By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Sam Mbakwe. Remember him? As governor of Imo State during the Second Republic, Mbakwe was famous for crying over this and for lamenting over that. So much so that he was promptly nicknamed ‘Sad Sam’ by some and branded ‘The Weeping Governor’ by others for crying while trying to convince the federal government to pay more attention to Imo state. His tears and lamentations reportedly flowed from Owerri through Ogoja to Ottawa, Canada’s southeastern capital.
President Muhammadu Buhari is, compared with the erstwhile Imo helmsman. Lucky, nobody has nicknamed him ‘Lamenting President’ or ‘Brooding Buhari.’ At the rate the President finds it expedient to lament over this and that (usually the pill falls of the past), one wonders, however, if this luck would hold sway for long.
The President was at it again. While receiving the global CEO of the multinational firm, Unilever, Mr. Paul Polman at the State House in Abuja, the President lamented the wastage and squandermania of the past.
According to him, the country and it’s peoples are currently paying dearly for the incompetence in managing high revenue that accrued from oil, particularly over the past decade, and for allowing the decay of critical infrastructure. “We refused to save for the rainy day. Now the rain is beating us. No money, no savings, nothing. And we are thoroughly wet from the rains,” the President said.
Not a few ears must have ached when that lamentation poured out. The President’s persistent lamentations are becoming increasingly familiar, nay over–familiar–song of sorrow. I think Nigerians are not unaware of the damage done to the system by the previous administrations. Reminding them of their utterly odious past over and over shouldn’t be the focus of the present administration.
