Openness and transparency are supposed to be major tenets of a democratic government but in Nigeria, obscurity and secrecy is the order of the day. The circumstances behind President Muhamadu Buhari sojourn to the United Kingdom left so much room for guessing.
The management of the flow of information of this administration just like those of their predecessors have created a big vacuum in information flow which has led to the rumour making round about the death of the President in Britain. The efforts by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed and Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media are at best to cover the truth.
The President is in his 70s, being sick or taking a rest shouldn’t be an issue shrouded in secrecy. Nigerians deserve to know what it happening. This obscurity of this administration on the President’s trip to the United Kingdom is symptomatic of its general management of information. Today, the country’s economy is in shambles and no discernible explanation of what the government is doing. Everything is topsy-turvy with open conflict between fiscal and monetary policies.
The much talked about change mantra has tended to be anything but a mere rhetoric. We had hoped that with administration things will be much different but it’s still same of the same. Even the two arms of our legislature are not in consonance, the discordant tune between the Senate and the House of Representatives is so loud and deafening.
Since the President left for the UK for rest or is it medical treatment? The country has remained somewhat in a comatose. The masses are suffering but they have no government to cry to, the purported handing over to the Vice President is just illusion grandeur. It’s like the President went with the powers and until he returns, the country will stay asleep.
Moreover, didn’t the President ban all civil servants from going abroad for treatment? Or is he different from the rest of us mere mortals? President Buhari should start practicing what he preaches. President Donald Trump of United States will not go to France to rest. President Vladimir Putin of Russia will never go Switzerland or Germany for medical treatment. The same applies to the leaders of most European and developed countries.
The moment leaders in Africa get headache, they head to Paris, London or other western nations’ capital for treatment and while they preach to the youth not to be lured by the organization, beauty and riches of Europe or US.
President Buhari and this administration must urgently address this rumour about his death and status of his health. The country is in dire need of a leader, the suffering is too much. Come and put to work all the changes you promised to implement to better our lives.
