The Buhari of my personal
experience
Friday, 06 February 2015 00:00
Written by Ignatius C. Olisemeka
Buhari-politics
WITHOUT ever knowing or meeting
me, Buhari gave me a chance. As I
now write, I have never met him one-
on-one. We have never spoken to
each other. It is an extraordinary
experience of an unusual man.
I was sitting on my desk in the
Ministry of External Affairs, 40,
Marina, Lagos in 1984, when I
received a letter appointing me
Ambassador to the United States of
America.
My place of origin did not matter.
Incidentally, I am from Ibusa, a
famous town now in Delta State;
then, in Bendel State. My religion did
not matter either.
I had no worthwhile contacts with
the Dodan Barracks. All I knew, and
had always known, was to work hard
and to express my views as candidly
and as courageously as I could,
regardless of the consequences;
provided I was convinced they were
right.
It was never easy or smooth-sailing.
Of course, that had its bitter
consequences; but at the end, now at
83, looking back, it worked out just
right.
Of all the Nigerian leaders, with the
possible exception of Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa,
Buhari has been the one that has
most approximated my dream of
what a Nigerian leader should be.
Without any attempt at self-
advertisement, but simply as a matter
of fact, I knew and had worked and
interacted with most, if not all of our
leaders.
I worked with Sir James Robertson,
the last colonial Governor-General of
Nigeria, after graduating from the
University College, Ibadan in 1957. I
served as Clerk to the Privy Council
and as Assistant Secretary
(Administrative Officer) in charge of
Security.
I worked up to my immediate boss,
Mr. C. O. Lawson, the then respected
Secretary to the Cabinet in the
Governor-General’s office.
As part of my schedule of duties as
officer in charge of security, I had the
privilege and honour of being a
member of a 3-man-panel, two of
them British, which interviewed and
recruited the first batch of Nigerian
military officers into the Nigerian
army in 1958. This batch included
Olusegun Obasanjo.
In 1958, I transferred to the Ministry
of External Affairs, making a career in
the Diplomatic Service, which lasted
forty-two (42) years, from where I
eventually rose as Foreign Minister,
having served as Ambassador in nine
(9) countries, a few with concurrent
accreditation, including Kenya under
Jomo Kenyatta, Botswana under Sir
Seretse Khama, Lesotho under King
Moshoeshoe I, Spain, The Holy See
under three Popes (John Paul VI,
John Paul I and John Paul II), the
United States of America, Canada
and, lastly, in Israel for six (6) years, a
mission I established and rose to be
Doyen of the Diplomatic Corps.
In between, I was Chief of Protocol of
the Federation to Zik and Balewa,
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, as well as Directing
Staff in the National Institute of
Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS),
Kuru, for two years (1988/1989).
I am now a retired pensioner,
carefully minding my own business
and tending my personal affairs. I do
not belong to any political party and
have never belonged to any.
In the best tradition of the colonial
public service of my days, I have
remained strictly anonymous and
aloof; occasionally, making my views
and opinion privately known to the
appropriate authorities of the day on
any issue I feel strongly about.
I seek no office and no financial or
material favours. All I am doing is to
put on public record my private
opinion, views and experience, which
may not be available and known to
many Nigerians.
Major General Muhammadu Buhari
not only gave me the opportunity to
serve Nigeria as Ambassador in the
United States, he did even more than
that. He entrusted to me the care and
welfare of his family, still without our
knowing or meeting each other.
He sent his wife and two children to
me in Washington D.C. for medical
treatment. He took his chance and
dealt with me strictly on a
professional basis.
His family were with me in
Washington D.C. when the General
was overthrown in a coup d’état. We
did the best we could and sent them
back home safely under the trying
and traumatic circumstances they
found themselves- still, never a word
from this unusual person.
In 1988 after I returned as
Ambassador from Washington D.C., I
was assigned, as a punitive measure,
as Directing Staff to the National
Institute of Policy and Strategic
Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, for two years.
The subject of our research in that
year led the Syndicate I headed to
visit Buhari’s state of origin. With the
approval of government, members of
the Syndicate visited Buhari, who was
then under house arrest in his
hometown, Daura.
This most extraordinary man
received us with warmth and
courtesy. We found him living in a
modest, sparsely furnished three or
four bedroom bungalow, which was
his house. He still did not know who I
was; nor did I disclose my identity to
him.
It was unbelievable, even in those
days that a former General in the
Nigerian Army and a former Head of
State could live in such a modest,
spartan abode. What further struck
me was a complete lack of bitterness;
unless the Fulani in him concealed
and dissembled it!
What do all these tell me about this
man, Buhari? Others may have a
different opinion of him. I absolutely
concede to them the right to hold
their views. As far as I am personally
concerned, four short phrases
summarise my overall impression
and opinion of Buhari. An
incorruptible man. A patriotic
Nigerian devoid of any trace of
ethnicism and parochialism. A deeply
religious man. Above all, a stern
disciplinarian.
We so often talk glibly of the giant
strides Asian Tigers have taken to
leap from the state of
underdevelopment to developed
nations.
We refer tirelessly to the
achievements of men like Lee Kuan
Yew. I have, personally, met Lee Kuan
Yew in Singapore. I did so in the
company of General Yakubu Gowon
when he returned from exile from
the United Kingdom.
Little do we know or appreciate the
agonising hardship, pains and
sufferings all Singaporeans, Chinese,
Malays, Indians and other ethnic
nationalities had to endure for
Singapore to attain its present height
as a respected nation. Gold must be
smelted in hot burning furnaces
before unleashing its shine and
purity.
Lee Kuan Yew was a benevolent
democratic autocrat. He subjected
his people to a good dose of rigorous
healthy discipline. No country makes
that type of progress Singapore made
without an unwavering sense of
disciplined direction.
Moreover, Lee Kuan Yew was an
inspirational leader of his people. He
governed by example.
It is not just the question of the
number of kilometres of roads you
build that elevates a nation. It is not a
matter of the megawatts of power
you generate or the number of
buildings you erect for the populace.
Not even the refineries you build or
the volume of agricultural products
produced and exported. These are
important. Any leader surrounded by
brilliant experts, excellent
technocrats and loyal advisers can
achieve those basic and essential
needs.
Leadership calls for much greater
attributes than the performance of
those feats. A leader must have a
strong, solid, moral and disciplined
background, the inspirational ability
to galvanize his people to higher,
lofty and common purpose.
These are not ordinary attributes
available to every man. They are
uncommon gifts and talents
dispensed and bestowed only to a
few. This makes the difference
between one man and the other, one
woman and the other.
It is not often we have a Ghandi or a
Mandela; an Ataturk, or a Winston
Churchill; a Charles de Gaulle, or a
Konrad Adenauer, who became one
of the most respected Chancellors of
Germany at the ripe age of 81; a
Margaret Thatcher, or even our own
often quoted Obama.
Nearer home, with all their
imperfections, considering that a
prophet is without honour in his own
country, we must reckon with
Azikiwe, the Sardauna, Awolowo,
Aminu Kano and J.S. Tarka, the real
and genuine ‘founding fathers’ of our
nation.
BUHARI, in my view, belongs to the
last and passing generation of this
group of Nigerian leaders. It was a
pity that fate thrust him into
leadership limelight at a period in
time when military revolution and
coups d’états were in vogue and held
sway.
In a democratic setting, as we now
have, I believe that the real worth
and essence of this man,
encapsulated in an exemplary and
enigmatic personal life, will blaze
through and shine forth.
It will soon be clear that those of his
followers of questionable and
dubious pedigree, who think they can
latch on to the reputation of this rare
Nigerian, would be the first to be
highly disappointed.
I also believe that what is badly
needed at this stage of our national
life is a leadership that will turn the
country around; and rescue us from
the depth of chronic indiscipline,
disorder and decadence we have,
over the years, gradually descended
and slid into.
What I believe we need is a strong
hand at the helm, with the support of
our people, who will instil in us a
much needed sense of order and
discipline; inspire us into patriotic
zeal and sacrifice; bring out the best
in each one of us; and encourage in
us the love of nation.
The nation’s sense of indiscipline and
disorder is evident and all pervasive
even in very simple things and
matters of the day and moment. A
roadside mechanic claims to be an
Engineer (Engr.) and insists on being
so styled.
A traditional herbalist insists he must
be called and respected as a
professional medical Doctor (Dr.)
and, indeed, hugs the appellation. An
ordinary traditional village
community leader, who flamboyantly
styles himself a Chief and clownishly
attired in a self-designed robe, is
addressed not only as “Your
Highness” but takes offence if he is
not properly addressed as “Your
Royal Highness”.
A number of respected Kabiyesis no
longer have regard for their beautiful
traditional titles, unless we, their
‘subjects,’ address them as “Your
Majesty” or worse still, “Your Royal
Majesty”.
The same applies to the ‘Ran
kadades’, most of our Emirs and
prominent men in authority revel in
when interacting with the poor
subservient so-called talakawas.
May I also observe that the awkward
title of ‘His Eminence,’ is a misnomer,
which should be revisited and
reconsidered.
Members of our legislative houses
feel incomplete and uncomfortable
until they are addressed as
‘Honourables’ or ‘Distinguished
Senators’. They are no longer plain
‘Mister’ or ‘Madam’.
I believe it is time we became a little
more creative and find suitable
traditional and local substitutes for
these foreign appellations, which
portray us as caricatures and ridicule
us as people and nation in the
outside world.
What a pride and beauty to have one
of the foremost traditional rulers of
the land being regaled with the title,
Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo,
Oba Erediauwa! Why can we not start
emulating and adopting this practice
in most of our national institutions?
It will give us a sense of pride and
self-worth.
Ambitious pseudo-intellectual self-
publicists cleverly thrust their
mediocrity and opinions on us and
flaunt their borrowed, half-baked, ill-
digested ideas, concepts, jargons and
clichés.
Pages of our national newspapers are
replete with lavishly self-serving
advertisements of obituaries,
weddings and birthday celebrations.
Why not severely tax those who place
these wasteful advertisements to rake
in and release funds to charities or
other good causes such as sporting
and educational development of the
country?
Hitherto decent, pretty, confident
young ladies on our television sets in
order to make themselves more
attractive and acceptable, bleach
their skin to pale sickening white,
with their veins thinly exposed; their
bare knuckles and elbows still looking
jet black. They should be reassigned
to the back room offices, decorated
with mirrors, left to rue their new
look, which has become an eyesore
to many viewers.
Our television channels have
suddenly become a babel and
cacophony of crude and
embarrassing noisemakers, reflecting
the values of a sick society, drunk
with democratic excesses.
Honorary degrees are sold, bought
and conferred on underserving
personalities by many of our
Universities and these personalities
shamelessly parade them at will.
A few prominent church leaders have
relocated their pulpits from their
churches to the seats of secular
power, while a number of Imams
have not been able to teach their
adherents the purity of their religion,
which preaches respect for human
lives.
Our youths need impeccable high-
level connections before gaining
employment at any level, both decent
and menial. Impunity freely reigns in
the land more than ever before.
The temples of justice are daily being
desecrated. The Lady now has her
eyes wide open, seductively
beckoning and soliciting for favours.
More painful still, is the near-
absolute control of our entire being
and lives as a people by others. We
appear helpless to cast off that yoke
and burden even though we claim to
be independent; helpless to govern
ourselves with any modicum of self-
respect and dignity and take our
destiny into our hands.
The list is endless. Am I a part of this
messy order? Certainly, yes! None of
us can pretend not to be part of it, in
one way or the other, in differing
roles. Only that some exacerbate it
more than others.
This situation calls for a man who, by
personal example, can firmly and
fearlessly put an end to these
vulgarities and inanities.
This is one side of the coin. There is
another side of the coin to our
national life for which we can
proudly hold our heads very high.
This is the side no other single
country in the world I know can ever
match.
The list is inexhaustive and much
longer than our shortcomings. We do
not, however, necessarily need to
dwell on them or spell them out
here, as we search for positive
measures and values that will
enhance and edify our nation.
Buhari represents, in my opinion, the
last opportunity we have to get things
reasonably right before the baton
passes permanently on to the next
and coming generation.
After him, the generation of the
‘founding fathers’ would have faded
away; with their legacies, left behind,
hopefully for good. He should be
given the chance to restore and
consolidate the disappearing values
of that ‘golden age’ so sadly
disrupted by the military, to which
paradoxically and tragically, he and
those in that generation, and that
before him, were willy-nilly pressed
into being a part of.
He carries on his frail, ageing but
reliable shoulders a historic
responsibility and burden of getting
it right. He has a bounden duty to
realign the nation towards achieving
its manifest destiny. He has no
excuses for failure. Otherwise, why
should he be seeking power at his
age? It makes absolutely no sense.
Why not take a comfortable and
relaxed back seat like most of us?
History will judge him very harshly
should he fail.
The immediate challenge before him,
I feel convinced, is how to curb the
excesses of the teaming mass of
followers who, undoubtedly, adore
him.
The next, is to rein in the display of
empty, hollow pompousness and
offensive arrogance by a few of his
elitist, lazy patronage-seeking
associates, who, if victorious, will
flock to him without discrimination. I
had always instinctively recognised
and resented this feeling at first
hand, even from a distance.
I believe it is time for us to begin
anew. Let us begin to lead our lives as
normal human beings; and not in
self-delusion and self-deceit. This is
the real transformation needed. This
is the revolution we yearn for at this
point in time in our national life.
I can now start understanding what
drove past Chinese leaders into
staging the “Cultural Revolution”.
Nigeria is ripe, indeed, over ripe for a
non-violent revolution, which will
shake us all up like a volcanic
eruption from our present national
stupor.
Who will sweep out the quacks and
charlatans in our midst? Who will
guarantee us enduring values? Who
will cleanse the cobwebs from our
national home?
All said, let no one forget there is no
better country than Nigeria in the
whole world. I feel happiest when I
am in Nigeria, despite the agonizing
frustrations, despite the infuriating
hardship, and even when I am being
driven daily to the brink of
desperation.
• Chief Olisemeka is former
Ambassador and Minister of Foreign
Affairs.
Source: Guardian, 6th February, 2015