by Alexander O. Onukwue

How does the President of a country, a multi-ethnic nation like Nigeria, come to the idea of issuing a national address in his native language?

The audio recording of his speech, aired on several platforms including the BBC, has President Buhari apparently extending good compliments of the season in Hausa language. The clip lasts for just about a minute. It is the first semblance of communication that has come from Buhari since he departed Nigerian on the evening of May the 7th on an indefinite medical vacation.

In his time of good and strong health, Buhari, now 74, had to deal with voices of persons like Ayo Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State, who had alleged that he, Buhari, was not in the best state of health to rule Nigeria. Buhari, in 2015, participated in all of the rallies that he was required to be present at but spoke so little that the combined number of his speeches at all rallies and conventions could not have been up to 2 hours.

Buhari also declined to participate in the Presidential debate of those elections. As it happened, the impunity of the Goodluck Jonathan Government, as well as its unforced errors, helped in catapulting Buhari to the Presidency.

Since that the time, it has been so little in terms of communication, and when it would come, so slowly. Buhari was slow in communicating his Ministers, in getting his first and second budgets to be passed and signed. Now, he is being frustratingly slow in letting the country in on what exactly it is that has made him unavailable for more than half the year.

The Eid speech is truly another embarrassment to the nation and another testament to the slow and mediocre manner with which the Buhari administration has gone about its public relations. Unfortunately, it seems those who should be addressing and advising against these mishaps are either part of the rot or are being shut out.

Either way, what we have is a country that, were it not for a capable hand in the person of the Acting President, would have been on auto-pilot, tethering slowly but surely towards maladministration.

Editor