About one year ago, I would have advised General Muhammadu Buhari
to take a back seat and groom personalities like Nuhu Ribadu and
Nasir El-Rufai as capable political materials for future endeavors.
Having seen the political immaturity displayed by Nuhu Ribadu in his
political prostitution of convenience and El-Rufai in his holier than thou
account of his stewardship under President Olusegun Obasanjo
however, I have come to my personal and subjective conclusion that
the political scene – far and wide – presently lays bare, a glaring
shortage of a worthy poster child to rescue Nigeria from Jonathan’s
brazen political assault.
General Muhammadu Buhari is by far, not the best presidential material
any right-thinking individual will be unreservedly proud to present to
Nigeria in these turbulent days in spite of some exemplary character
traits that should make him the envy of the neighborhood. I will address
this issue later in this discourse. So huge is the ballast that
Muhammadu Buhari’s legacy contains that he should ordinarily be
scaring the wit out of any sane mind, who wonders which destination
this stern and rigid-minded “fanatic” of fortune may end up taking
Nigeria. Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka beautifully cataloged
some highly disturbing evidences in his urgent appeal to Nigerian voters
in 2007 that were made manifest during General Buhari’s days as our
military leader.
One clear example was seen in Buhari’s apportionment of blame and
punishment for members of the helpless and rudderless government of
Alhaji Shehu Shagari that he overthrew in a coup that was led by one
Brig. Sani Abacha in 1984. Wole Soyinka explained it thus:
“The head of (that) government, on whom primary responsibility lay,
was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cosy house
detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was
locked up in Kirikiri (maximum security) prisons. Such was the Buhari
notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility.
There is no mincing words that General Buhari spoke the minds of
many ordinary Northern Nigerians when he made several statements in
the past that could be understood as a sentimental appreciation of
Boko Haram. Indeed, there were times, in which many Nigerians
understandably considered Muhammadu Buhari as a possible sponsor
of Boko Haram, who sought to use the group to make Nigeria
ungovernable under Goodluck Jonathan who General Buhari considered
as ruling on a stolen mandate. His comment that “…dogs and baboons
will be soaked in blood” if elections were rigged did not mark him as a
moderate statesman. It all came to a head in the early days of June
2013, when President Jonathan finally ordered a military crackdown on
Boko Haram probably without knowing the extent of the involvement of
elements of the military in Boko Haram’s atrocious activities.
General Buhari had flipped and deteriorated as far as characterizing
any attack on Boko Haram as an attack on the North. He had
condemned the collateral killing of civilians in the hunt for Boko Haram
fighters without condemning the repeated killing of innocent Christian
worshippers at the time. General Buhari had compared the senseless
and brutal and mass killing of innocent people by Boko Haram
terrorists with the kidnapping for ransom, murder and sabotage
activities of the former Niger Delta insurgents that were rehabilitated
into mainstream socio-political life by the late President Yar’Adua. The
resultant call for the arrest of General Buhari by Christian leaders was
largely acceptable to many observers in the South at the time. It
therefore came as no surprise that Boko Haram publicly announced the
name of General Buhari as a mediator that would be acceptable to it.
Until early to mid-2014, when General Buhari began speaking out more
clearly and fearlessly, many Nigerians still considered him – at best – a
quiet supporter of Boko Haram. In May 2014 however, he came out in
the clearest terms possible, calling Boko Haram a bunch of “mindless
bigots” who he did not regard as “followers of God”. This indeed, was
the turning point in the general perception of Boko Haram across the
board. Even in Twitter interactions, where Northerners were hitherto
generally perceived as not feeling quite comfortable with criticisms of
Boko Haram, a sense of rejection and defiance began taking hold.
In spite of the general sympathy that General Buhari often showed for
the North for several years, seemingly as a matter of priority over the
rest of Nigeria, there now seems to be an understanding on his part
that he will have to rule over entire Nigeria and not the North alone if he
is ever elected President. Today, a completely refined General Buhari is
a party man who will not seek to smash a hole in the wall with the force
of his head alone not giving a damn, what others may want. He will not
pick a Muslim-Muslim ticket because his party has reached a collective
decision not to do so. The Buhari of past years (much like the Sanusi
Lamido Sanusi of the Central Bank days) would have done more to
appease his northern constituency before anything else.
In a sober reflection of the reality of our time, everyone now seems to
have realized that Boko Haram represents a disaster and no ideal
whatsoever, neither for the North nor for the South. The actions of the
Islamic State in the Middle East, which seems to inspire more
gruesomeness and savagery by Boko Haram and other terror
organizations all over the world, now seems to have woken our
Northern compatriots to a new dawn of hope for the corporate
existence of Nigeria. It was such an emotionally overwhelming proof of
this realization to read that over 200 northern volunteer youths came
together to protect southern Christians worshipping on the Christmas
day of 2014, from the now customary Boko Haram attack on churches
in the North on Christian festive days. It marks the beginning of the end
of divisive politicking.
It also marks the temporary peak of the systematic transformation of
General Muhammadu Buhari, which seems to resonate positively with a
large section of Northern followers.
Indeed, no right-thinking individual will object to passion for any
religion or geographical region. When the interest of an entire nation is
however subjugated to the rulership addiction of a geographical region
however, there is a serious reason for hatred. General Muhammadu
Buhari’s personal intransigence, sometimes accommodating no
leniency or compromises as detailed in Wole Soyinka’s submission, his
antecedent of acting more in favor of the northern trajectory when a
choice is to be made between the north and the south as the example
of Alex Ekwueme and Shehu Shagari exemplified, are reasons enough
to simply hate General Muhammadu Buhari’s guts.
Unfortunately however, President Goodluck Jonathan has done
everything within his power during his four years of clueless rulership
(not leadership) to make the hard and stringent side of Gerneral Buhari
the conspicuously marketable character and one that is acceptable in
polite society. The result is that Nigeria now needs a leader and
President with a personal character and strength that is roughly
equivalent to what Buhari has. A president with the guts and
stubbornness to fight the mafia of the oil sector hands-down! A
president that will dare to take on Generals in the army, unveil the
political manipulations that have undermined the efficiency of our
military that was once the envy of a continent and reorganize the
system altogether! A President that will be ready to take hard decisions
against the resistance of powerful interest groups not one that chooses
the easier option of removing fuel subsidy to avoid confronting the
criminals of the sector! In the public arena today, only two characters
stand out with the credentials to dare such onerous task and succeed
– Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari! Ibrahim Babangida
would be too busy maneuvering and outwitting his opponents to
succeed in such a task that requires brute force and stubbornness.
Since Olusegun Obasanjo is not on the ballot and would not even stand
a chance of winning if he was, the only candidate that every lover of
Nigeria should support and vote into power today is just Muhammadu
Buhari. It is a hard choice and there are many like me who are simply
praying today that the gamble may work and that Buhari does not turn
out to a be a nightmare for the corporate existence of Nigeria through
excessive stubbornness and negative partisanship. As it stands in the
present moment, the continued presence of President Goodluck
Jonathan beyond 2015 will be the death knell for Nigeria’s existence.
General Muhammadu Buhari’s modesty and personal rejection of
unnecessary, to say the least of excessive material wealth simply
serves to further underscore why Nigeria needs a man of such
character sooner rather than later. This will be a President that will not
require a foreign contractor to first build a church or a mosque in his
own village as a prelude to awarding a government contract. It is a
man that will not empower a Boko Haram commander to play Asari
Dokubo because the man has guts himself. It is a man, whose staffs
and others working around him will have a hard time reeling in a frenzy
of corrupt enrichment.
Muhammadu Buhari is worth hating in every sense of the word.
Confronted with the choice between him and President Jonathan
however, only sycophants and people feeding and surviving on
Jonathan’s free-for-all looting at the top will prefer Jonathan. I know
no man of intelligence and honor that will pitch his tent with President
Jonathan with his proven lot of cluelessness, incapacitation and
wanton corruption. If voted President and I have no doubt, he will be
no matter the odds, I dare predict that Muhammadu Buhari will end up
being more hated than Olusegun Obasanjo because he will be ready to
step on toes and probably more brutally than Obasanjo did. It remains
to be seen however, if he will be ready to pay the ultimate price of
letting Goodluck Jonathan and his criminal clan off the hook in the
interest of maintaining peace and fostering unity on Nigeria. After all,
judging by widespread public sentiments, not even the dangerous
calculation of not holding elections in three states of the North on
grounds of intensified Boko Haram activities will help Jonathan at the
present moment.
saharareporters.com/2014/12/29/many-reasons-hate-buhari-many-more-crucify-jonathan

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