There was a little ‘stir’, at lunch time, last Wednesday, at Dele Momodu’s House of Ovation located in the Airport West area of Accra. A group of Nigerians, very likely from the same office, had gathered to eat. While waiting for their orders, they decided to burn time with politics. And what else to discuss if not General Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s President-Elect, and his incoming government.

“Buhari will perform,” one of the men opened the debate with a distinctive Yoruba accent. “But my fear is how he would cope with the real owners of APC.”

“What do you mean ‘coping with the real owners of APC?” Another interjected. “Which real owners? They are joint owners, my friend! They have equal say.”

“You are wrong,” a man with rich baritone countered the last speaker. “Buhari is not a joint owner in APC. He is a President coming to Aso Rock on borrowed platform. And as they say, ‘he that pays the piper dictates the tune’. The owners of the party will dictate the tune, tenure and tone of Buhari’s government. And the heavens will not fall. Buhari doesn’t own APC.”

The fourth diner, a heavily built man, suddenly lifted his heavy bulk off his chair, almost tipping the table, and released a prolonged laughter that rang out like a clap of thunder. “Which Buhari are you talking about?” He asked, untying his black tie. “You people don’t know Buhari. He doesn’t need any party to perform. He doesn’t need a party to fight corruption. He will fight corruption to a standstill and if anybody wants to stand on his way, he will crush him. He has started already.”

“How?” The second speaker asked, with a piercing look.

“Go and check what he wrote on his Facebook page. Go and read it,” the bulky Buhari-protagonist said.

“What did he write?” Two of the diners asked simultaneously, with infectious curiosity.

For an answer, the bulky man fished out his phone in a jiffy. “Buhari just declared his assets on Facebook, before a worldwide audience, saying he had only N1million in his bank account,” the bulky man informed his colleagues. And within seconds, he began to read Buhari’s words:

‘I have at least one million naira in my bank, having paid N5.5million to pick my form from my party. I have around 150 cattle because I am never comfortable with cows. I have a house each in Kaduna, Kano, and Daura which I borrowed money to build. I never had a foreign account since I finished my courses in the USA, India and the UK. I never owned any property outside Nigeria. Never.’

“Incredible!” an excited member of the group screamed.

“What is incredible in that?” another retorted. “We can’t sit down here and swallow everything hook, line and sinker.”

“So, we should call a press conference and say the man lied?” the excited participant pressed. “The man said that is what he has and you are trying to rubbish him. Maybe you need to contract a private investigator to help you establish the veracity of Buhari’s claims.”

“You and I know that even if I had the money, I will never try it,” the doubting Thomas replied. “It’s unfortunate we don’t have investigative journalists in this country. Otherwise, that is their job. They should take it from there and confirm the claim or expose the lie, if there is any.”

By now, the waiter started bringing the orders, and the debaters began to adjust themselves on their seats, ready to demolish the food. But before that began, the man who started it all, gave a passing shot.

“Gentlemen, we must not lose sight of the import of what the President-Elect has just done. By declaring his assets on Facebook, a universal super highway of information, he is simply telling his team members that if you must follow me, you must do likewise. To me, he has quietly begun his war against corruption, and I’m sure those who would not conform to his standards have a battle to fight. Under Buhari, I’m not sure it will be possible for any individual to attempt buying the whole of Abuja. It will not happen.”

Boy, did I enjoy the debate? I sure did. I wrote all through because I found it quite illuminating. It confirmed what I have been ruminating over recently. And that is: when the euphoria of winning shall wane, as it surely will, when the excitement over the wind of change that has just blown over Nigeria begins to subside, the veil would fall. And the real thing, as some people would say, would unfurl. And it would be time for reality.

I have no iota of doubt that the President-Elect will perform. He will. His track record is there. But would he have a smooth sail all through? I doubt. This is because most stalwarts of the APC congregation, the platform that threw up Buhari as President, are not bound by the same ideology or political philosophy. They are majorly bound by the expediency of the time, namely: demystifying the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and sweeping out the inept Goodluck Jonathan Administration at all costs and by all means possible.

That has been achieved. But very soon, the variegations in the APC would begin to manifest. And that’s one of the challenges that Buhari, as President, would face. That’s what I think. Like one of the diners above said, since Buhari is a ‘joiner’ and not a co-owner of the APC, the dynamics of such political composition will surface. And how the parties involved are able to marry their principles and philosophies would determine APC’s peace and tranquility.

Buhari has made history by becoming the first opposition candidate to unseat an incumbent President in an election that the whole world adjudged to be free, fair and peaceful. He is at the threshold of another. That is: to emerge as the President who is able to amalgamate the different configurations within the ruling party to engender peace and record such resounding progress for the country that would keep PDP in the limbo for ‘60’ years, like Vincent Ogbulafor once boasted.

He can do it. He should do it.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=116454
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