These [two] cases of buck passing by the government coming at a time when it was necessary for them to stand up to action and own up for any action or inaction in the line of providing solution puts the government in bad light.

As is globally and generally accepted, the government is responsible for running all the affairs of a nation and the fallout of any of its actions or inactions as that is the core of governance.

But this has not been the case with the government in Nigeria as the government has chosen to be responsible only for what it feels portrays it in good image and passes the buck of blame when the situation involved will not be favourable to its image, even when it is glaring that it was an act of irresponsibility on the part of the government.

The government has found the job of blaming the opposition for anything that goes against the public’s interest on the opposition so much so that very soon, delayed rains or a very long rainy season would also be blamed on the opposition.

This government has enmeshed itself in the act of blaming anybody but itself for all acts, actions or situation and has found a buck dumping pit in the opposition.

This trend of buck passing by the government has gotten to the level where this question must be asked; “if the opposition movement can exert this level of control, do we really need the government?”

This same government in 2011 blamed the electoral violence that happened before, during and after the 2011 general elections on its fiercest opposition at that time, Gen. Muhamadu Buhari and his party then, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). For them, Gen. Buhari had declared that the blood of the baboon and dog would be mixed, but was that responsible for the government’s inaction or inability to provide adequate security before, during and after the elections particularly in the face of a perceived public incitement to violence by the opposition.

This government has also notably blamed the opposition for insurgency in the North East region without bothering on substantiating its claim against the opposition.

This time around, it hinges its argument on statements credited to Gen. Buhari, Alhaji Atiku and some other members of the opposition for vowing to make the country ungovernable if they were not elected President of the country.

But this does not excuse the government from tackling the challenge of insecurity by gathering intelligence to unearth the sponsors of the militants whom they allege belong to the opposition and prosecute them in courts.

This is a generally accepted means of tackling insurgency rather than making wild allegations against the opposition and not going further to reveal their level of complicity in the crime.

These two cases of buck passing by the government coming at a time when it was necessary for them to stand up to action and own up for any action or inaction in the line of providing solution puts the government in bad light.

In reality, there is no Utopian state, so the government should not see the occurrence of any bad situation as a sign of failure or reason for the country to be labelled a failed state, rather it is the failure of the government to own up to its shortcomings and put measures in place to avoid a reoccurrence of such situation that makes the government a failure.

This trend has crept into all spheres of the ruling governments and its cronies’ activities that even the ruling party has now taken up the role of buck passing for the government by making unfounded allegations against the ruling opposition.

A good example of this arose recently with the chairman of the ruling party, Dr. Adamu Muazu blaming the present fuel scarcity on the opposition only for the Department of Petroleum Resources to announce that it was due to the inability of the fuel importer to get credit notes from the bank as they were yet to receive payments and devaluation of the naira which had to do with the government.

This is in contrast with what obtained at the beginning of Obama’s first term in office when he admitted that the rate of unemployment was high as 12% and promised to reduce it. He did not blame the opposition for that, he swung into action to tackle the challenge. Today, the rate of unemployment in the US is put at about 6%.

The government should rise to the occasion and own up to its fault through its actions or inactions as that is the right way to go for any responsible government.