Buhari’s Honest Admittance Of Old Age Challenges And The Moses Option
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The honesty of President Muhammadu
Buhari is sometimes very disarming even to his worst critics. The president as
reported in the Punch Newspaper and several other newspapers on June 17, 2015
has admitted in faraway South Africa that his age (he would be 73) by December,
this year, could be a hindrance to his performance in office. He was quoted as
having said that he would have wished to be the president of Nigeria at the age
that he became governor.
He said, “I wish I became Head of State when I was a governor, just a
few years as a young man. Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do.” Buhari
was a military governor at the age of 33. It was common knowledge that the age
of the president was made an issue during the 2015 general election campaigns. I
could imagine many on the light of this admission saying, “hear! hear!! , we told you so”, but this is not
about the campaign but about a committed president who has honestly admitted a
biological fact: that there is a limit that the human body can be tasked in
carrying out a daunting responsibility like running a big country like Nigeria,
that is literally on its knees, right now.
Perhaps the president underestimated the task when he put himself up for
the job. Perhaps he has seen so many wasted opportunities by our leaders that
he felt that he must put himself up for the job to chart a new course for our
country, despite his age. There is no doubt that Nigeria is presently at the
crossroads.
Most of the states cannot pay their workers’ salaries. The few that pay
are struggling to do so. The private sector is not faring better either, as
many companies and corporations are laying off workers due to the high cost of
doing business in the country occasioned by poor infrastructure, which has
forced companies to generate their own electricity, provide their own boreholes
if they must have constant water for their operations and even construct access
roads to their areas of operation. In several organisations in the private
sector those that are not sacked have not been paid for several months, even up
to a year. These happenings are often unreported because it was not governments
that are owing the frustrated workers. The Nigerian media tragically tend to
focus their attention on the shortcomings of governments, but under reports the
rot going on the private sector including the media itself. The sale of
petroleum products, Nigeria’s main export earner, has plummeted and analysts
believe that it could get worse as major buyers of the country’s crude are
looking elsewhere. This is coming in the midst of millions of graduates of all
hues being poured to the streets annually by the nation’s universities and
colleges.
The Boko Haram insurgency has almost crippled the economy of the North
East, its theater of operation, destroying lives and property while several
billions of naira that should have been channeled for development are being
spent by government to contain the menace if not totally eliminating it. There
is also the ongoing fears that the present prevailing peace in the Niger Delta
may be jeopardized and create another theater of war in the south of the
country. These problems are really enormous and could task the mind of anybody
especially in a country where the people are desperate for quick change in
their worsening conditions.
The president having weighed this enormous task and the ones that are
not even open to some of us has wondered how his aging body can cope. It may
not be far from the truth that what Buhari lamented about in public, he may
have also asked God for help in his private prayers.
President Buhari should learn
from Biblical Moses who was chosen to set his people free from bondage in Egypt
at a very difficult time. At that time Moses lamented like Buhari about his own
biological inadequacy, especially as he had difficulty in speaking because he
had speech impairment. This was the response of Moses when God told him that it
is his responsibility to bring freedom to the Jews in Egypt; “ And Moses said unto the LORD, O my
Lord, I am not eloquent, neither
heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow
tongue.” (Exodus 4:10)
The hesitance of Moses made God
to reassure him thus;” And the LORD said unto him, Who hath
made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind?
have not I the LORD?
Now therefore go, and I will be with
thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.” (Exodus 4: 11-12).
Despite the reassurance by God,
Moses insisted he needed assistance to deal with his perceived inadequacies,
for which perhaps the first spokesman in the history of human administration
was made when God appointed Aaron to be Moses’ spokesman or assistant.
”And thou shalt speak unto him, and
put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and
will teach you what ye shall do.” (Exodus 4: 13-15).
What is the import of this
sermonising? It is to bring it to the attention of President Buhari that given
his admitted limitations, he needs his own Aarons and not one Aaron that Moses
worked with. He should pray for God to send him honest helpers. The president
needs at least 36 (Aarons, called ministers) and more to help him bring about
the needed change in our country. These Aarons must be people of impeccable
integrity that even God would approve of them, so that in all the ministries,
departments and agencies those in charge would implement Buhari’s agenda
whether he is in their presence or not. From the secretary to the government of
the federation to the least minister, they should be Aarons that would help the
president do his job effectively that he would not have to worry over his
health or his age. As someone who believe in the efficacy of prayer, let us
continually pray for our president and our country.
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