In all sincerity, I’m done throwing stones at President Buhari. While I was busy hauling stones at him, I thought him to be everything else but sensible; in my thinking he wasn’t just getting anything right. His accent and speeches, his travels, his appointments, his body language, his press briefings, even his dressing all made me sick. I didn’t hate him, and I shouldn’t hate any human being, but I wasn’t comfortable with him one bit. To say the least, this wasn’t because I didn’t approve of his bid for Aso Rock from the word go, but because I expected more from him as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Lest I forget, I respected him just once; his inaugural speech was a killer. But he lost that respect weeks later when Cardinal Okojie nearly swore that the Buhari he knows couldn’t have come up with such a masterpiece all by himself.

Two reasons saw to my metanoia. One is personal, and the other is this: we’re stuck with him being president, and the best we can do for ourselves is find a common ground from which to operate. Do you doubt that we’re stuck with him? Then a simple demonstration would do. There’re five ways in which he can cede the presidency, and all five ways are no-go areas – to the best of my knowledge, and I’m only being realistic. One is through coup d’etat, and the Nigerian Army wouldn’t do it to Buhari. Second is death, and we can’t bank on that. Third is impeachment, and APC wouldn’t let that happen. Fourth is through mob action, and Nigerians are too gentle for that. Final option is resignation, Buhari would rather die than append his signature to any such letter. You see. We’re stuck with him till 2019 at least, and if he beats his competition to a second term, then 2023. By my tunic, that time is darn long. Don’t ask me how I can be so sure; every realistic Nigerian can be as sure.

However, it’s immediately important to say that refraining from hauling stones at him doesn’t mean going cold on issues of concern; it means approaching them both positively and more constructively; it entails talking about the wins as much as the loses; it says goodbye to the Nigerian household unethical practice of name-calling. On the whole, it means taking full responsibility for Nigeria while tasking the leadership for it’s quota.

Here’s my point: while we keep pushing this edifice called the Nigerian state into murky waters by badmouthing her leadership, and as we await change or chance to save the day, we can as well get busy fixing the “Buhari” in most of us – on individual basis. These “Buhari-areas” in our individual lives include:

1. Obsession for leadership
The average Nigerian like to be in charge – except those with obvious impediments; these ones make do with wishing. Somehow, we’re a “title-centric” people; we want to be at the hem of affairs. And we go all out for it – by any means necessary. The annoying part of this is that we don’t care a thing about preparation. This is unfortunate.

2. We worship LUCK
There’s this annoying way we quickly have recourse to luck. A Nigerian just wakes up one morning and starts a business without a plan, and he strongly believes he’s going to make it really big. Of course, the Nigerian spirit of never-say-die sees some to making it, but the majority must woefully fail. Time to “port” from luck to better options.

3. We think we’ve all the solution
You’ll die laughing when you hear the street man reel out the way forward for the Nigerian situation. There’s this way Buhari was die-hard convinced that he will fix Nigeria the next morning after inauguration. Truth be told, we rarely have all the solutions; only the guy in the shoe knows where it pinches.

4. We pay deaf ears to others’ opinions
ITK is a Nigerian thing – I-too–know. Over-sabi dey worry us. And the implication is that the other person can barely tell us what to do; our ears go deaf! Too bad.

5. We’re darn good at excuses
Are you surprised the number of excuses grow by the day? From corruption, judiciary, “cabal,” fall in oil price, Boko Haram, Nigerians’ unruliness, etc. That’s us! Ask an average Nigeria why he didn’t succeed at something and his many always seemingly plausible excuses will make you apologize for thinking otherwise.

6. We’re award-winning blame-gamers
Are you surprised Lai Mohammed always lashes it at Jonathan’s administration? And APC blaming PDP? That’s the best they can do on a good day (it’s a DNA thing), and most of us are the same: blame the government, blame the economy, blame our parents, blame America, blame the this and blame the that, and forgetting that many people are thriving in spite of those challenges.

***Christ said it best, “Let the person without sin be the first to cast a stone.” We’ve to deal with those traits; it’s a sacred duty.

I hear Oga got us some goodies from China. As much as some insist he’s daft, why not we just call this one a win.

I’m off to do a bottle of beer on this account; don’t know about you. If you like dey there dey make noise. lol!