The President of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, ought to lower his conscience and learn from the President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, who has recently declared to sell her presidential planes and 60 Mercedes Limousines. Her decision would imply that she would have none in her ownership and would resort to flying commercial airlines, British Airways, and recovers the plane’s yearly running expenses of £220,000. The move was extolled by British Bureau Minister, Andrew Mitchell.

In the mean time, Nigerian President has been contemplating on selling his planes over a year back. A nation right now in subsidence overseeing more than 10 private planes, with numerous God's knows number of vehicles. Buhari's "Change starts with me" is an affront to Nigerians, whose President and his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), have kept on calling fools with their non-verbal communication.

While trying to react to Prof Farooq Kperogi - who blamed President Buhari for spending 6 million Pounds Sterling in the United Kingdom to treat ear infection – the Presidency gladly disclosed that the President spent below £50,000, which is N20,576,131.69, if converted to the present market value. According to the statement, which was titled: ‘Ear Infection Treatment: President Buhari Spent Less Than £50.000, Not £6m’, the Presidency said:

“The disclosure on Prof Farooq Kperogi's wall that President Muhammadu Buhari's ear treatment in the United Kingdom cost a whopping 6 million pounds must have shocked many of the respected scholar's followers. I’m prepared to share documents with Farooq, one of the brightest ever produced from the Bayero University Kano (BUK), that the whole treatment, including a follow-up visit by a specialist to Nigeria, didn't cost 50,000 pounds.”

The Presidency likewise added that the cash was bigger than 50,000 pounds, however, the doctor gave back the parity and that Buhari ought to be applauded for that.

“For the records, the administration advanced a higher sum, but the President's doctor returned the balance to the treasury. Indeed, it's a New Day, and President Buhari's change mantra is real. Let no one confuse my fellow countrymen and women.”

If this is what a man who flagged off a ‘change’ campaign few days ago, requesting Nigerians to begin the change is egotistically promised then, I am embarrassed and disillusioned.

Once more, a couple of weeks after his rise as the President, Buhari told Nigerians that he would lessen his pay by 50 per cent. However, there are signs that the declaration was – notwithstanding - among the numerous untruths and promises he had made to Nigerians. According to Economics Confidential, Buhari, Osinbajo, including cabinet ministers, pocketed the sum of N2.295 billion as salaries and allowances in 2015.

Its analysis showed that Buhari and his vice’s salaries are still in tandem with the approval of Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, which means Buhari may have just barked again without biting. A detailed look at the report showed that Buhari receives an annual basic salary of N3.51million, while his vice, Prof Yemi Osinbajo earns N3.03million. A President who claimed he was ready to forfeit half of his salary is also paid hardship allowance, when Nigerians are advised to sleep on empty stomach. Buhari and Osinbajo currently enjoy 50 per cent of their annual salaries as hardship allowance, 250 per cent as constituency allowances and other allowances the duo currently collecting are:

• Accommodation

• Furniture

• Domestic staff

• Personal assistants

• Utilities, newspapers

• Vehicles

• Entertainment

• Maintenance, and

• Estacode.

If the estacode allowance for ministers, SGF, Head of Service and chairmen of board is $1,000 per night, how much do you think Buhari and Osinbajo collect whenever they travel out of the country?

The report revealed that an average Nigerian worker with a minimum wage of N18,000 a month will have to work for more than four years before earning the utility allowance of ministers (remember, not President’s Utility allowance).

One of Buhari’s known liars, Minister of Information, Ahaji Lai Mohammed, few days ago bamboozled Nigerians when he said no one was praising them (Buhari’s administration) for what they had done so far. This statement had got me thinking as I could not figure out what he was referring to. Everything the administration claim to have done are what the previous administration by Goodluck Jonathan listed down to have accomplished before they were pushed out by Nigerians who felt frustrated and wanted change, that is now chain.

The most amusing part is the way Buhari's administration assumes acknowledgment for thoughts they never breast fed, then call it continuity and shift the blame of the country to the same past administration when it turns bad. Lai Mohammed, who was making a public confession concerning his earlier attack on President Jonathan, said: “I have been on the outside, and now I am inside and I understand the situation”.

This statement by the minister indicated that they insulted the previous administration without having their facts straight. He added: “Any of them who comments, we just laugh at them because they have little understanding of the enormity of the problems government is confronted with.” Lai Mohammed was responding to Senator Shehu Sani, who recently threw his bow and arrow to Buhari, that he hoped by the time the change Buhari promised would happen, all of us would have died.

While trying to defend Buhari’s integrity, Lai Mohammed foolishly added: “The truth must be said: this is the time that Nigerians are better respected; this is when our green passport is starting to have value. Before now, we were all just crooks, 419 people (fraudsters) and drug smugglers. But today, you can see that because the President has integrity and is respected all over the world, you can see the reference given to him whenever he travels, and that is what is percolating down. I have been to China and other places and I can see that it is not what it used to be before.

“Then, again, a government cannot achieve everything in 15 months, but you are already judging us as if we have been there for three years. Nobody is even giving us credit for being able to keep the ship of the state afloat.”

“Nigerians are criminals” was the same statement Buhari used that annoyed many Nigerians to respond with photos and their detailed profiles. I do not know what Lai Mohammed meant when he said they have been able to keep the ship of the state afloat. Is this afloat or the nation has sunk like the Titanic?

Buhari has not shown any seriousness to change the situation the people are facing. Buhari's daughter schooled in the United Kingdom, and not Nigeria. How can this same President launch change in me when all he does is patronise anything else but Nigeria?

Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, took a lash at the APC, Lai Mohammed and Buhari few days ago, while responding to Lai Mohammed who said Jonathan left Nigeria in a coma, and that Buhari is reviving her. His words: “Between N205 that GEJ left the naira at and the N423 that PMB put it, which represents a 'coma'? Between N8,000 per bag that rice sold under GEJ and N22,000 it sells today, which is symptomatic of a 'coma'? Between N87 per litre for petrol under GEJ and N145 under PMB, which price signifies 'coma'? Between 9.6 per cent inflation rate that GEJ left and 16.5 per cent (and rising fast!) where PMB has it, which one looks like a 'coma'? Between the free, fair and credible elections of the GEJ era and the inconclusive elections under PMB, which one resembles coma? Between the 1.9 million jobs that even Lai Mohammed admitted that GEJ created and the 4.5 million jobs that the government's own chief statistician admits has been lost under PMB, which one indicates 'coma'? Lai Mohammed should be aware that these are serious economic issues not masquerade dressing issues! If PMB cannot 'change' Nigeria, he should at least not spoil the transformation that GEJ gave us!”

A former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, popularly addressed as Baba, had earlier made his view known on his expectation of President Buhari.

While addressing the crowed at the third International Conference on African Development Issues with the theme - ‘Driving inclusive and sustainable development in Africa: Models, methods, and policies’ – organised by Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Obasanjo said: “I will tell you what I know, and I will tell you what I don’t know. I know Gen Muhammadu Buhari. He served under me in the military. His characteristics that I know, his behaviour that I know, he has not deviated from them. He was never a perfect man; he is not a perfect man, and no leader can ever be perfect, because they are human beings. But if you read my book, what I said about him is correct. He is not a hot person when it comes to economy. He is not a very hot person when it comes to foreign affairs. But he will do well in matters of military, and he will do well in fighting Boko Haram.”

The above quote credited to Obasanjo is an indication that Nigerian economy is likely to suffer in the hands of Buhari. I wish Obasanjo had said this earlier, I would have agitated that Buhari be made Minister of Defence, instead of President of a great nation like Nigeria.

Instead of jumping from one country to the other, Buhari should, please, take a lesson from other countries that are doing well, particularly the Malawian President who had decided to be flying British Airways and save the country a huge expense.

•Ehi Ekhator can be reached at ehidan@naijacenter.com; +447459853859; @EhiEhidan @naijacenter

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