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| President Muhammadu Buhari giving his Inaugural speech |
By Glory Ogazi
President
Mohammadu Buhari was elected Nigerian’s president on march 28th,
2015 by majority of Nigerians who wanted change in leadership from the ruling
People’s Democratic Party, who have been at the helm of affairs at the federal
level for over sixteen years. The high
level of corruption and sluggish response to issues that needed urgent
attention by the federal government were some of the reasons why most Nigerians
voted for change. They saw Buhari as an ‘’incorruptible’’
personality who will not close his eyes to corruption and corrupt officials.
An inaugural
speech is used mostly to articulate the direction of an incoming government .The
inaugural speech of President Buhari has set the tone for this administration.
The speech is inspiring and full of strength and reassurances for the citizens.
It was a call to duty and dealt with a lot of issues on the minds of Nigerians
namely insecurity, corruption, fuel and power shortages, rule of law, local
government funds, among others. For instance, the issue of insurgency in the
northeast and the Chibok secondary school girls kidnapped over 400days received
urgent attention in the speech
“The command center will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain
until…This government will do all it can to rescue them alive”
The speech also
paints a picture of a president who appreciates that it was not by his sole
effort that he got to the position. This is evident in the use of words like us,
we, our
“I am immensely grateful
to God who has presented us …
“Our journey has not been easy …
The speech showed
gratitude to God and also acknowledged the effort of the immediate past
president Goodluck Jonathan in the success of the democratic process and for
conceding defeat at the election
“I would like to thank president Goodluck Jonathan for his
display of statesmanship in setting a precedent for us …” .
Note worthy
is the fact that this is the first time the opposition party will win an
election at the presidential level. Moreover,
Jonathan conceded defeat even
before the declaration of the final results.
Issues in
speech
“Having just a few minutes ago sworn on the Holy Book, I intend to keep my oat and serve as
president to all Nigerians. I belong to
everybody and I belong to nobody
The
president, in his speech made an interesting statement that he belongs to
everyone and nobody. He was going to accommodate everyone. The president is
determined to be president of all Nigerians not just the president of his
political party or those that voted him into office.
Before now,
there has been a tradition whereby the president is seen as belonging to his
political party (All people’s congress) or those from his geopolitical zone.
But the president has reassured Nigerians that he will be accessible to all and
that he will not be subject to any form of ‘god- fatherism’. He would not be
held hostage by anyone, so all Nigerians have access to his government.
“The past is prologue’
There were
fears especially from the PDP lead government that the president was going to
come after them by probing the past administration. This may be the reason why
the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan asked that any probe should go
beyond his administration. He needed to
reassure the people that he was not going to ‘witch-hunt’ anyone.
In as much
as he said that ‘the past is prologue’, Nigerians will be happy to see all the
corrupt politicians probed and our resources recovered and put back into
infrastructural development.
“We can fix our problems’’
“At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive
corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power
shortages are the immediate concern… We
can fix our problems”
‘’Daunting as the task may be, it is not insurmountable’’
These are
statements of hope. That Nigerian can ‘fix’ her problems herself. All hope is
not lost.
The
inability of the immediate past president to resolve most of the issues in the
country made some of the citizens to
clamour for change. He reassures us that our problems are resolvable.
“No single cause can be identified to explain Nigerians’ poor
economic performance over the years than
the power situation….’’
It is rather
unfortunate that despite the billions of naira invested in the power sector,
the country currently has less than 4,000mw,
especially from 1999 and the privatization in 2041, the power situation
in Nigeria keeps getting worse instead of improving. This is more shameful when
compared to South Africa’s 40,000mw , Iran’s45,000mw and Brazil’s 110,000mw.
RULE OF LAW
‘’ The Federal Executive under my watch will not seek to
encroach on the duties and functions of the of the legislative and judiciary
arms of government.’’
Coming from
a military background where decrees are issued without regard to the legislature, it was a huge relief to note
the president is now a true democrat who intend to allow the other arms of
government function effectively, this implies an effective separation of power.
The
president declared that he intends to practice separation of power by operating
within the ambit of the law and also advised the other arms of government to do
their part.
‘’ It is only when the three arms act constitutionally that
government will be enabled to serve the country optimally and avoid the confusion all too often bedevilling governance
today’’
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
‘’ While the Federal Government cannot interfere in the
details of its operations, it will ensure that the gross corruption at the
local level is checked’’.
The local
government gets funds from the federation account but no one seems to know how
these funds are spent. There will be more infrastructural development if the
funds received be the local government are used judiciously. The president
promises accountability from all tiers of government.
CORRUPTION
‘’As far as the constitution allows me, I will try to ensure
that there is responsible and accountable governance at all levels of
government in the country . For I will not keep my own trust with the Nigerian
people if I allow others abuse theirs under my watch’’
This
statement was an answer to ne of the major desires of Nigerians – the need to
tackle corruption. The immediate past president overlooked so many cases of
corruption under his watch.
THE MEDIA
The speech
recognizes the power of the media.
‘’
The Nigerian press is the most vibrant in Africa. My appeal to the media
today-and this includes the social media – is to exercise its considerable
powers with responsibility and patriotism’
The speech recognises the power of the media, that they can promote a
government or pull down the government if they so
choose. It is a relief to
note that he is ‘appealing’ to the media and not using
‘force’.
Boko Haram
Insurgency
The speech address the Boko Haram insurgency as “the
most immediate” issue
‘…The Command
center will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely
subdued.
This is probably a well thought out
strategy in the fight againg Boko Haram that has not been tried by the previous
administration.
The president in his speech also condemns
the insurgents in very strong words
‘Boko
Haram is a mindless, godless group who are as far away ‘ from
islam as one can think’
AMNESTY
PROGRAMME
Reviewing the amnesty programme is as important as
fighting insecurity in the
north east. Despite the huge amount of money spent on the amnesty
programme, militant and
other vandals continue to puncture gas pipelines
powering the power plants
and going unpunished.
CONCLUSION
The president’s speech was reassuring
to Nigerians that things can be better.
He ends the speech telling Nigerians
that ‘we have an opportunity. Let us take
It’. However, apart from the issue of
relocating the military command center to
Maiduguri, most issues raised did not
have definite action steps. For instance,
There was no mention of steps that
will be taken to stop the current petrol
scarcity or improve the power
situation in the country.
Moreover, the education and health
care sector were not on the list of things
that need urgent attention.
‘ For the longer term, we have
to improve the standard of our education.
We have to look at the field of
medicare. ‘
Having won the election a month earlier, I
expected all the major sectors of
In the country to have well thought
out action plan.
References:
Saturday Vanguard, M ay 30, 2015,
pages 10 to 12
Saturday Tribune, May 30, 2015 , page 3
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