The height of my censure of former President Jonathan’s administration ensued on 22^nd May, 2014 when I wrote a piece on “when you become the president” which was published by Sahara Reporters on its website. Call me a prophet and you won’t be mincing words but I had anticipated Jonathan’s defeat and I knew power was about to change hands. Although I had no clear direction on where the power steering was going or who was going to depose the incumbent, a situation that had never happened in the history of Nigeria’s politics. I was not in government nor did I have any mole there but I could loudly read from the superficial economic realities painted by his economic pilots which had no bearing on the lives of the larger populace except for few pilferers, the extremely devastating growth of insecurity in which I almost had a share of in the Bannex Plaza bomb blast which occurred in the Federal Capital. I also saw from the astronomically rising unemployment in the country despite their pronounced empowerment programs of which there were scarce testimonies. Corruption and indiscipline almost climaxed in the country while integrity, honesty and prudency diminished so swiftly.

In my article “when you become the president”, I wrote about leadership qualities and underscored two important traits required of any successful leader without which failure will be certain. These traits include the ability for superior communication alongside building the most necessary relationships. Surely, some of the major problems the Jonathan administration had were that among many others, it gravely lacked these two key instruments of governance. The former president chose to pitch with the erroneous camp thereby building off beam relationships at the detriment of the Nigerian people who voted him massively into office. He also refused to communicate whenever the need arose especially when the integrity of his administration was questioned. The president favored his ministers over one hundred and seventy million Nigerians. He cosseted, shielded and allowed them feed on the ravenous masses as they willed as if there will be no need for re-election. I am yet to see anyone who can lose so much goodwill within a short period of time as the former president but that is definitely the price you pay for dwelling in the wrong camp and refusing to communicate. The managers of the former president indisputably did a terrible job.

My focus in this new piece of writing isn’t to push forward my criticism of the former president as there is no need beating a man that is already down. “When you become the president” was published during GEJ’s tenure but then the spotlight was on another who will occupy his seat thereafter. Much is being said concerning the first hundred days of the new administration and my aim is not to further assess whether president Buhari has had any gain or not even though the sightless and the deaf can feel the pulse of a new life. My concentration is to admonish the president on how to be successful in his four years mandate. Although there have been few polls put together to evaluate whether Nigerians will be willing to re-elect PMB after their experience of his first 100days in office. While there were divergent views on this, more than 90% of Nigerians are prepared to re-elect the president. Every day of a given mandate thus count and in fact every second is as vital as the entire four years tenure but re-electing any mandate is not about the first 100days otherwise President Jonathan would have been extraordinarily re-elected for a second term in office.

I have been at breast with the few appointments made so far by the President and how different people particularly down south have been criticizing the President for playing ethnic sentiment in his selections. Even though I’m in full support of national integration and how such can help foster national unity, I also believe it should not be at the detriment of national growth. Despite the image of Nigeria as a country before now especially on the international scene, people of impressive quality, robust experience and remarkable character still abound in every region and possibly every state of the federation and President Buhari should do his best to locate and bring them on board his government to effect the desired change. We must come to understand that what should unite us cannot be individual or regional gratification but national prosperity. In other words, we as Nigerians should not crave unity because our region or state will be the best for it and on the other hand advocate disintegration because we feel a sense of marginalization from few appointments made. Rather, our unity should be founded and built on the sense of national prosperity as well as national identity.

Because the south-west voted massively for the President should not mean it should get a better deal than the south-east and south-south which gave the President little or nothing at the ballot. Our individual and collective actions must constantly be weighed on the scale of national unity or division. We ought to shove aside every effort that seeks to divide us and embrace all that unites us as a people. I’ve always tried to picture what Nigeria would look like if the three regions in the north, the southwest and the south-south in collaboration with south-east decides to exist independently. The picture has never been great to view. The prosperity of Africa lies in Nigeria and that of Nigeria dwells in her people but the people must walk holding fast and firm. Interestingly, Nigerians have never yearned for dissolution save for few greedy men and women who have had access to our commonwealth and are frightened that they may now be faced out gradually.

As it is the objective of this expose, President Buhari must avoid the blunder of the past in order to be one of the most successful leaders to have ever led this great nation. Many onlookers believe there can never be any meaningful change in the country, in fact vultures in the opposition are hoping that at the end of four years, Nigerians will not be able to point out any difference between their clueless party with type of rulers given to us in the last sixteen years and the new leading party in addition to its reformed leadership style. President Buhari should seek to build lasting relationships with not just the regions of the country but with all Nigerians irrespective of class and color. However, the only way to achieve this is to ensure a people oriented and people driven policies. Already, we have started to witness some meaningful developments at least in the power as well as oil sectors and I’m confident to witness pronounced changes across regions and sectors of the economy in the days ahead.

The other thing the President must avoid is that unlike his predecessor, he must communicate effectively with Nigerians. He must ensure nothing is hidden from us. His team must lay everything bare before us after all we voted to put him there. We are his ambassadors and he must be responsible to us always. Nigerians want to be able to defend him both publicly and in their consciences. The president must strive to imbibe the relationship building and effective communication character of every successful leader around the world and only then can we say that his person and party APC is truly an alternative and not a substitute to the PDP.

Olusegun Elemo
Olusegun.elemo@gmail.com

Please kindly note that this article was first published on Leadership Newspaper’s website.