BUHARI AND THE NIGERIAN CONUNDRUM
Argues that personal integrity and discipline in addition to broad mindedness and rigour are needed criteria for the next president
Even President Buhari’s most inveterate supporters know that he has no magic wand WR ZDYH RͿ WKH DFFXPXODWHG SUREOHPV WKDW have besieged the country. But no one expected that under his oversubscribed leadership things could remain the same or even worse. His long-drawn campaign for the presidency and what appeared as the desperate conspiracy of the established political elites to make him perpetually unelectable, turned him into a mythical, PHVVLDQLF ÀJXUH GHVWLQHG WR KHOS WKH ORQJ oppressed and over-duped masses from the reckless brigandage of the elite. Peasants, artisans, workers, professionals and even left wing intellectuals especially those untainted by ethnic and religious bigotry saw in the clean resume of President Buhari’s service in the various branches of public life as a launch pad to re-take the country from the cesspool of debilitating corruption to which the shameless elites have plunged it. With no title, except one genuinely earned, and not traditional or honorary easily bought and sold across the country, Buhari came across as a harbinger for something genuinely new, during his long years of struggle for the presidency. With a fairly long political odyssey dotted with recriminating electoral losses, he evoked WKH LPDJHV RI VXFK ÀJXUHV DV $PHULFD·V Abraham Lincoln, and even the Chinese reform patriarch, Deny Xiaoping who fell from power several times and was banished to remote village to pick fruits in order to be “re-educated” by peasants. He returned to power in 1978 to orchestrate the trajectories of China’s economic modernization that has culminated in the country’s awe-inspiring development.
'HVSLWH WKH HOLWH·V SHUHQQLDO EOXͿ RI Buhari’s un-electability, the swath of Nigerian working people, including peasants, artisans and radical intelligential kept faith in his electoral prospects. At the time the traditional political elite and their surrogates were completely discredited, and their political cup full and running over, they made a quick dash to President Buhari who had enormous popular good will and was about the only bridge between the rotten discredited elites and the angry Nigerians. The hybrid political formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was actually D PXWXDO WUDGH RͿ LQ ZKLFK %XKDUL EURXJKW his street credibility and acceptance, while the drowning political class invested their PRQH\ WR ÀQDQFH WKH H[SHQVLYH ORJLVWLFV RI presidential campaign.
However, most observers and optimists in the Buhari’s traditional camp saw Buhari compromise with the discredited political class as a tactical maneuver only to achieve the strategic goal of attaining power on behalf of the people, after which he would compel the elite to commit suicide as a class and be re-born again as genuinely SDWULRWLF 1LJHULDQV WRWDOO\ ZHDQHG RͿ from primitive accumulation and wholly dedicated to building an inclusive healthy and wealthy nation in which no one is left behind. President Buhari’s strong forte of securing the country and making corruption unattractive were the central pillars of his candidacy and on which a new Nigeria was to spring forth. Even his supposedly then, strong nationalist credential was considered DQ HͿHFWLYH DQWLGRWH WR WKH UHVXUJHQFH RI ethnic and religious bigotry.
But, seven years into the saddle, the Buhari’s over-subscribed brand is on a free fall. The same elite that hounded him and not only caused him to shed tears but insidiously mocked him as “cry, cry *HQHUDOV DUH KLV LQQHU FLUFOH FRQÀGDQWV Workers, peasants, radical intelligentsia are the primary casualties of President Buhari’s rule. Contractors, rent collectors, speculators, front and middle men and women decked in suit, ties and Agbada, circle all over the places, pocketing KXPRQJRXV XQHDUQHG SURÀW ZKLOH WKH Nigerian people groan. Basic services like electricity, water supply are unavailable despite huge investments in the sectors.
The ordinary Nigerian’s have known the empty and deceitful demagoguery of democracy as only an alibi by which the elite perfected their “white” crimes, and did not stick their heads to elect President Buhari for the ritual of democracy demagoguery and chicanery.
But, today and unfortunately, Buhari RͿHUV LQ GRXEOH GRVH WKH HPSW\ VORJDQV RI democracy. Around him and with him, in his presidency are some of his former longterm traducers, a banal clique of self-serving SROLWLFDO SURÀWHHUV GDVKLQJ KRSHV DQG causing the Nigerian people to lose faith in their country.
The security challenges have multiplied while corruption has bounced back as the HQDEOHU DQG VROH FULWHULD IRU SXEOLF RFH The disgraced faction of the political elite domiciled in the so- called opposition party have found their voice and as if yesterday never existed, are desperately marketing themselves as messiahs in the waiting.
The question that critically begs for answer is why President Buhari’s seemingly personal integrity and honesty failed to translate to radical program of political FKDQJH 3UHVLGHQW %XKDUL·V IDWDO ÁDZ ZDV in obviously believing that perceived personal honesty and loyalty of associates and even relatives, unrelated to political DOLDWLRQV RULHQWDWLRQV ZRUOGYLHZ RU political convictions or ideologies are of nominal or no consequence at all to regime character and performance. That IDWDO ÁDZ RI 3UHVLGHQW %XKDUL KDV Pade his administration despite his personal discipline, an incoherent and acrimonious EXQFK ZLWK UHJXODU LQÀJKWLQJ