Our Reporter, New York
Nigerian comedian Obinna Simon popularly known as MC Tagwaye, has said that Nigeria is a strange country that is not yet ready for a leader with the kind of attitude that President Buhari has toward leadership. The comedian, who became famous for mimicking the President, made the remarks at the weekly online interview programme 90Minutes Africa hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah on Sunday.
While attempting to exonerate President Buhari from the ills bedeviling his government, the comedian argued that the appointees of the government might be taking advantage of the President’s lack of supervision to act contrary to the good of his administration.
“President Buhari is the kind of person that will give you an assignment and won’t come to ask you about how you are carrying it out. He expects that you are knowledgeable and mature enough to take responsibility and do what is right. The President doesn’t believe he needs to remind you to do the right thing, he expects you to do the right thing. But Nigerians are not ready for that. They see it as an opportunity to misbehave. Meanwhile, it is actually an opportunity to write your name on a rock. But unfortunately, people feel since he is not monitoring them, it is an opportunity to do whatever they want”, the comedian said.
Many Nigerians have complained about President Buhari’s inability to sack or at least redeploy officials of his government that are not performing. But MC Tagwaye insisted that the President’s critics should know that he is not a superhuman but an imperfect person prone to mistakes.
“The President is also a human being, so he is not perfect. He can make mistakes like every other person,” the comedian noted.
“There are basis on which you criticise somebody… of course the President made many mistakes. If I say he hasn’t made any mistake since he came to office then I am lying. But why can’t we see it as a mistake, present it as a mistake and ask for the mistake to be corrected rather than trying to make him look stupid and saying he doesn’t know what he is doing and he is clueless. In that case, the person is not coming from the angle of bringing solutions but instead coming for a fight and unreasonable argument that shouldn’t be.”
