Buhari’s wistfulness and oil

There appears to be a consensus among economic and political historians that Nigerian has suffered and continues to suffer from disastrous failure of leadership since its independence. A glaring evidence of this is the continued reliance and dependence of the entire country of over 170 million people on the sale of crude oil – a highly volatile commodity on the international market – for its sustenance. Interestingly, every government after the oil boom started in Nigeria have come to power promising to diversify the economic base of the nation from oil. As a testament to their hypocrisy however, they have all left power with the country more reliant and dependent on crude oil.

Buhari, just like he promised in 1984 as a military ruler, has also promised to diversify the nation’s economy when he was swept into office on the mantra of change in 2015. However, like the previous governments, he has fixed his sight firmly on revenues from oil as his main vehicle for fulfilling the plethora of promises he made to the electorate. Perhaps, it is the frustration that that is no longer possible, at least in the short run, which prompted the President’s Freudian slip in London earlier in the month.

In a town hall meeting on February 5, with the Nigerian community in London, the President was quoted as saying: “Why is it that it is when they have spent all the money, when they have made the country insecure that I returned? Why didn’t I come when the treasury was full? Oil price was over $140 per barrel and when I came, it slipped down to $30. Why me?…I keep on praying to God to pity Nigeria and its over 170 million people who are exposed to climate change, illiteracy and poverty.”

What the president’s assertions demonstrated is the hypocrisy of the Nigerian ruling class that will always mouth diversification but based their entire plan of governance on revenues from oil. Throughout the President’s address at the town hall meeting and despite his expressions of frustrations and lamentations about dwindling oil prices and the state of the country’s finance, he did not, or rather could not, explain the policies or strategies his administration will implement to turn around the fortunes of the country other than faith in God.

At a time Nigerians are desperate for a leader who will provide direction for the country and at a time many citizens are seeing the clear opportunity in the current slump in oil prices for the nation to finally exit its helpless dependence on crude oil, its leadership has no idea or plans on how to go about this and is rather depending on God and on oil prices to pick up again. What a tragedy!

This goes to affirm the late Chinua Achebe’s postulation that the problem with Nigeria is simply the failure of leadership. Nigeria, it is known, is blessed with abundant human and even natural resources. Its diverse cultures, peoples and communities are a mass of opportunities and potentials waiting to be tapped and unleashed. The least a modern leader should do is simply tap these opportunities and unleash the potentials and entrepreneurial energies of these over 170 million people to transform the fortunes of the country.

Not a few Nigerians and watchers of Nigeria on the international stage have seen the current slump in price of oil as Nigeria’s best opportunity to diversify its economy. However, the response of the Buhari administration thus far has shown that the government has no idea whatsoever on what to do to diversify the economy. The alarm bells on the economy have been sounding since the inception of the regime but nothing has been done. No direction; no economic plan or policy, and no economic team to drive the change. The government seems to be under the false impression that the only problem with Nigeria is corruption and that once corruption is controlled, Nigeria will automatically become an Eldorado.

However, recent events are beginning to show the government that fighting corruption will not end hunger, poverty and diseases and that fighting corruption is not a substitute for good economic planning and management.

We call on the government, once more, to stop paying lip service to the diversification of the economy and get to work on identifying or rather, planning how to productively exploit the vast potentials and even minerals that abound in the country.