Support Buhari for President? No, No, Never!

In our search for a Progressive candidate to rally behind for the 2011 Presidential polls, I want to humbly submit that Buhari be not chosen as that candidate. I will tell you why.

Buhari presided over this country as the head of a ruthless military junta for twenty months. What did he achieve in office except intimidate the population, cower the press, throw people who dissent in jail, especially journalists and other professionals, including Doctors. Buhari unpatriotically ruthlessly suppressed the legitimate struggle of the Nigerian Medical Association to improve healthcare delivery in the country, and at the end of the day, he caused such demoralization of Doctors which resulted in unprecedented “Brain Drain” of the cream of the profession abroad.

Buhari seized the reins of power on December 31, 1983 from then President Shehu Shagari. I remembered the day very vividly. I was standing in the parking lot of St. Day Adventist Hospital in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, waiting for other Doctors about to travel to Ede for the funeral of one of our Resident Doctors who tragically succumbed to cancer. We switched on the radio, and heard one Brigadier Joshua Dongoyaro announced the take-over of the government by the military, declaring, inter alia, “our hospitals have become consulting clinics.”

With such bold declaration of the raison d’etre for taking over the control of the country, Doctors had expected that Buhari was going to address the rapid deterioration in the healthcare of the country. The teaching hospitals were in shambles, and were shadows of what they once were, when for example, the University College Hospital, Ibadan was the pride of the continent and was taking referrals of complex cases from other African countries. There was no co-ordinated primary care to talk about in the country. Buhari did absolutely nothing, and there was no-one to hold him accountable, because he had cowered everybody, including the press, with the draconian Decree Number 4. It was left to the professionals to speak out, and Doctors did.

The National Association of Resident Doctors, and later the Nigerian Medical Associaion, demanded that improvements be made in the health sector, so that our hospitals would not be merely places where people would go to die “after a brief illness.” A few journalists who dared to write the truth commended the patriotic stance of Doctors, and I remembered one Ayo Ositelu, even though he was a sports writer, wrote as follows in the Punch: “for once the Doctors are not asking for extra-pay for themselves, but want improvement in the health of the nation; the government should listen to them, and dialogue.”

Dialogue? Hell, no! Buhari unleashed the might of the Federal Government against Doctors. NSO officials went round the homes of the leadership of the Association and hauled them off to detention. I was Secretary of the NMA Ife/Ijesha zone at that time, and my picture was once on the front page of the “Guardian” newspaper, attending a caucus meeting of the NMA at Luth, Lagos. When the government clamp down began, I learnt threw a local NSO official that order had been given out for me to be picked up, and I fled my home. I had to sleep in someone’s garage for many days, after evacuating my young son and pregnant wife to safety. True patriots like late Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti, Dr. Oye Adeniran, Dr. Atoyebi, Dr. Jacob Akoh (ABU Zaria), Dr. Arowolo (R.I.P)(UCH, Ibadan), Dr. Adewole (UCH Ibadan), to name a few, were either arrested or laid off their good jobs they had labored had for.

The government won that battle, but lost the war to improve the health of the nation. The Government response to the Doctors’ action was so demoralizing that many of my colleagues, including myself, who had tenaciously held that we would not go abroad, but stay back in Nigeria to serve our people, started making plans to “check out.” As the top student in my graduating class at UCH Ibadan in 1979, I had lots of opportunities to go abroad, including one very good offer to do residency at a top hospital in London in 1980, right after my internship at Akure. Rather, I returned to Nigeria and did NYSC at Toro, Bauchi State, where I was the only Medical Doctor in the entire Local Government of over 300,000, and the very first Youth Corper Doctor who agreed to stay for the entire year at Toro, where there was no pipe borne water, electric power supply, or hospital admission facility. After the Buhari/Idiagbon clamp down, the sojourn of Doctors abroad, which was until then only in trickles, mainly by the older Doctors to countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and the younger ones to the UK and US, became an avalanche, and the genesis of the exodus of Doctors from the country, the beginning of the explosion of the “brain drain.”

Ironically, it was reported that the co-architect of the clamp down on Doctors, General Tunde Idiagbon was rushed into a hospital at Ilorin a few years ago, after he collapse, and had a heart attack. He did not survive the occurrence. I feel sorry for him, but I could not but wonder whether the outcome might have been different had his government heeded the clarion call from concerned Doctors to improve the country’s healthcare facilities. Even now in 2010, how many medical facilities in Nigeria can handle a full blown case of heart attack. Suffering a true medical emergency in Nigeria is virtually a death sentence, in a country where Cecilia Ibru stole 191 Billion Naira, and one billion Naira investment in the health sector in every state, if fully invested and not stolen, would make a huge difference. There is no co-ordinated ambulance service in the country, and many of the victims of the carnage on our ill-maintained highways die unnecessary deaths. The afore-mentioned Dr. Arowolo, laid off after the Doctor/Buhari confrontation of 1985, and a dynamic compatriot, Mr. Banji Adegboro, who was President of the Students’ Union of University of Ibadan, the year before I was elected Vice-President of the Union, were some of the cream of our society who died needless deaths after road accidents.

Back to Buhari. Buhari has not fared better in politics, and has held fast to his military dictatorial tendencies. He was Presidential candidate for ANPP, and after losing the elections in 2007, both he and his party filed petition against the declared winner, Yaradua. How Buhari, with only significant support in only a handful of states in the North thought he could have won the presidency is beyond me, but that is not the main issue. His party decided to withdraw the petition and channel another course. As a true democrat, Buhari should have dialogued with the leaders of his party, and once a decision is taken, abide by that decision. Rather, Buhari insisted on the incongruous cause of action of pursuing his election petition by himself, against the wishes of the party which sponsored him for the post. Absurd: very, very absurd.

We were told stories of how the Supreme Military Council ran by Buhari and Idiagbon was badly divided and fragmented. It appears that Buhari cannot work with anybody, because he always believes that his way is the only right way of looking at things. I can picture the situation were Buhari to be elected as an Executive President in the country. I can assure you that within a few weeks he would turn against the coalition that brings him to power. Politics is question of give and take, and the beauty of life is that one person is not the repository of wisdom. It’s a big problem if someone is, or more correctly, thinks that he is, right all the time. People who are worried about the “over-heating” of the polity better think twice about supporting Buhari for the Presidency, because he will not only over-heat the polity, he will take this country on a roller-coaster, and be at logger heads with the National Assembly, his party and even his own ministers, because he cannot work with anybody.

Nuhu Ribadu has my vote, but support Buhari for Presidency? “Objection, Your Honor” – very strongly!

emmanuel Fashakin MD, Esq

no never, he had every opportunity to make things better, but he didnt.

With all due respect, even if you write a book about Buhari, there are many people who will say why he should run, and wont have any reasoning other than "Let him try"- the Naija way of course.


The only thing in your post that I actually decided to read that you omited was that we are no longer living in the last century, and Buhari and co are of that era.

Imagine hijacking/couping your party's ticket in 2003 (when other "credible" candidates from the South were there) and again taking the ticket all for yourself in 2007, and scheming again to be the sole candidate in 2011. Na WAH

In serious nations that would be considered as a person who's not so serious and is in it for themselves.

Does the writer seriously think Ribadu, given his antecedents at EFCC, will make a better democrat than Buhari?

I laff in hausa. . .

I think he fought corruption without favoritism.

Abagworo:

I think he fought corruption without favoritism.

You see what I'm sayin

@ poster

after buhari, ibb was worse, abacha was a nightmare obasanjo was was a combination of evils of ibb and abacha. Yaradua was a joke and right now we ve a dumb cowboy who can not talk like a president. You know what i did stick to buhari than go for any of the above

As far as I'm concerned, there is no obvious advantage of Ribadu over Buhari. Either of the two perhaps represent our best chance in the fight against corruption.

I no understand the plenty talk but i say no Bukhari . He did not support Turai when she have trouble with Jonathan

The purpose of my writing was to focus our attention on Buhari's great opportunity, at a critical time in our nationhood, when he was head of a military dictatorship, and could have effected a radical change for the better at a fiat, and did nothing except terrorize professionals and compatriots who love the country more than he.

The mantle of leadership should pass on to the newer generation, who are willing to work with fellow progressives to bring Nigeria out of this quagmire. Every aspect of our nationhood stinks: our health sector, education, power, even the judiciary; our economy is almost completely dependent on oil. Most people in politics are there for themselves -- to steal, or in Buhari's sake, to satisfy a quest for power, rather than the love of the people. The nation yearns for true patriots.

I love the attributes Ribadu brings to the table -- Nuhu fought corruption in the country when it was unfashionable to do so. He brought Nigeria some semblance of respect abroad, which goodwill the present administration has all but squandered. I have heard of smears on Ribadu before -- houses in UK, Dubai etc which all turned out to be false. If someone has irrefutable evidence of corruption on Ribadu's part, except for the fairly selective prosecution induced by OBJ which I am willing to forgive, then I will like to see it.

If the progressives choose another leader -- and we have abundant talent in this country -- then I am willing to follow. But please not Buhari. He waged a War Against Indiscipline when he had the opportunity, when he should have tackled corruption and solve our problems to make us a better nation. Buhari left Nigeria a worse nation, in terms of development and infrastructures than he met it, and IBB finished us off. Buhari instituted WAI to instill discipline, which is defined as listening to and obeying Buhari without complaining or writing, even the truth, in the newspapers if it will embarrass Buhari. Buhari is not fit to be our elected democratic President

The struggle continues
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Emmanuel O. Fashakin, M.D.; Esq.:-)
Attorney at Law & President/ Medical Director,
Alpha-K Family Medical Practice, P.C.
79-35 153rd Street, Flushing, NY 11367,USA
Tel: (718) 591-1600; Fax: (718) 591-0265
web address: www.alphak.org
alternative e-mail: mdfash2@gmail.com
Mobile phones: +1-347-217-6175; +1-267-907-3127

And how popular is Buhari? Certainly not more than IBB.

Buhari ruled from 1983 to 1985 and he's the greatest thing that came from Africa abi? Well, I guess we arent ready to modernize