Buhari’s Performance And The Elephant And The Blind Men Fable

Like his election, nothing has generated contradictory opinion amongst Nigerians like the assessment of the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last four months.

To many of those who actually voted for the president during the 2015 elections, Buhari has done very well in almost all the sectors. By his body language alone the power sector is generating more electricity and they can testify that power supply has improved tremendously. They also remind you that the corruption in fuel subsidy regime has stopped unlike in the recent past and that while the money paid as subsidy has drastically reduced, fuel is readily available at the control price. The supporters of the president also remind whoever cares to listen that the refineries which were not working before are now operational even as the wind of change has curtailed corruption at the NNPC alleged to be hot-bed of corruption. They also remind you of how the NNPC would be forensically audited to unearth all those who have been stealing our common patrimony.

In the area of security you are also reminded that the president’s innovative approach on the insurgency war has put Boko Haram on the run while thousands of the sect’s members are surrendering to the gallant Nigerian army even as the government is getting unprecedented cooperation from the sub-region and the world at last unlike under the previous regime. On top of all these permanent secretaries and other civil servants are now regularly found at their duty post without any prodding because ‘ a new sheriff is in town’. In the area of sport they tell you that it was under the Buhari presidency that Nigeria won Africa’s top prize in male basket ball defeating their perennial ‘masters’ the Angolans for the first time in history of the sport in the continent.

While you are still ‘digesting’ the long list of achievements you are reminded that TSA introduced by Buhari has reduced corruption in government's financial transactions.

However to those who never voted for Buhari, they don’t seem to see any changes at all. When reminded that the refineries are working they insist that it was the legacy of defeated former President Goodluck Jonathan. They are also quick to remind you that TSA was introduced by Jonathan not Buhari to check public sector corruption. When reminded that body language is working they tell you that what Nigeria needs is strong institutions and not strong leader whose body language must be the concern of all. Even any improvement in any sector is credited to Jonathan by this group.

Given this divergent assessments of Buhari, it seems to me that the Elephant and Blind Men fable holds the key to the true assessment of the ‘new sheriff in town’. The fable goes:

“Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."

They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.

"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.

"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.

"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.

"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.

"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."