PMB @ 77: ‘Please tell Baba we are with him all the way’

Iboarded a commercial airliner heading to Lagos from Abuja. I was already seated, and strapping my seat belt, when a young man approached me. He must have been in his late 20s, or at most, early 30s. I shook hands, greeted him warmly, and he slipped something in my palm. He went back to his seat.

It was a piece of paper, and on it was written: “Please, tell Baba we are with him all the way.”

My eyes became misty. I knew who he was talking about. My principal and Baba of the country, President Muhammadu Buhari, who turns 77 today.

“Please, tell Baba we are with him all the way.” What a message! What confidence! What love! And what reassurance.

At times, if you listen to the Babel of voices in the country, particularly on social media and some critical segment of the traditional media, you think everything is all wrong with the land. You think it’s all sorrow, tears and blood, the regular trade mark of failed or failing countries.

The biblical prophet, Elijah, felt at a time that he was the only true prophet of God left in Israel. And he complained to God: they have all followed Baal, the strange god. I am the only one left with you.

But God gave him a tutorial: you only think so. I have for me in this land 7,000 other prophets, who have not bowed the knees to Baal.

That was what happened in that aircraft. The young man who slipped the note into my hand is like millions upon millions of quiet Nigerians, “who have not bowed the knees to Baal.” People who love President Muhammadu Buhari, who appreciate that he is here for such a time as this, and who believe that he is leading us to a new Nigeria, a land flowing with milk and honey. I believe. I am in the number of millions of people, who daily wish Buhari well, and pray that he will lead the land to fair havens, halcyon shores, before 2023.

If all the information you consume is from social media, and the critical segment of the traditional media, you will likely miss the correct pulse of the country. Let me share an experience here.

Some months before the 2019 general elections, I ran into Governor Nasir el-Rufai in the Presidential Villa, as he was going in to see the President. We greeted warmly, and I asked if he could please stop by in my office on the way out. He promised to do so.

What was my worry? The trend on social media, as to how the elections would go. I had a broader view of the reality, but I needed some reassurance. And I knew El-Rufai was analytical, and constantly had statistics at his fingertips. He’s not a first class quantity surveyor for nothing.

The governor turned up. I unfolded my worries, and asked for his opinion. He merely opened his laptop computer, and shared the result of a scientific research with me.

What did the research say? With large sample size from across the country, and painstaking state by state analysis, it stated that President Buhari was going to beat his closest opponent by millions of votes. And wait for this: the social media would account for just between nine and 11 percent of the votes. And wait again: that percentage would not go to one party alone. It would be shared between the two leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). It turned quite prophetic.

The young man in the plane is among the millions of Nigerians who tilted the scale. They know that Nigeria is not where she should be, not yet, but it is not business as usual. There is one man who is labouring hard to turn the country right side up. He is Muhammadu Buhari, and the journey may be tedious, arduous and slow, but we are headed in the right direction.

Friends, Nigerians, countrymen. Yes, I have come to celebrate Muhammadu Buhari, as he turns 77 today. See the sycophant, the fanatic, some people would say. But do I mind them? I don’t. I have chosen my own hero, let them choose theirs. As we say in local parlance, ‘say your prayers, and let me say amen. No quarrel for church.’

I have said it before, and I say it again. I have followed Buhari since he was a military ruler, when I was an undergraduate, and if that regime had lasted for longer, Nigeria would not be in the doldrums that she found herself. It was a tough administration, but which was leading us on the right path. Till forces of reaction struck, and we were back to worse than square one.

You could imagine my joy when Buhari eventually emerged civilian President after 12 years of struggle. I didn’t think I was going to ever serve in government, but I found myself in it. Just because it was Buhari. More than four years down the line, have I changed my mind? No. Is it a perfect government? There’s none anywhere. But I still remain a Buharist, just like millions of other Nigerians.

I know many people who started with us in the Buhari camp, but who are now on the other side. Some were we lured away by the garlic, cucumber, onions and leeks of Egypt, while some others jumped ship because of the colour of the currency they saw. Some others, who expected quick fixes, are now singing the Lord’s song in a strange land. Some others are vacillating between many opinions. But for some of us, it is the immortal words of Sir Walter Scott: “Other people’s resolutions may fluctuate on the wild and changeful billows of human opinions. Our’s, now and forever, are anchored on the rock of ages.”

Why are we dyed-in-the-wool Buharists? Is he a perfect, infallible man? Show me who is. So, why do we remain resolute, irrespective of what people on the other side see as foibles and failings of the administration? Many reasons.

Buhari is not a thief. Can you say the same of many past leaders in this country? No, you can’t. I’m not saying they’ve all been light fingered, but we know those who served us honestly, and those who stole the living daylights out of the country. They and their confederates.

When I then see a honest man, the Mai Gaskiya, should I not follow him? Should I not trek from here to China for his sake? I would even trek further from Beijing to Yokohama.

Continue on page 43