Buhari honeymoon period with Nigerians will not last long – Ben Bruce

Senator Ben Murray Bruce, Chairman of the Silverbird Group of companies and Senator elect representing Bayelsa East has disclosed that with the present economic realities in the country, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, President elect, on assumption of office will soon wish he did not win the 2015 presidential polls.

Bruce who is also a media veteran made this known in his article titled “It Doesn’t Matter if the Cat is White or Black” as a guest columnist in Thisday Newspaper dated Wednesday 29 April 2015. He pointed out that the former dictator’s choices were limited because of the fall in oil price as countries like United States, and China which Nigeria looked to for patronage, have now developed alternative sources of energy.

Bruce was of the opinion that the Buhari led Government was going to face a lot of challenges as regarding generating revenue coupled with enormous promises he had made to Nigerians. “With this type of expectation, Buhari’s honeymoon period with Nigerians will not last very long if he does not take drastic steps to adjust Nigeria’s economy to the realities of falling oil prices and a dearth of buyers for the Bonny Light Sweet Crude.”

He said Buhari cannot, unless he is extraordinarily brave and politically callous to do the obvious by sacking some civil servants and reducing governance costs starting from Aso Rock.

He said before Buhari can achieve this, he must first of all build up political capital by reducing the overhead cost of the Executive and persuade the Legislature to follow suit.“As a military strategist, the President-elect must be familiar with the principle that the people you use in subduing an opponent are not necessarily the same persons you will need in rebuilding the territories you took.”

Bruce said this after considering the personalities Buhari appointed in his transition committee, such as Ahmed Joda, Chairman, Dr. Doyin Salami, Vice-chairman, Adamu Adamu, Secretary, Boss Mustapha, Muhammad Hayatuddin, Abubakar Malami, SAN, Prof. Tam David West, Governor Rotimi Amaechi and John Odigie Oyegun among others.