Editor’s note: Ben Murray-Bruce, the Chairman of Silverbird Group, advises Muhammadu Buhari how to move the country forward, stressing that the president-elect must think of what is best for Nigeria rather than what is best for his party and its chieftains.
Murray-Bruce warns Buhari that he will soon wish he didn’t win the presidential elections if he does not take serious measures to improve Nigeria’s economy.
Story highlights:
– Politics is war, therefore, many of the rules of war and peace apply to politics.
– Nigerians people voted for Muhammadu Buhari, not his party and he should serve the people the dish they are angling for.
– Buhari’s honeymoon period with Nigerians may not last very long.
– Nigeria and other nations should look to China for oil markets.
– Austerity measures must start from Aso Rock.
Ben Murray-Bruce
(This day) – Now that Major General Muhammadu Buhari has been chosen by the Nigerian people, it is my duty as a patriotic Nigerian to help him succeed even though my candidate was President Goodluck Jonathan, a man to whom I will always be loyal and appreciative.
General Buhari is about to mount the saddle and I for one am in a very good position to tell him some home truths because as a senator-elect, I have a very fulfilling job awaiting me and I do not need a job or favours from Buhari so I do not have to play nice.
Looking at the personalities he has appointed to his transition council, I am convinced to believe that General Buhari needs to expand his circle of friends and advisers.
As a military strategist, the president-elect must be familiar with the principle that the people you use in subduing an opponent are not necessarily the same persons you will need in rebuilding the territories you took. I may be using military terms, but I am sure General Buhari is aware that politics is war by other means and therefore many of the rules of war and peace apply to politics.
The General will be best served if he thinks of what is best for Nigeria rather than what is best for his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), and its chieftains. He must remember that in Nigeria’s subjective politics, it was his person that the people voted for not his party and he should therefore serve the people the dish they are angling for.
And what are the expectations of Nigerians from General Buhari? Definitely not business as usual. The president-elect ran on a promise of change and while that change was not really defined by its chanters, Nigerians defined it as a change in their situation. To borrow from the famously potent prayers of Mountain of Fire and Miracle members, the Nigerian masses defined change as a situation where wealth and power must change hands from the elite to the masses by fire by force and they see General Buhari as the enforcer angel that will bring about this change.
With this type of expectation, Buhari’s honeymoon period with Nigerians will not last very long if he does not take drastic steps to adjust Nigeria’s economy to the realities of falling oil prices and a dearth of buyers for the Bonny Light Sweet Crude.
To put things into perspective, when the United States started buying less and less of Nigeria’s oil, we looked to China as an alternative buyer of oil but it has since come to light that whereas America spent $101 billion on clean energy between 2012-13, China spent $125 billion within the same time frame.
Buhari may wish he did not win the 2015 elections when the reality of our economic situation sets in. In his December 2014 Channels Television interview, Buhari said he was going to “stabilise the oil market”. The General will learn soon enough that today’s oil market is a buyers’ market. And the General’s choices are limited because he cannot (unless he is extraordinarily brave and politically callous) do the obvious and sack civil servants. Yes, he will eventually have to reduce the over bloated federal civil service, but before he can do that, he has to build up political capital by reducing the overhead of the Executive and persuade the Legislature to follow suit.
We need an absolute change not impostures
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