MON, MAY 14 2018-theG&BJournal–There has never been a Nigerian president entering his second term without having been written off as a failure. President Muhammadu Buhari stands little or no chance of changing that view nor does he stand a chance of enacting anything dramatic before the end of his first term in office which effectively ends Mid 2019 to change the view. His abiding setback has been his frequent medical trips overseas at the huge expense of the country’s tax payers. Little has changed economically, socially or otherwise since his first trip. At least, that is the consensus of his most averred critics.
His current visit to Jigawa State- straight from his return from another round of overseas check-ups, is obviously a statement about his fitness-his health and mental fitness. It equally speaks to his critics-within and outside his party- about his intentions of standing for re-elections in 2019, undisturbed too. Nothing so far suggests that he will speak to the problems confronting the Youths of Jigawa State. Nothing suggests that any of the projects he will be commissioning on his visit will have any direct bearing with the youths aspirations.
In any case, the closing months of his first tenure still has that stiff semblance with what has always been present from the tail-end of all past presidents. The economy is still sluggish in recovery, the society is far more deeply polarised- interspersed with religious bigotry, youth violence, terrorism and so many other societal ills. Buhari’s ‘original’ promise was to bring about ”CHANGE.” That now seems near impossible to achieve within the next nine months before the June 2019 general elections.
His party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and it’s leadership may be as withering or acerbic as any about the citizens courageousness- be it over his handling of the economy, his ministerial appointments or the affairs of the nation. But that makes no sense to millions of Nigerians that have further fallen well below the defined poverty line since he became president in 2015. Dismissing the citizens criticism only reinforces the oppositions’ support base. The more that yearning for CHANGE is ignored, the more will they reject the president and everything APC .
The goal of his visit to Jigawa State must therefore be to re-connect again rather than dismiss the criticisms as cynical. That maybe a herculean task but it could be surmounted when he leaves a mark as the first Nigeria president that speaks directly to Nigeria’s forgotten demographic. He has to make the visit about reconnecting to the youths of the state that lacks everything particularly, HOPE. It is not about show-boating-commissioning of unsustainable projects.
It will be a pity if President Buhari were to leave Jigawa State with the youths even more restive, with a sense of neglect and hopelessness still pervading. He should demonstrates his concern and show that leadership, bearing in mind that the loudest complaints of Nigerian youths is that the ‘president’ lacks the ability to lead because his too sick and too old.
