In a democratic setting, the highest form of authority is the president, an individual voted into power and trusted to rule on behalf of the people. Every president is remembered by their deeds, it doesn't really matter how short or long their tenure was/is. Going through a long list of individuals who had ruled my country as head of state, I couldn't stop thinking about the kind of impact they have had on individual lives. Thinking about it, I'm sure there are all kinds of memorable events attached to each administration but in this case, I can barely pinpoint any form of positive impact.
I'm not trying to talk bad about any administration but the fact remains the same, most of the memories I have had of the administration of different president, is just full of trauma and severe hardship. Speaking of the most memorable president in my country, the only president in my thought is his royal highness president Muhammed buhari. One of the funny things about Nigerians is that, we have this strange belief that the next administration we do better despite we being aware that we are just randomly selecting the same corrupt individuals and expecting them to behave differently.
During Ex president Goodluck Jonathan's administration, there were somethings that were not really going well in the country, like the price of petroleum spiking and terrorist attack. Especially when the whole chibok schools girls abduction happened in April 2014. We all felt bad about the whole situation and we wished for a more capable president, believe me; we should have been careful about what we wished for. The thing about ex president Goodluck Jonathan was that, in every terrorist attack, he will always release a state or hold a press conference, in order to address the nation and comfort the citizens.
We never knew how awesome this gesture was till the time of late ex president Muhammed buhari. They were countless terrorist attack during his regime, ranging from boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen massacre, enough to declare a state of emergency but Mr presido will not say anything, when eventually he decides to say something, I can barely put together what he was saying. It was so glaring that, whatever was happening in the nation was not his concern because it was a bloody tenure.
What made it more bloody was the endsars massacre, I mean I can still understand the fact that people getting killed by terrorist but civilians getting killed by unknown military men and till the end of his administration, no one was held accountable for it, this was the hardest of all. It was a tough era in the history of my country, a lot of people suffered casualties beyond what was humanly possible and this kept happening even after the whole lekki massacre occured. That was when I had my near death experience, which is something I would never forget.
Another highlight was naira scarcity of 2023, I never knew the country could survive that. It felt like the country was being governed by external figures. People giving out their hard earned money, just to receive the new naira note without any form of compensation from the government or their banks. Some people were heavily rough handled by bank's security. The only positive thing memorable about this administration is the fact that, it thought people how to think carefully about managing their finance because there was no room for excess for average citizens.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled A memorable president in hive learners community.
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