HARD TIMES UNDER BUHARI NOT A SURPRISE. By Yusuf Idris Amoke.

No light, no water, no fuel, no food, no no no is the chorus sang all over the country at present. No doubt that times are really hard, but every man who sees beyond his nose can see a silver lining in the cloudy future.

The hope that keeps a pregnant woman going, is knowing for sure that the pains will be over after a period of time. This hope is what keeps her alive, strong and up and doing.

After more than 50 years as an independent nation, 3 republics past and 16 years wasted in an uninterrupted democracy, Nigerians for the first time elected a leader that didn't emerge by chance- but by a conscious attempt to being the president of the country. According to history, no Nigerian leader had emerged from a conscious preparation to being a president except President Buhari.

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa the first and only prime minister of Nigeria never dreamt or prepared to lead Nigeria when he did, it was a chance provided by the great Sir Ahmadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto who had every chance to become the prime minister but rejected, and sent his deputy at party level to fill in that space.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari became president after Obasanjo willingly relinquished power to a democratically elected president. Then, he was vying for a senatorial seat but the calculation changed and he found himself on the presidential seat, the rest is now history.

Ernest Shonikan came into power only to fill a vacuum created by the annulment of the June 12, 1992 elections by the them military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's prison to president miracle is a well known story, and how he literarily dragged the unwilling and ill Umaru Musa Yar'dua to presidency is also a well known story. Sooner than we all thought, Goodluck Jonathan became a child of necessity- this necessitated his emergence as president of our country without  ever preparing for the challenge of being a president. It took him almost his entire tenure to learn the act of being a president.

Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Gen. Murtala Muhammed, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Gen. Sani Abacha and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar were all "accidental public servants".

Only President Buhari came to power with a conscious attempt to becoming a president. He had plans with a task to building the country from scratch, by firstly identify the menace in the system and deal with it head on.

In every system, there is a critical sector that when fixed, other sectors will automatically fix themselves. In the case of Nigeria, this critical sector is corruption. Corruption is a lucrative sector in our system that is responsible for almost all ills and when fixed, insecurity will fix itself, unemployment will do same, power failure will exist only in history books, brain drain will turn the other way round, foreign investor and tourist will find home in Nigeria, and a lot more too many to mention.

Isaac Newton's 3rd law of motion states "to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" this law explains the hardship Nigerians are faced with today. The action of President Buhari in fighting corruption provokes the reaction of the corrupt to fight back with equal if not more powerful reaction. They are fighting back with their lives. This reaction is responsible for the hardship we are faced with today, but with little more time, am sure they will be defeated because they are the treacherous enemies of the state.

Buhari acted by implementing TSA, being a major step to plugging leakages, they reacted by changing their monies to dollars and starching them in suck ways, farms and villages. This resulted in the scarcity of dollar and the free fall of Naira in the parallel market.

Buhari acted by reducing pump price by 50K and removing the controversial fuel subsidy, they reacted by creating an artificial scarcity, just to get back to the president with the people's anger.

Buhari acted by producing an unprecedented budget with higher capital expenditure, which gives hopes for better days, but they swiftly reacted by paddling the budget, trying to ridicule the government at the detriment of the masses resulting to delaying the passage of the budget. Without a passed budget, it is always difficult to pay salaries let alone do anything significant.

Buhari acted by "unbundling" NNPC into 7 units for transparency and accountability, they reacted by cutting off fuel supply chains to power stations, throwing the whole country into darkness for days.

They will always follow the Newton's law, in an effort to bring back corruption while we will always be at the offensive to stamp out corruption. A little more patience is just what is needed... There is light at D end of d tunnel...