And Love Gone Sour
distant when the people, especially those that have always held him with suspicion, are hurting does not in any way help his cause. Nigerians expect their president to connect with them not only when our country is winning football matches (as Buhari’s handlers are ever quick to jump on with his small television) but more importantly in their moments of pain.
To compound the problem, some northern governors—smart enough to recognize that without Buhari raising their hands they cannot win on their own records—are making it look as if they love the president more than he loves himself by their desperate campaign that he must seek a second term. While we cannot deny Buhari his Constitutional right to seek re-election, should things continue the way they are in the country and he contests and wins in 2019, of what benefit is a hollow victory that history may not remember with kindness? Is that the legacy they envisage for the president?
Therefore, if these governors truly love Buhari, it should worry them that under his watch, aside other existential challenges, the diversity which offers our nation unique opportunities for growth and development is gradually becoming in danger of being squandered through violent hostilities in which the protagonists use religion and tongues as markers to highlight and magnify our differences. Besides, there can be no bigger indictment than the fact that the president would be writing a letter to the Senate, controlled by his party, to dispute a resolution that questions his leadership on the Benue killings.
With his Defence Minister, Mansur Dan-Ali, making an irresponsible statement and his Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, behaving more like the head of the ruling APC security wing than the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, how does the president expect to be trusted by a broad section of the country if he cannot call such men to order? The impression being unwittingly created is that these reckless public officials are speaking for him.
Meanwhile, I sympathise with Buhari because, given my experience in another world, things are not always what they seem and I am aware that presidents have access to the fuller picture on every issue. But to the extent that a crisis rooted in the politics of economic survival has been exploited to endanger inter-group relations in our country, he ought to have been more proactive in dealing with the challenge. He must understand that the moment a leader is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as being unable to rise above certain narrow and clannish interests, it is always very difficult to build the trust of all the critical stakeholders and without that trust, the society cannot advance.
While I wish all lovers, including those who have graduated to The Other Room, as well as the aspiring ones, Happy Valentine’s Day in advance, let me also use this opportunity to urge President Buhari to avail himself of the potential benefits of this season of love and mend his ways. Nigerians want a more caring, and fair minded leader. This is not asking too much of the president of a diverse, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation in the 21st Century.