BEYOND PRESIDENT BUHARI’S VISIT TO WASHINTON. Femi Ojo

Picture courtesy of Google

Last week’s visit of President Buhari and his men to the United States of America on the invitation of President Obama was one political significant event in the International Relations that reconfirms Nigeria as a very strategic country and ally in the Africa region.  I am of the opinion that President Buhari’s near-saint image was re-confirmed going by the international testimonials by U.S proximate political actors on the expectations from Nigeria’ current President  perhaps because of  Buhari’s  over-hyped positive image and past  anti-corruption stance.

The visit by the President to the White House was timely, at a period when the world’s focus is on Nigeria, observing how the country will be re-engineered and how it will tackle the current economic challenges facing her as a result of the chronic corruption that the former administration bequeathed to the country. Nigeria is currently in a very challenging time and the economy of the nation is at a very low-ebb, the current economic reality in the country with the sporadic free fall of Naira in the Foreign Exchange sub-sector of our economy and the aspirational frustrations that many businesses face in the country are all confirmation that we are in a challenging period as a nation.

The President’s visit to the White House, a foreign policy strategic move to woo Obama’s administration to support Nigeria in strategic sectors of our polity was a welcome idea. The various consultations with some U.S proximate political actors both state and non-state actors by our President and his delegates were all confirmations that if this administration followed that path which the ruling party hyped during the electioneering campaign period, Nigeria indeed may be on the way to greatness again. In the official grandeur and hospitality of this time out in Washington by Mr. President and his delegates, there are few things that the current administration needs to know that majority of Nigerians want Mr. President to as a matter of urgency begin to hit the road running in the governance of the country.

Therefore, beyond the merry, fiery political rhetoric and attestations by Washington of President Buhari’s personality and the diplomatic niceties that characterized this visit, Nigerians want their President to start delivering dividends of good governance without further interference of the high-wire politics in APC that is currently impacting governance in a slow pace at the centre. No matter the praises and attestations on President Buhari’s personality, the governance of the country is a great political clarion call that cannot be outsourced to Washington but which only can be carried out by the President who has been massively elected to confront the many challenges that the country faces today. It is therefore shrewd for the President to promptly take on these challenges…the slow pace which governance is moving as a result of caustic politics in the ruling APC is affecting faultily, the governance of the country.

There are plethora of things begging for urgent policy action from the administration of President Buhari. As it is now the economy of the country is in a defective state, the  threat posed by Boko Haram needs a new strategy and sophisticated military intelligence to bring it to a halt, the education sector is no doubt in a falloff , the power sector in a licentious state, the fuel scarcity saga is still there, we need not to remind Mr. President that our roads are still bad, the aviation sector is still in its ever waning state, the value of naira in the FOREX market is still worrisome, entrepreneurs in the country are still finding the economic  clime  in the country hostile and very difficult to operates and pay bills, the school children that were promised one meal per day for free are expectant, the millions of graduates that were also promised during the electioneering campaign of jobs are waiting for Mr. Buhari and his party to fulfill these political promises, fellow country men and women are impatient to see the 40,000 MW of electricity promised by the ruling party coming to reality just to mention but a few.

 The tasks before President Buhari are sizable, the expectations of Nigerians are very high and so also are high expectations from the international community but the slow pace at which governance is moving as a result of the pugnacious politics in the APC is sullying the near-saint image of the President Buhari, making the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians to steadily go to a state of political obscurity.  To revivify Nigerians hopes and aspirations, President Buhari need to  as a matter of  rapidity, rise above the politics within his party and show confidence and superb leadership ability needed to confront these many challenges in our polity.