{"id":8245,"date":"2016-03-16T16:33:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T16:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=8245"},"modified":"2016-03-16T16:33:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T16:33:48","slug":"president-buharis-interesting-interview-with-al-jazeera-by-okey-ndibe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=8245","title":{"rendered":"President Buhari\u2019s Interesting Interview With Al Jazeera By Okey Ndibe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NG-[C:G.Mobi,B:Innj,Wk:1116,Dim:336X280]:Innjoo_Max2_Max+\"
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<\/p>\n

During his recent visit to Qatar, President Muhammadu Buhari sat for an interview with Martine Dennis of Al Jazeera. Last weekend, close to two weeks after the trip, I finally found time to watch the entirety of the interview. I found it enlightening, for two broad reasons.<\/p>\n

The first and minor one was to remark the interviewer\u2019s composure and confidence. She had a grasp of her subject (Nigeria\u2019s economic woes, widespread disappointment with Mr. Buhari\u2019s budget, and growing apprehension about the outline of his economic and security policies). The interviewer\u2019s full-throttle style was in sharp contrast with the fawning and deferential manner adopted by many a Nigerian reporter when given the opportunity to interview an incumbent or former president\u2014or even lesser ranking public officials. In question after question, Ms. Dennis zeroed in on specific details of Buharinomics and politics Buhariana. And she was rather quick-footed whenever the occasion called for a follow-up question.<\/p>\n

My major interest in the interview was the opportunity it offered to take a measure of the president\u2019s mindset.<\/p>\n

Buhari had a few fine moments in the interview, the hallmark arriving when\u2014reminded by Ms. Dennis that the IMF was not enamored of his refusal to devalue the naira\u2014he replied that his country\u2019s interest trumped the IMF\u2019s prescription.<\/p>\n

Shoe week<\/strong><\/a><\/code><\/p>\n


\n<\/a>\"\"<\/code>\"\"\"Buhari\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the whole, however, I came away with the impression that President Buhari\u2019s interview was simply \u201cinteresting.\u201d And I have borrowed the word, interesting, with all its freight of ambiguities, from Mr. Buhari.<\/p>\n

He seemed uncomfortable when the interviewer touched on the subject of how the government\u2019s forex policy was affecting parents who are paying school fees for their children studying abroad. Yet, when she reminded him that his own children were also studying abroad\u2014implying that he was now among the super-privileged\u2014he seemed unfazed.<\/p>\n

One of most revealing segments of the interview concerned the scandal-plagued budget the president forwarded to the National Assembly. As Ms. Dennis asked pointed questions backed with dispiriting facts, Mr. Buhari seemed perplexed about his own budgetary proposals. He ducked or deflected her tough specific questions\u2014say, about the fact that the VP\u2019s office was allocated more funds for book purchases than all the country\u2019s polytechnics put together, or about the even more disconcerting fact that the budget for improving the State House clinic was larger than the total budget for Nigeria\u2019s teaching hospitals. Even though the government recently punished some bureaucrats on account of the budget fiasco, the question remains: How did Mr. Buhari imprint a budget without first getting a handful of trusted hands to vet it?<\/p>\n

The interviewer brought up the scandal called security votes. \u201cSecurity votes have been described as (perhaps) the most enduring form of corruption in Nigeria. Why don\u2019t you just eliminate them completely?\u201d she asked. And that\u2019s when Mr. Buhari responded: \u201cYou know more about our budget than I do. That\u2019s very interesting.\u201d He then went ahead to enumerate Nigeria\u2019s security challenges, including Boko Haram and resurgent militancy in the Niger Delta. \u201cNigeria has got all these security problems. So if money is voted for security, I don\u2019t mind, people can go as far as they can to find out whether that money is being utilized for security or is being shared in the pocket like the $2.1 billion the previous administration did.\u201d<\/p>\n

His response was both in character and disappointing. Where the journalist challenged him to do something that would amount to a structural blow against corruption, Mr. Buhari was content to invoke his personal integrity. Yet, no community should settle for the chancy goodwill and character of its leaders. It is far better to institute a system that discourages or curbs excesses than to hope for the wheels of fortune to throw up a good man or woman on occasion. Nigeria\u2019s security budget should be entirely routed through its security agencies\u2014the armed forces and intelligence apparatuses. There is no justification for security votes, which have evolved into a tested system for siphoning funds into private pockets. In a haste to be defensive, the president missed the deeper implication of the journalist\u2019s questions. That implication is that Nigeria needs systemic, institutional reforms, not just the sprinkle of a few good men and women.<\/p>\n

The absence of that institutional focus is, for me, one of the most troubling aspects of the Buhari Presidency. The Al Jazeera reporter noted that the president\u2019s anti-corruption crusade has netted no convictions, yet. One expects a few to come soon, but it\u2019s still going to be a trickle.<\/p>\n

My fear is that some of Nigeria\u2019s captains of corruption have exhaled. They don\u2019t see the president pushing any judicial reforms to put corruption cases on a fast track, to fix Nigeria\u2019s labyrinthine and slumberous judicial system\u2014where each court session becomes an exasperating exercise in motions and counter-motions, designed to occasion long adjournments or appeals.<\/p>\n

To fight corruption more effectively, the president ought to initiate legal and judicial reforms. As cases plod along in court, the corrupt find time and opportunities to manipulate the system. Many Nigerians have stashed away illicitly acquired millions of dollars. Do we doubt their readiness to use that loot not only to hire the best defense lawyers but also to pay off prosecutors and some judges who are not averse to auctioning off their revered bench?<\/p>\n

The most troubling glimpse into the president\u2019s mind came in his responses to the question of Biafra. First, he declined to watch footage in which Nigerian security agents are seen closing in to teargas and then shoot some unarmed, peaceful demonstrators. Several protesters were killed, many more wounded. Harping on the two million who perished in the Biafran War of 1967-1970, Mr. Buhari could not fathom why some youngsters\u2014who were perhaps not born at the time of that war\u2014would just \u201cwake up\u201d to say they \u201cwant Biafra again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why his government had not invited the agitators for talks, Mr. Buhari coldly retorted, \u201cWhy should we invite them?\u201d Let me chip in one or two reasons. For one: because it\u2019s the president\u2019s job to assuage popular disaffection. Two, it makes better sense to talk than to shoot. Any leader who believes in the humanity of his citizens would never shoot them as a first recourse. After all, a leader is called to govern the living, not preside over a mass of corpses.<\/p>\n

I am opposed to the agitation for Biafra, but that does not excuse the president\u2019s icy, insensitive and hectoring tone\u2014much less the impression that he would sooner deploy what Ms. Dennis described as \u201cvery heavy-handed\u201d military force to brutalize agitators than make a good faith effort to reach out, to talk, to listen.<\/p>\n

Few people would wish to secede from a success story. The reason multitudes of youth are defying bullets to ask for Biafra is that Nigeria has grown into an almost 56-year old experiment in failure. It doesn\u2019t mean that Biafra is the answer. But we must remember that other sections of Nigeria have also voiced the same sense of disenchantment. Many Nigerians are revolted by Nigeria: a mess of a country that we\u2019ve all helped to create.<\/p>\n

The Igbo are resilient entrepreneurs, and their enterprising genius is best unfurled, I have argued, within a larger rather than smaller territorial canvas. They are better off in Nigeria, and Nigeria is better off with the Igbo. Al Jazeera gave Mr. Buhari an opportunity to strike a large-spirited, conciliatory note that could have healed wounds. It is \u201cinteresting\u201d and disappointing, but not surprising, that he squandered the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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