BUHARI AND POLITICS OF 2019

Odilim Enwegbara reckons that the president has squandered his goodwill

President Muhammadu Buhari’s condition is typical to one suffering from amnesia. Or the absolute fault of his handlers who forgot so quickly how he eventually got to become president in 2015. It’s unbelievable how quickly it has been forgotten that Buhari tried his luck in 2003, 2007, and 2011 and failed all elections woefully.

What a short memory they have got, forgetting that he became president because of President Jonathan’s refusal to be an ally to the imminent bloodbath awaiting Nigerians as President Buhari had sworn: “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, the dogs and the baboons will be soaked in blood.”

Maybe Buhari himself has forgotten that he actually got the presidency on a platter of gold. Or should he have become president of Nigeria in 2015 were northerners — including northern members of the Peoples Democratic Party — decided to humiliate President Jonathan for refusing to respect the agreement reached with northern political juggernauts in 2011 that he would not be contesting in 2015? Buhari’s handlers may have forgotten that it was as a result of the whole north overwhelmingly voting for Buhari in 2015. Of course, like northwest and northeast, southwest and north central (middle belt states) too, had to be solidly behind him, based on such an unverifiable assumption that here was a man with an impeccable “zero tolerance” for corruption.

Since there is no hiding place for the truth, is it possible for everyone to be fooled again into believing that Buhari is truly a no-nonsense anti-graft leader? What about our comatose economy? Are we still waiting for Buhari’s magic wand? These unknown truths about Buhari have finally been in the open for everyone to see: the president does not understand the problems facing our economy, not to mention having any understanding of how to fix it.

Unbelievably, Nigerians cannot believe that the once revered no-nonsense, anti-graft Buhari could be worse than his predecessors. That political quick fixes could paralyse our senses cannot be more embarrassing. But more embarrassing is the fact that, rather than reducing corruption in Nigeria Buhari is sheltering corrupt politicians so long as they join the president’s ruling All Progressives Congress.

In fact, all you need to do to be set free from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s dragnets is to simply go to the APC national secretariat to pick up their membership card. In other words, for you not to find yourself in Kuje prison, simply pick up APC membership card and voila! You are free and stainless, guilt free!

What has compounded the Buhari tragedy - tragedy caused by our misplaced judgment, is fuelled by our increased nostalgia for Jonathan. Since becoming president, Buhari has become such an unbelievable source of ethno-religious conflicts as has never been seen in the history of this country. What used to be cold ethnic and religious war in Nigeria has today reached a boiling point.

It is this endless embarrassment that led northern political juggernauts to come out in public to announce that the north is in search of a consensus candidate to present to Nigerians. Here, they are looking for such a good leader who will not be blamed for the country’s woes.

But while Nigerians in the southwest, southeast, southsouth, and middle belt could have forgiven Buhari’s lack of vision in the areas of the economy and corruption, what finally sealed his fate in these battleground geopolitical zones come 2019, have become the Fulani herdsmen menace and terror.

Thousands of Nigerian farmers have lost their farms to the Fulani herdsmen as well as innocent and powerless Nigerians have been killed by AK47carrying herdsmen, who kill them for refusing their intrusion; making everyone to believe that their cows have become more priced than human lives.

Southwestern political juggernauts have decided to not only fight Buhari but also fight Senator Bola Tinubu, who lured them into supporting Buhari in 2015. Their anger is that Tinubu’s political naiveté has no limits given that after all he did for Buhari, he was abandoned.

For some time now, it has become so unbearable that these political power brokers could hardly swallow the insults associated with Buhari’s kind of monarchical presidency, that seem to make him indisposed, including to their demand for restructuring.

But while they could have forgiven his insensitivity, what they cannot forgive is President Buhari’s looking the other way while Fulani herdsmen go about on killing spree, including in the southwest. That is why, if Senator Ahmed Tinubu hasn’t read the handwriting on the wall, taking the Yoruba nation for another ride is going to be resisted come 2019 presidential election when their PVCs will finally speak for them, assuming they wouldn’t be boycotting the presidential election.

No wonder, talking to some political power brokers in the southwest, all you hear from them is, “Yes, they have fooled us in 2015 but there’s no way they can expect to fool us again into believing in this government, including their kangaroo midnight restructuring agenda. Their agreed fear is that lacking constitutional teeth, the so-called restructuring could be an easy candidate for repeal once he gets sworn in for second term.” That is why it will come down to Buhari vs Atiku.

Being well-known for his pro-restructuring, no doubt, southwestern political power brokers will do everything possible to make sure that it is Atiku that is handed the region’s votes.

Southeasterners too would have gone ahead to forgive President Buhari not only for his unfortunate pronouncement that those who gave him 97% and those who gave him 5% wouldn’t expect equal treatment in his administration. Not even his still going ahead to make political and security appointments that completely marginalised them.

That he has continued to look the other way while Fulani herdsmen go on a killing spree is one of the reasons southeasterners have decided they will never forgive Buhari. Also like southwesterners and southsoutherners, southeasterners want Nigeria to be returned to its pre-1966 federal system, where all the regions will not only be in full control of their resources, but also allowed to develop at their own pace. Now that there is no more Jonathan to be taught a political lesson, it is certain that the northern establishment has finally come to the realisation that it’s a mistake having Buhari to preside over the affairs of this country at this point in time when the country urgently needs to transit from an oil-based economy to full-blown industrial economy. The shocking reality has since become how to recover the country from the devastating ‘Buhari effect’ and his insensitivity to the plight of millions of Nigerians, the same people who joyfully came out en-masse to vote for him in 2015.