibility. There have been untrustworthy governments before, but Buhari’s is especially loaded with air, and has neither shame nor pride.

Buhari’s speech on

Friday again