‘Dis Kind Change Sef, Na Wa O’, By Simon Ateba

It’s been a whole year since President Muhammadu Buhari defeated Goodluck Jonathan in March 2015, and almost ten months since he was sworn into office on 29 May of last year. But, even his most vociferous supporters in Daura who believed in and bought his revolutionary message of change seem to finally come to the sad and humbling realisation that the ruling All Progressives Congress may not after all be the Messiah they had expected.

Unlike Jesus Christ in Israel, whose message of love and peace was rejected and misunderstood by many people until after he was put to death, Buhari’s message hit the hearts of Nigerians with almost an instant amorous ferocity. It was accepted, it was repeated, it was taken as the truth to come.

He had promised to free the Chibok girls within few months and defeat the “godless, mindless” Boko Haram militants bombing and wreaking havoc in Nigeria’s northeast, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. After all   “What is #BokoHaram?”, he famously asked, “that we can’t defeat them in 14 local government areas?”.

He had also promised to rebuild the collapsed economy by diversifying it away from oil and refocusing on agriculture. Under his administration, he explained, the naira would be strong, closed factories would be operational again and thousands of jobs would be created from Igboland to Yorubaland all the way to the Kano Emirate and the Sokoto Caliphate.

Besides, he said confidently, Nigeria will be respected all over again and corruption known to be notorious in Abuja would be a thing of the past. For,  “if we don’t kill corruption, corruption would kill us”, he said and vowed to change things in Aso Rock, including how the budget is done.

While he’s doing all of that, he promised, he would give 5000 naira to some unemployed Nigerian graduates and give a meal a day to pupils in primary schools because, I could almost hear him say, “a hungry man is an angry man who cannot assimilate science and technology so badly needed to develop Africa”.

Nigeria would experience a positive change away from theft, recklessness and poverty, he said. It was a great message of hope and change.

More than 12 million Nigerians bought it and sent him straight from his Daura farm into the glittering walls of Aso Rock, the seat of power of Africa’s most populous nation in Abuja.

All these promises have happened, just that they happened in the minds of the politicians who made them.

For ordinary Nigerians, the hardship has increased and squalor has multiplied and this week, workers locked up offices of the oil company in anger, and another crisis precipitated by the sack of about 400 workers in the electricity distribution company in Ikeja left millions without electricity for days. Already, there was no drinking water, but now, with no fuel and light, the pain just seems to be worsening.

Boko Haram is far from being defeated, with the 60, 000 square kilometre Sambisa forest still in their hands and the Chibok girls would clock two years in captivity in 30 days if no last minute miracle happens to the men of Abubakar Shekau, the ruthless Boko Haram leader.

To be honest, the economy is worse, thousands have been sacked, including those who supported Buhari and his change agents, and the naira is worse than at anytime since Nigeria’s independence 56 years ago from cruel Great Britain.

Worse there’s no clear communication from those in power and the impoverished millions about how long would the pains last. The way things stand now, the gloom and doom but no bloom may go on for ever.

So I ask, “what kind change be this?”

Simon Ateba is the publisher of SimonAtebaNews On Simonateba.com.