Can someone feel the Buhari Bakare Tsunami? Tell has the general on the cover page this week, his running mate bakare is also in it, having been on the front page of the sun newspapers 2 days within a week. the media are buying this ticket and the masses are seeing it. The change we need has started. It is a balanced analysis, both the good and the bad, but the good stands taller!

Tell Margazine

The time appears right, the tide just as fair and the people ready. But how far can Muhammadu Buhari go in the April presidential poll?

By ANAYOCHUKWU AGBO

According to an Igbo adage, when an old woman falls two times, you count what she is carrying. Muhammadu Buhari, retired major-general and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, faces this proverbial syndrome in the April presidential election. It will be his third attempt at the presidency under a democratic dispensation, and it will be a watershed in his odyssey. This time, his chance appears brightest yet he is still very vulnerable, and a little wind could tilt the scales to either side. Though he says he will continue to run, many political analysts feel it will be his last viable attempt at the presidency if he does not win this time around.

Born on December 17, 1942, Buhari first came to limelight when he was appointed governor of the old North-eastern state in August 1975. This ended abruptly in March 1976, when another coup overthrew the military government of Murtala Muhammed. He was appointed minister of petroleum and mineral resources in March 1976; a position he held till June 1978.

He became the seventh head of state of Nigeria on December 31, 1983, after soldiers overthrew the civilian government of Shehu Shagari for corruption. For the 20 months his government lasted before it was overthrown on August 27, 1985, the Buhari-Idiagbon regime (as his administration was called, since he more or less shared the headship of that government with late Tunde Idiagbon, lieutenant- general) was known for its strong anti-corruption crusade anchored on War Against Indiscipline, WAI. Buhari described Shehu Shagari’s government as “hopelessly corrupt.” Regarded as authoritarian and draconian, Nigerians today still look back with nostalgia to those months as the only period since independence when Nigerians made a conscious attempt to be disciplined and the government corruption-free.

But on the democracy scale, Buhari’s scores were depressing. He abused human rights and imprisoned journalists. He executed drug suspects without proper trials and put the fear of government, not the love, into Nigerians.

Be that as it may, even Buhari’s critics agree that he is top gun when it comes to integrity and discipline. He was overthrown because of his aversion to corruption and insistence on investigating alleged contract scams in the ministry of defence. If this were not pre-empted through the palace coup, many military bigwigs would have been implicated, dismissed and probably sent to jail. He is one of the past Nigerian heads of state, who is not trailed by allegations of corruption.

Perhaps, because of this, the Abacha junta created the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund, PTF, and appointed him to head it, which he accepted after much persuasion. Though the southern part of Nigeria, especially the Niger Delta where the oil comes from, accused him of marginalising them in the allocation of projects, none accused him of stealing the funds entrusted to him.

Many people, including Buhari himself, believe his mission in the life of the nation has not been accomplished and that is why he joined politics in 2003 to see if he could continue from where he was stopped in 1985. He contested the presidential election on the platform of the All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP, against Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 and lost. In 2007, he again contested against the ruling party’s Umaru Yar’Adua, from the same Katsina State with him, and lost. He scored 18 per cent of the votes, as against Yar’Adua’s 70 per cent. In 2011, the retired, but not tired, general will take another shot at the presidency on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, a political party he formed after he fell out with the leadership of ANPP.

Today, Buhari’s politics has not changed much. He is the proverbial northern star whose course is ever fixed. His language is no longer martial but his heart is still as firm as his countenance. He says he knows the problems of Nigeria and that he can fix it. Like Chinua Achebe, he says Nigeria’s number one problem is irresponsible leadership. According to him, Nigeria is insecure because the government is not working. The high state of insecurity, to him, is a failure of government. He feels strongly that for things to work in this country those entrusted to lead must get the priorities right. And he knows these priorities too well. He says there are too many things wrong with PDP for the ruling party to solve Nigeria’s problems.

Buhari’s aversion to corruption and primitive accumulation of wealth has not been mellowed down by over 25 years of retirement from the army. He wonders how some politicians will be going home with over N300 million a year while most citizens go to bed hungry. He will be further appalled by the large contract scams, which have made the nation’s jobs the costliest in the world, according to cost engineers. Buhari reaffirmed his commitment to the anti-corruption war in an interview with the magazine as the beginning of the surgery to save Nigeria. And that is a message that connects with the streets. Anti-corruption tops the shopping list of Nigerians interviewed by the magazine on the type of president Nigeria needs in April. Most respondents said Buhari has the discipline to fight corruption. This will count if votes count in April.

But is Buhari ready to harvest the discontent in the polity as votes in April? That is concern even to his hardest admirers. Reason is that the CPC, for now, is clearly a northern party with no electorally viable presence in the southern half of the country. To win the presidential election, he needs at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in two-thirds, or 24, of the 36 states of the federation, and also score the majority of the votes. The North has 19 states, and in the event that he could win the whole northern states, he needs at least a quarter of the votes cast in five states in the South. To win, he needs to go into alliance with other opposition parties to actualise his ambition. The magazine found that the thinking around Buhari is that Jonathan may not win in the first ballot. “In the second ballot, we don’t need the South as it is simple majority,” reasoned a Buhari aide.

Buhari says he is ready to go into alliance with other stakeholders to push PDP out of power. However, he rules out any alliance with ANPP because he says his former party is in alliance with the ruling party. This may hurt him deeply in April. Kano, one of the most populated states in the country is under ANPP, whose presidential candidate, Ibrahim Shekarau, is governor of the state. Shekarau rode on Buhari’s shoulders to become the governor of Kano State in 2003 but they have parted ways politically. If Shekarau loses elsewhere, he would want to win in Kano to prove a point and if Buhari loses Kano, his ambition might go off-course.

Borno State is another ANPP state, which Buhari might lose to PDP. Modu Sheriff, governor of the state, is seen as a silent supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan. He is finishing his second term in April and may have no objection to his state voting Jonathan in the presidential election. Moreover, Borno is one of the northern minority states, which appears to be hoping to use the Jonathan presidency to liberate themselves from the domination of the Hausa/Fulani. Buhari needs a lot of marketing and paradigm shift to make an impact in Borno.

Another factor Buhari has to contend with in the North is Nuhu Ribadu. The presidential candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, is another candidate who is in good standing with the public for his anti-corruption effort as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. He is also highly respected by the international community and has an edge over Buhari in international circles as more likely to run a government based on the rule of law and have respect for human rights. He also has better electoral assets in the South than Buhari but with Jonathan in the race, his standing in the South may not translate to votes in April. In the North, it appears that Ribadu may not pose some problem to Buhari when the chips are down. On whether he could step down for Ribadu, to become the presidential candidate of the alliance, Buhari says that would not arise at all.

The reason is not far-fetched. In the North, he is the clear favourite of the youth. In motor parks and most public works in the North, his name is a popular mantra. They hail him all over as “Sai Buhari!” which means, “Buhari is the man!” Buhari’s CPC is also taking the North by storm. So in a free and fair election, it is expected that he could make a better showing than he did in 2003 and 2007. He appears ready to dislodge PDP from power in most of the northern states, beginning with his home state, Katsina, where late President Yar’Adua’s younger brother is the deputy governorship candidate of CPC.

But that is only on paper. In reality, Buhari has the battle of his life to fight against the power elite in the North, who appears not to want him. The same qualities, which endeared Buhari to many Nigerians, make him a hard sell to the smaller power elite in the North. His stance against corruption appears not to be popular with them since their political economy predicates on loose money from politics. Many of them are afraid they would end up in jail if Buhari becomes commander-in-chief again and they would prefer any other candidate but Buhari to be the president for their own security. Buhari’s opponents are also banking on this to diffuse his influence.

Some analysts also say that Buhari’s nature and the nature of the core politicians in the opposition parties will make an alliance almost impossible.

Again, Buhari’s national appeal is threatened by some fanatical supporters. Sule Lamido, governor of Jigawa State, last week, asked Buhari to call his supporters to order before they ruined his electoral chances. He was referring to the increasing recourse to ethnicity and religion by Buhari’s supporters as campaign issues. After the “northern consensus” failed to fly at the PDP primary, a concerted campaign of calumny began against the PDP governors from the North who supported Jonathan. The text read: “Allah ya tsinema Reverend Murtala Nyako, Bishop Shehu Shema, Pastor Sule Lamido, Rev Aliyu Akwe Doma, Deacon Isa Yuguda, Pope Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, Arc Bishop Bello Mohamed and Primate Idris Ibrahim. They are enemies of the North and Islam. Vote for Buhari. Pls forward same to others.”

This text message swept through the North like wild fire. If Buhari did not like it, he is not known to have dissociated himself from the divisive message. Lamido thinks this will boomerang in April. “They think they are helping Buhari; they are simply destroying him, those text messages are undermining Buhari and I feel very sad for him because he is being demystified as a former head of state. I am not worried I was called a bishop, Those who thought they are campaigning for him are actually undermining him and reducing him to a local person and I don’t think he is happy.”

Furthermore, Lamido says the message is out of sync with the core values of the North. “Those text messages do not carry a proper reflection of the mind of northerners, the North, which the late Premier (Ahmadu Bello) laboured to build across all divides. At any rate, we must decide what we want in Nigeria. (Whether) we want a united, stable, secure and prosperous country, or we want a country where we kill each other every other day.” A lot of people feel Buhari should have called the campaigners to order to prove he did not authorise it, or that his opponents are responsible to put him in bad light.

Perhaps he thinks that people should read his steps enough for them to know that he could not have approved such a campaign. To further reassure Christians, Buhari, last week, chose Tunde Bakare, the general overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos and the convener of the Save Nigeria Group, SNG, as his running mate. Bakare, a lawyer, was born a Muslim but he converted to Christianity and became a radical pastor who has been making political statements since Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president in 1999.

Prior to his selection of Bakare, Buhari had been meeting with many Christian leaders to explain his politics and attitude to religion. These series of dialogues had been on since July 2010. He met with Enoch Adeboye, influential general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, and Sunday Makinde, the equally influential primate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria. During his meeting with Makinde, a source present at the meeting said that the primate told Buhari “We Christians are afraid of you.” They also raised the issue of a popular allegation that Buhari said Muslims should not vote for Christians. In his response, Buhari denied all the allegations. He explained that he only attended the launching of a book on Sharia in Sokoto and asked people to vote for people they know. He had declined to comment on the book for lack of competence in Islamic jurisprudence but noted that those bending the Sharia law are Muslim elite. “If anybody can show I was biased against a Christian, let them say it. Your Eminence, this is all nonsense,” Buhari told Makinde.

But can Bakare deliver the Christian community to Buhari? Can an alliance with Christians work where it failed with politicians? Can the nation’s political debacle be resolved in a Christian/Muslim alliance? Would the Christian congregations accept the recommendation of their clergy as to which candidate to vote for in the April presidential election? These among others are the banana skins Buhari must meander through successfully if he would win the April presidential election.

Muhammadu Buhari trained as a soldier. He rose to become a major-general in the army and then through a coup d’etat, a military head of state and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces.


Today, politics has become both his avocation and vocation. It is the art that has obviously now taught him never to say never. This is because he once held politicians with much disdain and said could never be one. Again as a maximum ruler, he equally never made any pretensions about his dislike for the media – the Fourth Estate of the Realm. In his first interview after seizing power from the civilian government led by former President Shehu Shagari, he swore to tamper with the press, (its freedom). He did!
Years after, he too was ousted from power in a palace coup, and was made chairman of the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund, PTF, under yet another military dictator, General Sani Abacha, he was still very much unyielding. Throughout his tenure as helmsman of the organisation, which many came to regard as a paralellel government, he refused to speak to TELL.


We had to hold a major story, which the magazine was doing on the organisation, which controlled billions of taxpayers’ money, for all of eight months, hoping that the general would speak to us, and at least through the medium, render an account to Nigerians. Of course, we ran the story after we concluded that he must have sworn never to speak to us.


After his metamorphosis from being a soldier to a politician, TELL, not an organisation that will nurse a grudge, and in keeping with the best traditions and practices of the profession, kept asking the general, for years, for an interview without success. Sometime last week, however, the ice thawed. He spoke to the magazine’s two editors in Abuja on his presidential ambition and the plans he has to turn the country around if elected president in the April polls.


From the editor, Tell Margazine

Coming a few weeks after the edition we did on Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, it is a continuation of our series of cover stories on the serious contenders for the presidency. As far as moral discipline goes, Buhari is a shinning star in the firmament of generally lascivious and bankrupt military officers.


Love him or hate him, this somewhat Spartan, if ascetic lifestyle, is what he has going for him. And that is why there are those who will do all that is in their power to see Buhari become President. But it is the very reason others fear him and are bent on stopping him.


What are his chances and how far can he go? These are the themes examined in this package. Have a pleasant week.

Tell margazine, same edition


Bakare: From the Pulpit to Politics

Renowned for his radical stance on national issues, Tunde Bakare, general overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, has shown over the years that his calling goes beyond the pulpit Renowned for his radical stance on national issues, Tunde Bakare, general overseer of Latter Rain Assembly, has shown over the years that his calling goes beyond the pulpit

By ARUKAINO UMUKORO

“I have no ambition to become anything. I am already what God made me to be, but if I am given the opportunity to serve my nation in a private capacity, in any realm, I will gladly do so because I love this nation.”

When Tunde Bakare, general overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, made the above statement in an interview with TELL last July, he probably did not envisage that six months after, he would be called upon to serve the nation in a partisan political capacity. Now, the fiery pastor and convener of the Save Nigeria Group, SNG, is the running mate of Muhammadu Buhari, former military head of state and presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in the April 9 presidential polls. According to Yinka Odumakin, Buhari’s spokesman, the choice of Bakare was “hinged on the need to put the best feet forward” in the forthcoming elections.

Accepting the offer, which he claims was as a result of serious and persistent pressure from Buhari; Bakare noted that his decision was solely based on his love for the country. “I want to see a Nigeria that works in my lifetime… After meeting with so many political gladiators, I can say today that so far, one of them that I have found worthy in terms of credibility is Buhari. He needs to just build bridges with others so that we can win this election,” he explained.

Going by his antecedents, it may be Bakare’s destiny to save many Nigerians’ souls through politics. His radical nature has been a product of events dating back to his childhood days, when a teacher’s remarks that he would end up becoming a Christian pushed him into pioneering a Muslim students society in an Anglican secondary school. When he eventually became a Christian, he was sent packing from home. While studying law in the University of Lagos, he began to travel the path to his destiny. “From my university days, I had only one desire, which was to get to the pinnacle of my career as a lawyer, to venture into business and make a lot of money and to go into politics. But from the time I embraced Christianity, I loved the service towards God and humanity,” Bakare had explained in an interview with Newswatch magazine in January.

As a student, he did research jobs for late Gani Fawehinmi, and then late Rotimi Williams. Those periods were significant as it further cemented his quest for societal change. After he was called into full-time ministry and then established his own church in 1994, politics had already become Bakare’s second skin. Despite criticisms, he was not afraid to tackle national and political issues on the pulpit. While many embrace his messages of faith, change and nationhood/patriotism, others deride his religious interventions describing it as a mere platform for political office.

His acceptance of a vice presidential slot under a political platform has put him in a cloud of controversy with some people hailing his decision while critics see it as a venture that could cost him a lot of goodwill in the religious circle. However, Bakare is no stranger to controversy. He was largely criticised when he warned that the late Moshood Abiola, would not come out alive if he ran for the 1993 presidential election. He had also warned that the Interim National Government, ING, set up by Ibrahim Babangida after he annulled the election was not going to last. In his words, it was similar to the Biblical ‘Ishboleth factor’, a mere stopover to be soon overtaken, and that just as Ishboleth was disgraced and his head cut off, so would the regime of Ernest Shonekan. His predictions came to pass as Abiola died in detention while trying to retrieve his June 12, 1993 mandate. Sani Abacha, an army general, later wrested power from Shonekan’s ING. Over the years, Bakare has made telling prophecies and remarks about successive governments and the country’s leaders.

The fiery preacher may have also understood that religion and politics could be used to bring about societal change. “Preaching is not my occupation, by training I am a lawyer, I am a businessman. Preaching is my calling; I have done other things before I came into preaching…” Bakare had said in the same interview with this magazine, explaining that his reason for leading the SNG was a way of contributing his own quota to national development. “If personal gain is my reason for doing it (SNG), I should have joined the bandwagon all along… personal gains are nothing because there is nothing anyone would want to add to me that by God’s grace I already do not have,” he noted, while adding that “especially in this country when the nation is going to that precipice (of collapse and corruption) God raises a deliverer.”

Known for their radicalism and straightforward approach to issues, could a Buhari/Bakare presidency be the ticket that would deliver the country from years of failed leadership and mismanagement? Can the duo translate their strength in the emotional world of religion into electoral asset? These are questions, which answers will remain in the wind for now. Not even Bakare’s ‘third eye’ could foresee the future of his political wedlock with Buhari whose attempts at securing political power through the ballot box have failed twice.

Already, both men are on the threshold of history. For Bakare, this may be his time to realise his dream of acquiring power to bring about a positive change to the lives of millions of suffering Nigerians. It is evident that this fiery preacher has clearly defined his course. He has taken the pulpit to politics and for him there is no going back. “When destiny calls, every other thing is immaterial,” Bakare had noted during a recent service at his church a few days before he was picked by Buhari. The message was titled Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled. How prophetic!

nice,keep it up

The freshest air we need BB2011. We need this team to raise naija up from the mess we are in. May God help us. (amen)

The freshest air we need BB2011. We need this team to raise naija up from the mess we are in. May God help us. (amen)

I dey laugh o o o

This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that I will see people of high caliber of credibility coming together to rule this nation.
If God is willing, and all the prophecies coming to pass, Jonathan is a material to be used to clear the way for these two Great Men of passion of Love for this country.

They both have clear antecedent of good leadership and no room for corruption. I clearly see that our next president will come from the North. Biblical Jonathan is never a ruler but way clearer for the real King. We are few months away from the reality and the God that rules in the affairs of men will take control. All the corrupt political elite from all the six Geo-Political Zones will be put to shame. They will not believe what will happen to them.

The senate should be ready for the greatest show down of their political careers.

I believe God is with Nigeria.