Why Nigeria and Nigerians are Suffering – Unprepared and Irresponsible Leadership

The saying is true, a man is judged by his performance under inconvenient and challenging conditions not by what he says and does at his convenience. Just because a man promised change to win an election does not mean he believes in change or has what it takes to make change happen.

It is evident the Buhari’s administration does not believe in change neither does it possess the gumption to make the transformational change that Nigeria desperately needs. Otherwise, his administration would have capitalized on the immense change opportunities of the past 14 months to move Nigeria forward and reduce the economic pressure on the people.

Historical oil and gas price trend from January 1946 to date shows that oil and gas prices go through a nearly predictable up and down cycles. The present downtrend in the global oil and gas price is not new; it started back in August 2014. While the accurate prediction of oil and gas price is hard, accurate prediction of price trend is possible.

Due diligence and the seriousness it takes to lead a successful 21st century Nigeria requires the president be prepared to succeed under the worst oil price scenario. Risk management is all about envisaging and planning to perform under the worst case scenario. Our president and his team are currently flunking the risk management test.

Because oil and gas are the backbones of the Nigerian economy, any serious and competent presidential candidate should be prepared to deal with unforeseen oil and gas price dip. However, the change president is stalled in status quo and lacks the preparedness to implement any viable economic recovery plans. Failure to prepare is preparation to fail, hence the inability of the president and his cabinet of world-class scholars to achieve any tangible results.

By flunking basic risk management challenge, the president has shown he is unfit to lead a successful 21st century Nigeria. The president should be touting his economic plans and giving Nigerians hope by showing how much his recovery efforts is working. Instead, he and his cabinet are out surrendering to the challenges and shrugging their shoulders in self-pity. Buhari’s action so far shows that he cherishes the prestige of having “President” before his name than performing the responsibilities of the office.

The president insulted hard-working Nigerians with his lack of resource one-liner. The inconvenient truth is that Nigerian is blessed with one of the finest human and mineral resources pool in the world. The only problem is that the president and his team lacks the capability to convert the potentials to economic means. As the change promise capitulates, Nigeria is losing tremendous edge globally compared to similarly situated nations with agile, prepared, and responsible leadership. The other countries challenged by the loss of oil and gas revenue shields their citizens from the pains; our leaders are only passing the pains to the people.

The president continues to display his lack of preparation to lead and an unprecedented inability to adapt interactive solutions to the economic situation of the moment. He does not even understand or accepts that he is elected president to tackle and solve the socio-economic problems of the hour. The believers can continue to wait for the bus that will never come.

I know of a certainty that it is futile to expect any economic relief from a government led by a man who did not plan to be successful. I maintain we must depose the incompetents and avoid the same pitfall of electing another incompetent president in the year 2019. Nigeria cannot afford to have another unprepared economic Lilliput leader in the year 2019.