Economy: When Will Buhari End the Blame Game? By Bade Adebolu

Since the swearing in of President Buhari on May 29, 2015, there has not been shortage in the blaming of the previous administration by the president and his officials. We have heard in not less than many cases where the President always shifting the blame and his administration’s incompetency of on the previous administration. Some members of his kitchen cabinet, themselves failures in their several job tasks have used his victory during the 2015 election as a vendetta against persons like Okonjo-Iweala, the immediate past minister of finance. How long will we continue like this?

Before we proceed, let us be quick to admit that this present writer was a volunteer for the Buhari’s campaign in 2015 and has no regret whatsoever on his decision.

Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), campaigned largely on the platform of “Change”. Many Nigerians had thought that the “Change Mantra’ simply meant improvements in standards of living translating in upgraded socio-economic infrastructure, but soon found out that it is not necessarily so.

Instead of the Buhari administration to continue to lament like Jeremiah, he simply should have set up a Change Management System (CMS) to reduce the shock that the sudden “Change” may have on public service and the political system. These would also have in a long way covered up the seeming unpreparedness of the General!

Buhari’s unpreparedness manifests the most in the constitution of his Cabinet. An eagle view of those appointed shows the long wait for these people were just unnecessary. Some ministers are yet to justify the confidence imposed on them. Or put differently, some of them have not had their results speak for them. Kemi Adeosun in Finance; Fashola in Power and Works; Kayode Fayemi in Solid Minerals; or Lai Muhammed as Information Minister reveal a lot to rational minds of the potency of President Buhari’s first eleven. The results speak for themselves!
Bad enough for the economy that, for political reasons, you bypass the glittering credentials of giants like Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank MD. One will expect Buhari to have looked for better qualified Nigerians with proven track records but no, he had to settle for the lesser qualifies Kemi Adeosun. This kind of decisions explains why we are called a Third World country. There was a reason President Bill Clinton reappointed Allan Greenspan again in 1996 as Federal Reserve Board chair who himself was a Republican to serve in a Democrat. Can you now see that we still have a long way to go?

What Buhari great should know leaders don’t criticize their predecessors; they call for patience and understanding to salvage the situation. The task of transforming the nooks and crannies of 774 Local Governments won’t be achieved by press releases of “Jonathan did this; Jonathan did that”, it can only be achieved with concrete plans that will meet reality. A government elected for four years by 15 millions Nigerians can’t blame an individual for the duration, rather than trade blames, committees should be set up to assess the progress made by the previous administrations in order to build a better nation. Governance is beyond propaganda, good policies tackle corruption, and to fight corruption shouldn’t be the singular goal of a government.


Bade Adebolu is an accountant based in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state. He can be reached onbadeadebolu@gmail.com