Tokenism wins with Nigerians 100 per cent of the time, they have since become victims of politicians who know how to play it well. Become president; identify low hanging fruits to pluck, no matter how cosmetic their effect on the people. Just do it to get the positive vibes towards your government. You need all the goodwill you can get. If you can, buy trailers of rice and beans, share them with the people. Do not make the mistake of not being seen to be sharing them yourself. Yes, a picture of our powerful president with rice on his head may look undignified for a president but you’d be connecting with millions of poor and under privileged Nigerians who’d immediately see you like one of them who truly cares about them. In one way or the other, past Nigerian leaders have done this and have mostly gotten away with it. But is that what governance is about?

I have read articles praising president Buhari for his great successes after 100 days of his presidency. In my opinion, those who write such pieces are just as delusional as those who want us to believe the president has done nothing in those 100 days. Most of what Buhari has done cannot be celebrated because their effect will determine whether they have been worth it or not. Essentially, celebrating the president would amount to celebrating an experiment before it is concluded. No one does that. The same way no rational person writes off a new experiment in its first 100 days of 4 years. It is what a mentor calls “Jonathanian logic.” You cannot state your dreams as reality by talking your delusions as reality.

One thing is obvious about this president; he is not interested in tokenism. He could easily have appointed ministers like virtually all of us expected, he defied the norm, he ignored our expectations and instead focused on what he believes is the right thing to do. You would expect that he has a personal understanding of the state of the ministries and parastatals. He would by now have gotten an audit of all of these government establishments. When he eventually appoints his cabinet, he’d be handing over ministries whose state he knows himself. The ministers will not return to him to give him false briefs about what is not. In fact, the appointed ministers should be careful. There is a chance that systems have been set in place against those who abuse their office. This matters against our history of corruption. But it should not be celebrated until we truly see it has been worth it.

The war on corruption has not really started. An untested mind would assume, “but this man said he would fight corruption but he is not even going after anyone,” but a wise one would fear for those whose impending collision with the government will certainly have the whole world paying attention to events in Nigeria. It is going to be a spectacle and the longer it takes for this to get started, the more those who expect to be at the centre of it all should fear for what is coming.

Since Buhari’s inauguration, Boko Haram’s numbers have almost hit the thousand. That was to be expected; the shabby transition from the government whose ego had been crushed to a new government whose party had never led at the centre. Boko Haram used the transition period to advance its terror. With Buhari engaging allies, accessing what had been left of national security by the last administration and debriefing all the security chiefs, the terrorists needed to send a message across, as a show of strength. But 100 days on, the moves of the government prove intentional and strategic. The government has targeted the arrest of Boko Haram commanders; some 20 of them have since been arrested, while the conventional guns, machines and bullets responses go on. Guns and bullets will not break the spine of terror; it will be broken by intelligence. The Buhari administration has focused on learning as much about the terrorists as it possibly can. It has won the once lost trust of Nigeria’s allies across the affected neighbouring countries, the sub-region, and the International Community.

There will be tough days ahead still and there is work to do. Someone tweeted that Buhari is already Nigeria’s best president ever; I requested that the person raises his bar. We cannot build Buharian delusions on the enclaves of delusions left by Jonathanians. We cannot afford to be insincere with our government. Our votes for them did not guarantee them immunity from our criticisms. So, in 100 Days, there is nothing to celebrate Buhari for as much as there is nothing to knock him for. He needed to do things differently and in doing them differently, we the people who asked for change immediately forgot that we couldn’t get the norm and change at the same time. Time will tell, so judgments can wait for when time unravels Buhari’s intentions.

© J Japheth Omojuwa