Erstwhile president, Muhammadu Buhari, is in the wrong to argue that “there is nothing much anybody can do” to make Nigeria better. During a recent visit to him in Daura, Katsina State, by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adeniyi, Buhari said this was because Nigeria is a complex country. His argument is weak, and gives a sense of hopelessness. This is fatalism. President Bola Tinubu, who succeeded Buhari, should not resign himself to fate but prove his predecessor wrong by his performance.

Buhari’s position is disturbing. People who think this way should never make it to the highest office in the country. Properly contextualised, the former president sought refuge in mediocrity. He is the prototypical Nigerian ruler, who fights tooth and nail to win office, only to be overwhelmed on getting there.

“I thought Tinubu has done very well,” Buhari said. “Nigeria is so complex. Really, there isn’t much anybody can do.” This is a contradiction. It is an acknowledgment that there was no progress in Nigeria under Buhari, also a one-time military head of state.

A country lives or dies by its leadership. If Tinubu has “done very well,” Nigeria would have been a better place. Instead, Buhari is preaching to the suffering masses to endure and support the government.

Indeed, there are many things that can be achieved, no matter the current hardship. Lee Kuan Yew, the modern founder of Singapore, led by example. He started by a simple hygiene programme that involved him and his family members clearing gutters and picking up litter on the road. He stopped open grazing. In his eight years, Buhari tried to apply weird solutions except ranching.

So, here is a brief checklist of the basic things a president can do to lift Nigeria. A president desirous of progress will implement the Steven Oronsaye panel report on the restructuring of ministries, departments, and agencies to cut down the cost of governance. It is a plus if Tinubu can go the whole hog.

An astute president will privatise the commanding heights of the economy. The most pressing are the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Ajaokuta Steel Company. This applies also to the railway system.

One of the hallmarks of mediocrity in governance is the manner presidents send the names of ministerial nominees for screening in the Senate. With no portfolio attached, the screening process is a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. It takes nothing away from a president to attach names with portfolios so that the Senate can do a thorough job. That president must have a lean cabinet.

With the Federal Government spending 98 per cent of its income to service debt, that president will stop the reckless borrowings of the Buhari era. Today, Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP is 37.2 per cent. There are murmurings in the National Assembly on the alleged N30 trillion ways and means scheme the government collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria under Godwin Emefiele.

Buhari sounds hollow when he asks citizens to bear the burden of economic downturn, while the political class lives in obscene affluence. Take the NASS. Each member gets an SUV amounting to N57.6 billion. This is such a waste.

Buhari did not do much about insecurity, despite being a retired major general. He refused to withdraw the police attached to the VIPs. Under him, bandits, robbers, and Islamic terrorists murdered 63,111 Nigerians. After a lull, there have been mass abductions in Sokoto, Kaduna and Borno states.

The greatest area of concern is the failure to restructure Nigeria along the ethos of true federalism.

That same president will auction most planes in the Presidential Air Fleet, get the inhibitive Railways Act 1955 repealed, revive health care at home, have a lean cabinet, fight corruption in government and obey the rule of law.

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