President Muhammadu Buhari , Wednesday became the first President of Nigeria to take the oath of office without the inaugural speech to the citizens of the nation.
Many Nigerians who had expected Buhari to address the nation shortly after his oath of office, were disappointed as the president commenced his second term in office without the usual address on his government’s policy direction and what Nigerians should expect in the next four years.
Never in the history of the country had a president kicked off his reign without an inauguration address to Nigerians. Some Nigerians said that the oath of office should be accompanied by a speech detailing what the citizens should expect from the new government.
Although the Federal Government through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had last week said that May 29 and June 12 would be marked as public holidays and that Buhari would be sworn in on May 29, but that most activities have been moved to June 12, eminent citizens who reacted to the President’s inauguration without an address, expressed disappointment over the development, describing it as strange and unheard of in the history of the country.
Those who faulted Buhari’s decision not to address the nation during his inauguration on Wednesday in Abuja, were former Commissioner for Information in Abia State, Eze Chikamnayo; a chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and a factional governorship candidate of the party in Anambra State, Hygers Igwebuike; a security consultant and the leader of April 21, 1990 failed coup, Col Tony Nyiam and President of Mobility Aid and Appliances Research and Development Centre (MAARDEC), Cosmas Okoli.
According to Chikamnayo, it is wrong for the president to begin a new term without telling the citizens what he wants to do.
He said, “Well, I believe that these are unusual moments and unusual things are happening in the country. However, the question that we should be asking ourselves is this, Are we moving backward or we are moving forward?
“It is wrong for the president to take over office without telling the citizens what he wants to do. Even if he was tired, a document or speech should be made available to the press and other stakeholders detailing what the president intends to do and the policy direction of the government.
“The fact that they just swore him in and took him back to Aso Rock, is putting the nation in suspense, it is contemptuous and condemnable. The action should be condemned by well-meaning Nigerians. The leaders should not hold Nigerians in suspense. Nigeria belongs to all of us.
“Right now, the president has promised nothing, he can as well go to sleep because you cannot hold him accountable because he has said nothing. But there should be plan and direction for the next four years.”
On his part, Igwebuike said that Nigerians are already tired of long speeches without action, noting that the citizens have known Buhari. According to him, Nigerians should not expect much from the president.
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“Nigerians knew Buhari before he was voted in. So, whatever may be his action and inaction, Nigerians know what they expected of him, unless there is surprise, we all know him, there is no point expecting much from him, he has said who he is by his actions during his first term in office.
“I wish Nigerians well. Buhari has nothing new to offer but we should be patient because they said that today’s (Wednesday), event should be in low key. So let’s wait until June 12, but it is wrong not to speak to the citizens as their leader. Even the chairman of a company, must make a speech and state his policy direction as he takes office.
“People are no longer interested because there have been so many speeches in the past without the needed action to back them up. The government has made so many promises without fulfilling them. They have said many things in the past without action.
“So Nigerians want him to work instead of give them too much talk, we want to see what he is doing and not what he is saying. In the past, he had promised to fix the roads and power among other things but how many of those things did he do.
“So Nigerians are tired of many speeches coming from the seat of power, the president should rather work for the good of the citizens than making prolonged speeches that he knows that he cannot fulfill.”
Nyiam, however, described Nigeria as a nation under siege of incitement and infiltration. “I don’t agree with the ad hoc comments about this nation and Buhari. We need a holistic education of our people.
“But we are in a state of uncertainty. The issue is that we are under siege of incitement and infiltration. The Hausas who used to be the willing tools are now at the receiving end after the Middle Belt. I won’t react to what happened today, (Wednesday).
Okoli, said that the president’s swearing-in ceremony without inaugural speech was abnormal.
“It is not normal for a president to begin his term in office without a word to the citizens of the nation. There is nowhere that a government is inaugurated and the leader refused to address the citizenry.
“This is so strange; Buhari should have addressed Nigerians by telling them his plans for them and the direction of his administration. However, we should know the reason for his action as time goes on. There are lots of expectations from Nigeria. We hope that he will improve on what we witnessed in his first four years,” he said.
Recall that the popular quote the president delivered in his first term inaugural speech in 2015, ‘I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody’ was later entangled in controversy when his opponents linked the quote to the late Charles de Gaulle of France.
