President Buhari’s Moment of Brilliance

Dear Community,

I got the feedback on this post here. My apologies for not being helpful. Largely, people expected to read the basis of my call. With the news everywhere, I had assumed we knew what was happening.

I have updated the piece. Understand that I call things the way I see them. Mr. President gets my praise (which is nothing) and also gets my criticism (which is irrelevant). 

But benchmarking what we do when local crises happen to the shame in South Africa, and how Nigeria has managed it, personally, I rate it “brilliance”. You do not have to agree with me – I do not write for that. But as many noted, I must provide the basis of my call. I have done it accordingly below.

I want to use this medium to commend the Nigerian Government and President Buhari on how the nation has handled the shame in South Africa. This is governance at its best. I challenge our leaders to extend this level of quality to internal crises that take place within the nation.

To Minister of External Affairs, Nigeria’s Ambassador to South Africa, Speaker of the House and even the political parties APC and PDP, all of you just showed that you can all lead. Extend this brilliance to other areas.

These are things the nation has done well on this South African shame and where we have failed on parallel local issues. Let me list some areas the president has shown brilliance (on handling the xenophobic attacks in South Africa) and also failed on internal matters.

• The president deployed a special envoy within hours of the South Africa’s shame. Typically, government uses days just to acknowledge an internal conflict.
• The minister of External Affairs mobilized the African Union and other counterparts to build a pan-African condemnation. In parallel, no one knows if we have a minister of interior when bad things happen in the nation.
• The president pushed immediately for compensation of victims. In parallel, no one would have heard from the president locally. Of course, when do you not even hear from the president, compensation is a wild imagination for citizens.
• The Nigerian government suggested sending its security forces to support South Africa’s security system. Many Nigerians would wish for such a gesture on internal conflicts. Largely, we rarely see immediate action from government at such speeds.
• Across all levels, Nigeria has put heat on South Africa to demonstrate a way forward to stop this. Imagine if the government could hold itself accountable at that level on local matters.
• Nigeria elevated the conversation as they worked the press with the President speaking with Ghana’s leader. Locally, Nigeria may not even acknowledge the crises.
• The House promised to provide funding to Nigerians in South Africa to seek redress. Locally, many Nigerians would wish for such after internal crises.
• Then, Nigeria withdrew from the World Economic Forum Africa. In parallel, one would have wished some political campaigns and even government events were suspended to deal with some major internal crises.

Simply, there are many positive elements on how Nigeria has reacted and managed this shame in South Africa. I do hope we replicate the same in other areas. South Africa must pay for waking up the eagles because the eagles have left the nest.

God bless Nigeria.

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