EVEN BY his own admission, General Mohammedu Buhari’s time in charge of Nigeria is not one to be misty-eyed about.
After seizing power in a coup in 1983, he threw critics in jail, kidnapped enemies off the streets of London, and ordered soldiers to whip Nigerians who did not queue in orderly fashion at bus stops.
By any normal standards, the ageing former dictator should now be a relic of the dark days of military rule, when the only way to stop the country falling apart seemed to be an iron fist. Instead, he may be about to be voted in again as president.
At an age when other politicians are considering retirement, Mr Buhari, 72, has emerged as the main challenger to President Goodluck Jonathan in Saturday’s vote for the head of Africa’s most populous state.
With Boko Haram still running rampant, 200 kidnapped schoolgirls still missing, and poverty and corruption still rife, many Nigerians feel Mr Jonathan is not up to the job.
Hence the nostalgia for a dour ex-strongman like Mr Buhari, who is now running neck-and-neck with the incumbent.
“Given the option between a failed present and a former dictator with a track record, I think the choice is going to be pretty clear for most Nigerians,” Mr Buhari’s chief spokesman, Lai Mohammed, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“You have to look at the challenges Nigeria is facing in security and corruption and the economy. Frankly Mr Jonathan hasn’t proved up to them.”
The last time he was in power, having ousted a hopelessly corrupt civilian government in 1983, Mr Buhari pursued his vision of a more orderly Nigeria with singleminded ruthlessness.
In what he called the “war on indiscipline”, he beefed up the country’s secret police, prosecuted hundreds of officials for corruption and threw journalists and anyone else who dared criticise him into jail, including Fela Kuti, the legendary pioneer of Nigerian “high life” music.
The long arm of his law also reached out for Nigerians who fled abroad. In 1984, his government dispatched agents to London to kidnap Umaru Dikko, a minister in the previous government accused of embezzlement.
The plot was only rumbled when a customs officer at Stansted Airport became suspicious about a crate marked “diplomatic baggage” that was due to be picked up by a Nigerian airliner.
Inside, he found an unconscious Mr Dikko, as well as the professional anaesthetist who had drugged him. The incident sparked a major diplomatic fall-out with Britain and saw four men jailed for kidnapping. At home, such crat,” said Osita Chidoka, an aviation minister in Mr Jonathan’s government. “It is a sign of the desperation of the opposition that they have to fall back on someone like him.”
Born near the border with Chad, Mr Buhari comes from one of Nigeria’s aristocratic northern Muslim families, who have traditionally punched well above their weight in national politics.
But while his following crosses Nigeria’s MuslimChristian divide, his less-thancharismatic speaking style is not suited to the showmanship required in electoral bat-
Makeover: General Buhari in the Eighties, top, and in a recent publicity photograph
tles: hence his defeats in a number of previous presidential contests.
This time around, though, he is level-pegging with Mr Jonathan on 42 per cent of the vote, profiting from his rival’s weakness over Boko Haram. On Friday, the latest of Boko Haram’s grisly massacres was discovered: a mass grave of at least 70 people outside the town of Damasak.
He also has his wife, the formidable Mrs Aishat Buhari, at his side, who is touring the country in an effort to reassure people that her man has changed. Among those who need convincing is Mr Jonathan’s wife, Patience, who claimed recently that Mr Buhari would put her husband’s entire government behind bars were he to gain power.
The polls are now close outlandish gambits won Mr enough to worry diplomats, Buhari grudging respect. who fear post-vote violence if
He was seen as relatively the result is disputed by one free of corruption and his side. The rivals have pledged efforts to clean up Nigeria’s to settle any dispute peacecivil service, an Augean stafully, but one official said: bles of graft and incompe“There is a concern that the tence, won him praise. At one loser might take their grievpoint he punished civil servances on to the streets rather ants who turned up late for than into the courts”. work by making them do frog A defeat for Mr Jonathan jumps. would also be the first time in
For the forthcoming election, Nigeria’s brief democracy that he has had to polish his deman incumbent leader has not ocratic credentials a touch. won a second term or handed
In a recent speech at Lonpower to a nominated successor.don’sChathamHousethink tank, he described himself as However, a graceful exit a “converted democrat”, who could prove to be his most had realised the futility of lasting act of statesmanship. one-party rule after the colIt would also set a good lapse of the Soviet Union. precedent for Mr Buhari, who
“I cannot change the past, may find life as a civilian govbut I can change the present ernment rather harder than and the future,” he said. “So life as a civilian opposition before you is a former military leader. Nigerians may be preruler, who is ready to operate pared to give Mr Buhari himunder democratic norms.” self the benefit of the doubt,
A remarkable photoshoot but there are fears that many also saw him pose with his of those around him are corchildren and grandchildren in rupt themselves. a range of costumes, from traAs one diplomat put it: ditional tribal outfits to a din“People that might help him ner jacket and bow tie. win an election are not neces
Some are unmoved. “Buhari sarily the ones to help him is instinctively not a demo- govern.”