Possibly the worst year of my life was 1984. I was 10 years old and blissfully
unaware of the changing face of Nigeria’s
political landscape. And a rather
unyielding face it was – that of
Muhammadu Buhari who had recently
overthrown Shehu Shagari, a democratically elected president. For
Buhari, this was a necessary coup d’etat
because Nigeria was being overrun by corrupt politicians. However, his regime
would have a devastating impact on my
family’s fortunes. For the first time, at the close of the
school term in Edinburgh, my father
wasn’t there to pick us up. My older
brother, aged 15, took charge and we
made our way to Heathrow. Touching
down in Nigeria, it was my mother who met us at the airport. She didn’t smile,
perhaps couldn’t; her mouth was turned
down at the corners like she was being
flattened by existence. Something was
wrong, clearly. I waited until we were
settled in the car and piped up: “Where’s Daddy?” Without turning to glance at me,
my mother answered: “He’s in jail.” She
always had an aversion to bullshit but
even, for her, that was pretty cold. For the
rest of the journey, I thought about my
Daddy who returned the cash to the phone company when our account was
credited with thousands of naira; Daddy
who, born into abject poverty, personified
what it meant to work really hard and
make your own dreams come true, in a
hopefully new meritocratic Nigeria. On getting home, one of my older
brothers explained that Buhari’s deputy,
the uncompromising, much-feared
Colonel Tunde Idiagbon, had commanded
that all government contractors in Ogun
state had received a notice to appear before a special committee. My dad
honoured the invitation and presented all
the papers to show that it was in fact the
government that owed his company
money. He was given two options: to pay
a large amount (that no one quite understood how they arrived at) or go to
jail. On principle, my dad said he wasn’t
going to pay money that he didn’t owe.
He was not alone. I have a group of
friends with whom I am forever bound by
this shared ordeal of seeing our fathers treated like criminals. And as it was for
many, this period signified the beginning
of financial ruin. My father spent six months in jail and
came out a different man. For one, he
started clapping at our solemn family
devotion in the mornings, something we
never did. He explained that that was what
they did in prison. He was never a big talker but seeing him work at adjusting to
normal life was painful for everyone
around him. Before his release, the two giant crushers
and all the machinery and equipment that
belonged to his civil engineering firm
were liquidated. As children, our lives
changed too. We were placed in state
schools and said goodbye to our privileged lifestyles. My dad is 87 now and he’s an active
member of the local advisory board of the
All Progressive party, the opposition party
that has recently adopted Buhari as the
presidential flag-bearer, 30 years after his
first outing as a military head of state. Like many Nigerians, my father was
saddened when he heard President Goodluck Jonathan claim that “stealing is not corruption”. With 24% unemployment,
there are limited opportunities for young
people, making them easy fodder for
militants in the southernmost parts of the
country and dreaded religious
fundamentalists in the north. People clamour for leadership. For the last three weeks, I have been
travelling with the presidential campaign
team and I have had the opportunity to
listen to people and interview them. I have
also had a personal need to understand
this man Buhari who has run for the highest office a record three times. At the
beginning, I admit I had doubts and
misgivings. It’s hard not to when you’ve
been stung before. But after several
conversations with him, I have come to
understand what the mass hysteria is all about and why Nigerians would vote for
this soft-spoken but highly principled 72-
year-old. It’s quite simple and, having worked as a
schoolteacher for years, I can use a school
setting in my analogy. Kids like a teacher
to whom they can give the runaround but
when it’s crunch time, they favour an
environment where the teacher is firm, one where clear boundaries have been set.
Having a president who is widely
described as “clueless” may have seemed
to many like an opportunity, but the
goodwill that Jonathan enjoyed in 2011
has been frittered away. These days, governors in the opposition parties are
starved of funds and harassed when they
don’t do the bidding of a first lady who
campaigns for her personal candidates.
Many Nigerians believe that it is time to
return to one of the few faces of anti- corruption in Nigeria’s political history.
Even my wrongly-imprisoned Dad would
recognise that Buhari’s ambition was to
stem corruption. Unlike many Nigerian past presidents,
Major-General Buhari does not have a
huge mansion. You won’t hear about him
owning a bank or sitting on the board of
banks. Neither does he own expansive
farmland. In fact, he wrote to the minister of finance requesting that he only receive
10% of the allowance that all past
presidents receive on a monthly basis.
Overwhelmingly, his lack of greed and
personal venality means people trust him.
Within a democratic dispensation, whatever excesses Buhari’s
singlemindedness at tackling corruption
might have shown 30 years ago can and
will be curbed. He has surrounded himself with a brilliant,
savvy team of young Nigerians and I
much enjoy the passion with which he
talks about his three main priorities:
unemployment, insecurity and education.
For some Nigerians, he might not be an ideal candidate but for many more,
people want anything but Jonathan. And
even better it’s someone that they feel
they can believe in.

publisher:
Only slaves and children of slaves can campaign (passionately) for their former oppressors.

Sadly, I've only noticed this among Yoruba supporters of Buhari.

You will never see Ekuweme's, Ambrose Ali's or Umaru Dikko's children campaign for Buhari.

Yoruba ronu o...your people have been bewitched by the broom.

My opinion.

GBTYO:
[size=28pt] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie
- 2 Thessalonians 2:11[/size]

Marotzke:
The other day, an Ogedengbe said that" though he killed my father, I will still vote for him". You begin to wonder, are you truly the son of your father?

publisher:
Only slaves and children of slaves can campaign (passionately) for their former oppressors.

Sadly, I've only noticed this among Yoruba supporters of Buhari.

You will never see Ekuweme's, Ambrose Ali's or Umaru Dikko's children campaign for Buhari.

Yoruba ronu o...your people have been bewitched by the broom.

My opinion.

Smart007i:

This Guy most be a very BIG FOOL... So you personal or family differences supersedes the nation interest right ?

waternogeteneny:
Another Bastard... Go and ask ur mother to show u ur fada...

ayukdaboss:
[s][/s]
On what grounds do you have to call them slaves because they don't share the same myopic and idiotic reasoning like you? These are people who have clearly put the well-being of Nigeria (over 170 million people) above their personal grievances and I respect them for that.

This comment by this lady should put out a clear signal to all of you who intend to create chaos when Jonathan gets whipped at the polls this month that Nigerians want change irrespective of any previous grievances they held with Buhari. It also points out the fact that any ugly head that gets raised when Jonathan gets kicked out from Aso Rock, be it Asari DUMBkubo, Tompolo and any other useless group that deems it fit to create chaos, they shall all be cut off in no time because Nigeria is bigger than you all.

ayukdaboss:
[s][/s]
On what grounds do you have to call them slaves because they don't share the same myopic and idiotic reasoning like you? These are people who have clearly put the well-being of Nigeria (over 170 million people) above their personal grievances and I respect them for that.

This comment by this lady should put out a clear signal to all of you who intend to create chaos when Jonathan gets whipped at the polls this month that Nigerians want change irrespective of any previous grievances they held with Buhari. It also points out the fact that any ugly head that gets raised when Jonathan gets kicked out from Aso Rock, be it Asari DUMBkubo, Tompolo and any other useless group that deems it fit to create chaos, they shall all be cut off in no time because Nigeria is bigger than you all.