{"id":24984,"date":"2020-10-08T06:14:26","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T06:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=24984"},"modified":"2020-10-08T06:14:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T06:14:26","slug":"impudence-buhari-said-he-meant-imprudence-by-sonala-olumhense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=24984","title":{"rendered":"Impudence, Buhari said. He meant imprudence By Sonala Olumhense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s 2000-word Independence Day address to Nigerians, he appeared determined to portray the image of a unifier.\u00a0 He used the word, together, 10 times.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Together, he said, was adopted together as the theme of the event.\u00a0 He did not clarify who comprised \u201ctogether.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But it was not the most important word in the speech.\u00a0 That honour goes to \u201cimpudence.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In a government known to be thin on substance, Buhari was describing his mammoth efforts in office.\u00a0 He said, \u201cThose in the previous governments from 1999\u20132015 who presided over the near destruction of the country have now the impudence to attempt to criticise our efforts.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He was referring to one Olusegun Obasanjo, another ex-supporter who recently said Nigeria under Buhari was becoming a failed state.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But Buhari did not say that name.\u00a0 He lumped him together with his successors, Umaru-Yar\u2019Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.\u00a0 While Buhari should have started from 1985 when he was kicked out of office, that would have roped in some of his friends.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In any event, Yar\u2019Adua, is dead.\u00a0 And Jonathan has not openly been critical. Clearly then, the impudence cudgel was aimed at Obasanjo.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>But impudence is a strong word.\u00a0 It has to do with extreme rudeness or contempt.\u00a0 It is a fight word, the kind a brawler reaches for when he has risen to his feet and elevated his fists.\u00a0 It is not one that a leader would normally use against his predecessors.\u00a0 Buhari not only used it, he described those predecessors as \u201c[men] who presided over the near-destruction of the country\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Impudence and near destruction in the same sentence are a brutal charge.\u00a0 But perhaps the word he was looking was not a carving knife that might someday slash the other way but one with discretion and elbow room, such as \u201cimprudent?\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Nonetheless, if \u201cimprudent\u201d is not what he was trying to say, he has not paid attention to the adjectives and labels by which Nigerians have identified him these five years.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">What does it mean that there are men who have \u201cpresided over the near destruction\u201d of the country if Buhari, who is in his sixth year in charge, has done nothing about them?\u00a0 How many questions has Obasanjo had to answer?\u00a0 How many has Jonathan answered about the things Buhari told his biographer John Paden?<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">If none, the words duplicity and complicity apply to Buhari.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But impudence\u2014or even the absence of subtlety and discretion\u2014is not what made Buhari\u2019s speech unacceptable, but that it reminded Nigerians of the severity of his limitations.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Think about it: when Buhari goes to his doctors in London, he goes for treatment, not repeated diagnosis.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Think about it: days before the national anniversary, Buhari launched a new \u201croad map\u201d called the \u201cNational Ethics and Integrity Policy.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">His diagnosis: \u201cWe need to deploy resources to address our common needs rather than the greed of a callous few. We need a corruption-free public sector\u2026we need a judicial system\u2026We need laws and legal system\u2026we need ethical re-orientation\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cWe need\u201d?<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But he was not done.\u00a0 \u201cThe National Ethics and Integrity Policy projects government\u2019s aspiration for rediscovery of our cherished traditional ethical values\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">If you feel you have heard this before, you have!\u00a0 When Buhari launched \u201cChange Begin With Me\u201d four years ago, he said, \u201cThere is no doubt that our value system has been badly eroded over the years. The long-cherished and time-honoured, time-tested virtues of honesty, integrity, hard work, punctuality, good neighbourliness, abhorrence of corruption and patriotism, have given way in the main to dishonesty, indolence, unbridled corruption and widespread impunity.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">That \u201cnational re-orientation campaign,\u201d \u201cChange,\u201d then disappeared and we returned to business as usual.\u00a0 The same gospel is now launched with a new name just as Buhari reverts to his perennial blaming of his predecessors.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But as badly as Obasanjo performed in office, he is right when he assails Buhari\u2019s spectacular failures.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>\u201cSixty years of nationhood provides an opportunity to ask ourselves questions on the extent to which we have sustained the aspirations of our founding fathers,\u201d Buhari observed last Thursday.\u00a0 \u201cWhere did we do the right things? Are we on course?\u201d<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>If Buhari really wants to hear an answer, it is that while Nigerians may not be the best of followers, Nigerian leaders have been the worst of leaders. They have successively been hypocrites, and there is no finer example than he, and his 60th National Day speech should be taught in schools as a testament to hypocrisy.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In it, Buhari talks the talk, but in the past five years, his policies and actions have mocked and attacked our traditions and democracy\u2019s finest principles.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In Paragraph 26, for instance, he identified six things Nigerians must do to move forward, but he has consistently breached all but one since he came to power.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The exception?\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cLifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.\u201d\u00a0 That is a policy objective he broached in June 2019, but for which he has failed to produce a strategy document.\u00a0 Perhaps intentions combat poverty.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">One of the others is: \u201cSupporting the enthronement of the rule of law, demanding accountability of elected representatives and contributing to good governance.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But not only does Buhari ignore the rule of law in practice, he bristles at anyone demanding accountability of him, as pro-democracy demonstrators found out on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cWhere did we do the right things?\u201d\u00a0 How can we remedy and retrace?\u00a0 Well, he can stop leading by nepotism, and stop surrounding himself with the most corrupt, and lead by good example.\u00a0 He can provide answers, not simply list questions.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">It is evident that Nigeria is heading for failure largely because of the hypocrisy of Nigerian rulers since 1983 when Buhari first took power.\u00a0 And it is always a shame when the doctor who announced he had returned to the hospital to cure makes the patient far worse.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cAre we on course?\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">No.\u00a0 Nigeria continues to lack men of character: those who can stand by the words they utter, rather than hoodwink by them.\u00a0 Even in Katsina, Buhari is increasingly the target of citizens\u2019 protests.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">One of Buhari\u2019s characteristics is that he is so afraid of his limitations and hidden agenda that the only time he speaks publicly is when he is armed with a written speech.\u00a0 Nigerians have not forgotten the international embarrassment of his having to apologize for plagiarizing Barack Obama.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But five years after taking office, he should be reporting on the fulfilment of the electoral campaign for which he was elected, rather than repeating promises or making new ones.\u00a0 A ruler who cannot speak from the heart or identify his accomplishments has achieved nothing.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I know that Nigeria will triumph despite lacking leaders rather than because of them.\u00a0 And if Nigerians are wise, they will work together for their country rather than seek momentarily convenient fragments of it.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">For the next three years, Buhari is certain to continue with his imprudent course.\u00a0 But history assures us that it is not impudence when the citizens who own both the estate and the errand raise their voice to a crescendo.<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s 2000-word Independence Day address to Nigerians, he appeared determined to portray the image of a unifier.\u00a0 He used the word, together, 10 times. Together, he said, was adopted together as the theme of the event.\u00a0 He did not clarify who comprised \u201ctogether.\u201d But it was not the most important word in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[3110,182,231],"class_list":["post-24984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-john-paden","tag-olusegun-obasanjo","tag-president-mohammadu-buhari"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/buhari-osinbaj.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-6uY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24985,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24984\/revisions\/24985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}