By Femi Adesina
Some people would wail about anything and everything in the country, particularly if it comes from President Muhammadu Buhari. Early in the week, that honest and forthright man said it was tough leading the country (is it not?), and he was looking forward to finishing his second term next May 29.
The President’s words: “I am eager to go. I can tell you it has been tough. I am grateful to God that people appreciate the personal sacrifices we have been making.”
Forthright. Straight to the point. Leading Nigeria at the best of times is no tea party. A very complex country, if ever there was one. And leading at a time of severe socio-economic challenges can only be a yeoman’s job, a burden you would want to be gladly rid of. Rough. Tough.
The wailers have been into different kinds of paroxysms, misinterpreting what the President said, twisting, contorting it, and asking him to resign. They abhor all manner of truth. They would have preferred a President working surreptitiously for a third term in office, than one deadpan enough to tell them he was leaving at the appointed time.
But that is just by the way. It’s not the issue at stake this week. Rather, we want to talk development, and some recent strides by the Buhari administration, particularly through the Works and Housing Ministry, led by Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN.
There’s a struggle going on in the country. The tussle over how the Buhari government would be remembered. Revisionists want him to be pedestaled by just the insecurity ravaging the land, which has made life nasty, brutish and short.
Yes, we agree that the insecurity is from the bottom of hell, fiendish, Luciferous. But then, it is not peculiar to Nigeria, though it is the duty of government in every country to solve its peculiar challenges.
And the economic problems? Also global, with countries like America, United Kingdom, and many others recording worst indices in about 40 years. But the wailers close their eyes and ears to things happening in other parts of the world. Buhari, Buhari, Buhari, they continue to chant.
In the midst of all the humongous challenges, however, development continues. You have heard of the big ones: Second Niger Bridge. Loko-Oweto Bridge. Bodo-Bonny Road. AKK pipelines. Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway. Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. And many others in advanced stages of completion, and due for commissioning before the administration exits next year.
But let me tell you about some others that were commissioned recently, showing that President Buhari would not just be signposted by insecurity, as crucial and vital as security is to everything else. He continues to work, while trying to also secure the country.
Check out recently inaugurated roads and housing projects, all done despite massive challenges facing the land: Efon Alaye-Erinmo-Iwaraja Road in Ekiti State. Isoko Ring Road in Delta. Hadejia-Nguru, Phase 11, Jigawa. Gombe-Numan-Yola Road, Phase 11. Nguru-Gashua-Bayamari Road, Section 11, Lafia-Obi-Awe-Tunga Road, Nasarawa State. Nnewe-Uduma-Uburu Road Sections 1 and 2, Enugu State. Vandekiya-Obudu Cattle Ranch Road. Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega-Kotangora-Makera Road. National Housing Program Phase 1, in Imo State. At least 76 federal tertiary institutions have benefited from FG’s road projects. Same for the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, in Ogun State.And more…
This time has been dubbed Season of Completion, Commissioning and Impact, by the Works and Housing Ministry. And Minister Fashola is working his talk. Wait till you see the Second Niger Bridge in its splendor and magnificence by October.
At least 228 housing units have been completed in Kaduna, Sokoto, Kogi, and Osun States, among others.
The work continues, till the very last day of the administration. It’s all about service to the country and her people.
For President Buhari, as Alice Cooper sang in ‘Something to Remember Me By,’: “Something to remember further on down the line,
Something to remember me by,
Bye-bye.”
And wailers and revivers will not win with their false narratives. They can’t.
*Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity