PRESIDENT BUHARI AND HIS INDISCERNIBLE EXCEPTIONALISM – By Eromosele Odijie.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, I must confess, exhibited strategic intelligence in building and sustaining a perception around him for quite a long time to the extent that he became the messiah Nigerians have been waiting for since MKO Abiola’s inconclusive June 12 election. Buhari was also expected to bring sanity to the country. Buhari may not have earned amassed all the degrees and academic laurels necessary for us to regard him as an intellectual, but he managed to out-smart all the so-called intellectuals to build a cult of followers around himself.

Buhari, his history apart, rebranded himself as the ultimate messiah and saviour that will take the Naira to equal a Dollar. Did he mean it? Did he understand what a Naira-Dollar parity means? Even Buhari’s worse enemies expected him to do better than what we have seen in the past year. The man has proved that it is almost impossible to change people, but rather we must accept people for who they are and try to manage our differences with them. The Daura-born General did not solely develop Brand Buhari. He re-garnished his brand in 2014 with the help of political artistes like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Tunde Bakare and Professor Yemi Osibajo, both clergymen. Pastor Bakare made several appearances on national television to make a case for Buhari, whose vice presidential candidate he was in the 2011 election. He all but likened him to the solution to our problems.

Buhari deceived us that he never had a house in Abuja when information to that effect got to Nigerians. He did not dispel it but acted as if it was true. Many Nigerians were surprised when details from his asset declaration form showed that he had a house in Abuja.This clearly shows that Buhari has never engaged in any serious economic activity in his lifetime neither has he been oon a corporate board . We also discovered that he had over N35 million in his bank account even though he told market women in Kaduna, weeks before the election, that he could not boast of a million Naira in his bank account. Buhari deserve and should be given an award for his ability to convince Nigerians – as he is yet to make his asset declaration form public like former President Umaru Shehu Yar’Adua.

Is there any reason for a man of high integrity refusing to let Nigerians know what he is worth?

Buhari it must be said is not the direct cause of Nigeria’s socio economic problems and nobody is actually blaming the tight-fisted General for the problems. But Buhari and, his party, the All Progressives Party, APC, promised to solve the problems. After 15 months of Buhari’s presidency, the President is yet to solve any problem, yet he has managed to compound the problems by his cluelessness and polarising attitude. The first and most pressing issue today is the economy.

Nigeria’s economy is in its worse state since 1985. Ironically, the last time Nigeria went through such an economic recession was when Buhari was Head of State from 1984 to 1985. It is not Buhari’s fault that crude oil prices plunged when he took charge, but it is roundly his fault that he has not been able to fashion out solutions to the economic crisis be-deviling the nation. President Mohammadu Buhari is supposed to show leadership and commission a think tank of local experts to find ways out of the economic malaise, but curiously, the President has out-sourced the Federal Government’s economic policies to the International Monetary Fund, IMF, with the Finance Minister acting as a tactic agent for these so-called multi-lateral organisations.

In an economic recession, governments reduce corporate taxes, personal income taxes, startup taxes and consumer taxes to increase disposable income and improve the consumer index. But the IMF wants us to do the opposite and because Buhari cannot think of any other way out of the problem than to borrow money from the IMF, he agrees. Buhari has killed the Naira and removed subsidy on consumer goods to the benefit of the IMF and the poverty of Nigerians.

The Buhari administration has proposed a 9 per cent tax on calls, sms, mms and data to drive call rates higher in the middle of the recession. Chief Audu Ogbeh,the Minister of Agriculture has announced a new tax on fertilisers for poor farmers. Companies running at losses have been compelled by the Federal Inland Revenue Service to pay taxes. Something that is practised nowhere else on earth. New taxes like stamp duty have been introduced on deposits more than N1 000, at a time that savings should be encouraged. All these burdens are on Nigerians. The Federal Government agencies have implemented an increase in everything payable to the government in the heat of an economic recession to double the effect of the recession on Nigerians. The Finance Minister recently told reporters that foreign finance organisations in Europe insisted we devalue and float our currency before they lend us money. The administration agreed.

Almost 300 companies have closed their businesses since then and the cost of duty on consumer and manufacturing raw material and goods have risen by 45 per cent. Inflation is at Buhari’s 1985 level of almost 18 per cent and unemployment has reached the Buhari 1985 levels. Central Bank Governor Godwin Emiefele has been a willing tool in his hands. President Buhari’s reaction to all these is a deafening silence. In Nairobi, last week, the President attributes Nigeria’s economic woes to the activities of Niger Delta militants who have reduced the nation’s daily oil output by 700,000 barrels daily. Their action has affected government’s revenue adversely. That the President has still tied our economic recovery to crude oil at a time like this shows how unimaginative Buhari and his aides are.

The days of high crude oil prices are over for good. With America’s new status as the world’s highest producer of crude oil, crude oil will not sell higher than $50 for a long time. If a shortage of almost a million barrels from Nigeria cannot provoke oil prices to $50 per barrel, then oil boom is history. America today produces more than 10 million barrels daily. The only reason crude oil is selling is because of the ban on America’s production technology in Europe. If Europeans can produce from the same system, crude oil prices could crash to$20 per barrel.

Innovation is the solution. The increase in use of hybrid and eco-friendly cars will see the continuous reduction in crude oil demand and oil dependent countries such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar are already developing post-oil dependent economies while President Buhari is still pinning his hope on crude oil and threatening Niger Delta militants with the Boko Haram treatment.

Buhari cannot think beyond oil; it is a quick reminder of the death of intellectualism and innovation in Nigeria’s government. Economies are built in the 21st century on ideas, innovation and technology and not on crude oil.

Brand Buhari has turned out to be Nigeria’s newest false exceptionalism. False exceptionalism has been a thriving business in Nigeria in all sectors while in reality excellence does not exist here. The false exceptionalism mantra built around Buhari by Tinubu and his cohorts in the media in 2015 has turned out to be worthless after all. Time, they say, unwraps the true value of everything and time has blown naked the true values of Tinubu and Buhari.

Until Nigeria invests in education, especially research and development internally, no development would be seen here. Development has always been based on ideas that are tied to strong national values and not incurious leaders. Buhari cannot give what he does not have. Does he have the capacity to act in the path of solution? As long as Buhari depends on the IMF and World Bank for our economic policies, poverty will keep growing like an iroko tree and his battered image would grow with it. These institutions have never helped any country to develop and it appears that our leaders are immune to this fact. Perhaps, the Buhari change misadventure is one that Nigerians would wake us up to one day. Ignorance and inexplicable exceptionalism cannot exalt any nation.