Buhari’s Fourth-Time Charm
The test for Buhari’s government is the cabinet he puts together, argues
According to conventional wisdom, the third time is a charm. When you failed at something twice, and you are trying it for the third time, you encourage yourself by saying: third time is a charm, hoping that the third try will be successful. Not the fourth time. It is not a charm. Even less so for a presidential bid; a fourth bid for president is very unlikely to be successful. But not for General Muhammadu Buhari who had a fourth-time charm victory after his record of three back-toback defeats to the PDP: 2003 to Olusegun Obasanjo, 2007 to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and 2011 to Goodluck Jonathan. The victory is legendary because it shows that success is possible after three attempts at anything. It is also significant in that it provided Nigeria with its first experience at a peaceful and democratic shift of power from an incumbent president to an opposition candidate.
The only reason why the APC’s General Buhari is a president-in-waiting today while the PDP’s President Goodluck Jonathan got shellacked on March 28 is because of the desire of Nigerians to try out a new leader in the hope that he will provide them real hope and change. The APC won not because of any credible programme it offered but because it was able to tap into the “anybody but Jonathan” frenzy created by allegations of corruption and the failure of government to halt the Boko Haram insurgency.
It remains to be seen if the APC is able to deliver. Let’s hope it does. To be able deliver for Nigerians, the APC needs to get it right starting with re-jiggling itself as a party. As it is now, the APC is a big puzzle with pieces that don’t fit together. The APC was formed in February 2013 as merger of defectors from the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) and factions of the ACN (Action Congress of Nigeria), ANPP (All Nigeria People’s Party), APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance), and the CPC (Congress for Progressive Change). The 14 political governors aligned with the APC, who can be referred to as its political princes, are anything but leading lights of democracy. Having lost out in their former political parties on selfish grounds rather than democratic principles, they joined the APC out of desperation to either elongate their political lives or save themselves from comeuppance, or both. The pedigrees of these governors are in the public domain and
Nigerians are familiar with them. Aside from the governor of Lagos State and his Edo State counterpart, who have some record of good performance that Nigerians can attest to, the rest are a cesspool of corruption. Consequently, the APC has no credibility on the corruption question.
The test for General Buhari’s government is the cabinet he puts together. Part of his selling point, which he has to prove now, is the claim that he is the alpha figure in the room. As an alpha figure, he has to now choose a cabinet that is not determined by political patronage. A cabinet filled with people with toxic political backgrounds will not cut it for Nigerians. So, anyone General Buhari considered not good enough to be on the ticket with him should not be considered good enough to serve in the government of the people of Nigeria. If General Buhari chooses the wrong cabinet, it will signify a low level of deference to Nigerians and they will likely make a different call in the next election. But, if General Buhari chooses credible people to serve, and presents a vision of the future with a road map to get there, he would not only be getting Nigerians and the world supporting him, but he would also be showing why running in elections in the last 20 years has prepared him to run Nigeria for the next four years.
Nigerians want a government that looks out for them in three basic ways by fighting: the Boko Haram insurgency, corruption, and poverty. There will be no excuse for Buhari’s government in four years if Nigeria’s armed forces, the largest in Africa, with substantial financial resources, are unable to squelch the insurgency. To