Why did President Buhari not announce his resignation?

by Alexander O. Onukwue

Following the thought of Simon Kolawole, the aim of the #ResumeorResign protests could really have been for President Buhari to return and resign.

After agitations from the groups both locally and internationally, the President returned eventually, to loud praise from supporters and ‘thanksgiving’ from the indifferent. There were messages of support and goodwill to the President from the leaders of that movement, especially Charles ‘Charly Boy’ Oputa and Deji Adeyanju.

But did they expect the President to announce resign in his Monday address?

As much as it was there campaign that Buhari may not be strong enough to continue the duty of leading Nigeria, it would probably be far-fetched that they would expect the first thing he does to be to resign. But what else could have been a good announcement that would be cheered by ‘Our Mumu Don Do’ and even those on the President’s crew?

An implied statement that some Ministers would have to resign? Definitely

A cabinet shuffle is one of the acts which have been loudly observed as necessary for the President to undertake upon his return. The Vice President Osinbajo did/could not carry that out for reasons that are not obvious, though he did swear in and assign portfolios to two Ministers. The present crop of Ministers have served for nearly two years and the consensus is that there has not been the kind of miraculous turnaround promised in 2015.

None has resigned, in keeping with the tradition of public officials in Nigeria. The education sector, for example, has gone from one embarrassment to another with the Minister not looking as loaded with the ideas he once had as a veteran journalist. Chief Audu Ogbeh has arguable performed more than he was expected to but can Nigeria not get another Akin Adesina somewhere to accelerate the exit from a state of hunger? And is the Minister of Transport too distracted with home troubles to still be relevant in his role?

If Buhari had announced that something along that line would happen – precisely a cabinet reshuffle – it would have been one bold sign that the man who belongs to everybody and belongs to nobody is back with a difference.

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