Buhari and limits of populism

President Muhammadu Buhari is conflicted between his reactionary personality or extreme conservatism and his populism, an ideology he acquired when he made his foray into politics. As an opposition politician, he soon became something of a folk hero among the downtrodden masses in the northern part of the country. But as President of Nigeria since May 2015, his policies or lack thereof have fostered a disillusionment among even some of his ardent supporters. His crusade against the blight of corruption has been tainted by lack of evenhandedness. A coordinated economic policy is simply outside the wheelhouse of the Buhari government. There is now a sense that although Buhari rose to the zenith of Nigeria's political power from being an ethno-populist leader, he has now baited and switched even his own native constituency.

A public commentator, Feyi Fawehinmi, wrote an article that was published on August 10th in The Scoop, an online newspaper, entitled, "I'm sorry if I convinced anyone to vote for this government." Mr. Fawehinmi's article, which became virile on social media, is one of many other public statements made by people who donated to the All Progressives Congress and campaigned for Buhari but are now recanting their support for the president. One doubts if women who supported Buhari during the last presidential election would be so enamored of him now, given the condescending comments he made about his wife. He does not seem to realise that a First Lady, whether he officially recognises the construct or not, can enhance a president's achievements in office, if her potentials are properly harnessed. The United States' First Lady, Michelle Obama, is a paragon of virtue for a lot of women, even outside the U.S. She has inspired tributes from her admirers, including Nigeria's celebrated novelist and commentator, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Reneging on his campaign promises is par for the course. Seventeen months into his administration, Nigerians are still waiting for Buhari to publicly disclose all his assets, a campaign promise he said he would fulfil within 100-days in office. Buhari's mercurial relationship with policy decisions has depleted confidence in an economy, which otherwise has strong fundamentals for investment and growth. Essentially, Buhari embodies the failure of populism as a political ideology. Railing against the establishment and the elite cannot be substituted for a sound grasp of real governance.

Scholars and pundits are rightly wary of the populist revival in the developed world that is feeding off growing inequality in income, and anti-immigration sentiments in some countries. It soon became clear that many Britons who voted to leave the European Union did not even know what EU was. Brexit campaigners simply exploited the ignorance of the populace. The full ramifications of the Brexit decision, which experts and markets rejected, is yet to be seen. However, as indications of a "hard Brexit" emerge, the UK pound has continued to depreciate, losing almost 20% of its value against the US dollar – between the referendum on June 23 and October 31.

Marine Le Pen, a frontrunner in the 2017 presidential election in France and leader of the country's populist party, National Front, has called for France to exit the EU. One hopes that the French would be wiser than the British by not listening to populist rhetorics. U.S. Republican Party candidate in the 2016 election, Donald Trump, has been using sleight of hand, misrepresentation of facts, outright falsehood to get the support of a large number of the American conservatives and the disenfranchised.

So-called anti-establishment people like Trump's supporters share an aversion for free trade and globalisation. They are also reacting to disruptions in some labour markets, induced by outsourcing abroad, digitalization and increasing use of industrial robots. However, Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, has said economic integration has lifted living standards of many in the developed world due to a more efficient allocation of capital and productivity increases, among other factors. Nevertheless, Lagarde said the benefits of globalisation are not evenly distributed. Therefore, the global system has to be made to work for everybody. It has to be fair and opportunities have to be expanded.

Populism's anti-market ideology is unsustainable and its dogma is a risk to the democratic system. Allowing candidates to win elections by exploiting the ignorance of voters is a slippery slope. For the dividends of representative democracy to be realised, perhaps democratic institutions should be reformed to incorporate the principles of “libertarian paternalism.” While allowing for freedom of choice, public officials must ensure that those who carry out their civic duty of voting must be protected.

Libertarian paternalism is the seeming oxymoron that was coined by U.S. behavioural economist, Richard Thaler, and legal scholar, Cass Sunstein, as an idea that private and public institutions can affect behaviour or guide choices without dictating them. The main pillar of the concept is that people can be "nudged" to make decisions in their best interest, preventing them from making ill-informed choices. Libertarian paternalism is important precisely because of the nature of politicians to promote half-truths, if not disinformation. There has to be a system that encourages frequent dialogue among the masses, experts as well as public and private institutions.

By the time a candidate wins the general elections in Nigeria, he or she must have clearly articulated their policies and programmes. The media also has a responsibility to properly inform the masses about the substance of each candidate's proposal. If Buhari's populist rhetoric of restoring security, tackling corruption and restructuring the economy were properly scrutinised, they would have been toast for want of specific implementation strategies.