If anybody would like to be a serial loser of
the presidential election in Nigeria, here is a
list of what he needs to do; according to the
blueprint of Muhammadu Buhari.
If one were to decode the guiding principle of
Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential ambitions,
it would be this: “If at first you don’t succeed,
don’t give up until you have failed three more
times on the trot.” Nigerians don’t want
Muhammadu Buhari to be our president. We
have said this repeatedly since 1999. But
Buhari simply refuses to take “No” for an
answer. When is he finally going to get the
message that an overwhelming majority of
Nigerians don’t want him?
Buhari is the last of yesterday’s men who insist
that a country of 170 million people must
continue to rely on the leadership of the same
old and failed generation. Nigerians have
already put paid to the presumptions of
Olusegun Obasanjo; who wanted a fourth term;
Ibrahim Babangida; who stepped aside and
wanted to step back in; and Atiku Abubakar,
who runs a marathon for the presidency.
Buhari is the last of these recalcitrant
dinosaurs. The one good thing about the
coming presidential election is that it is likely
to provide Nigerians with a final definitive
opportunity to send him permanently into
retirement.
Buhari’s repeated failure to secure a national
mandate provides a textbook case of how not
to run for the presidency in a plural country
like Nigeria. This is a compendium of some of
the reasons why the Nigerian presidency will
forever elude men like Buhari, inspire of all
the song and dance that attends their
candidacies. If anybody would like to be a
serial loser of the presidential election in
Nigeria, here is a list of what he needs to do;
according to the blueprint of Muhammadu
Buhari.

Be an enemy of democracy
Claim you are anti-corruption but steal the
presidency of the entire country through an
illegal and fraudulent military coup. Claim you
are a democrat after you overthrew a
democratically elected government in 1983
and made yourself Head of State without the
consent of the people of Nigeria. As military
Head of State, refuse to entertain any plan for
a return to civilian rule. Tell Nigerians that
anyone who discusses a return to civil rule
would be arrested.
Overthrow a government, but be more against
the opposition than the government in power.
Establish manhunts for key politicians in the
length and breadth of the country.
Nevertheless, allow key elements of the ruling
NPN to escape out of the country, including
party chairman, Richard Akinloye; legal
counsel, Richard Akinjide; and Minister of
Transport, Umaru Dikko. Allow the Secretary-
General of the party, Uba Ahmed, to escape
abroad, even after he had mistakenly returned
to the country and was arrested and jailed.
Violate human rights
Promulgate the infamous Decree 2 that makes
even the reporting of the truth a punishable
offence. Use it to imprison Tunde Thompson
and Nduka Irabo, two journalists from the
South, for reporting stories that were factually
true. Then tell Nigerian journalists: “It does
not matter whether the story reported was
true or not, if my regime does not like it, the
writer would go to jail.”
Try Nigerian civilians in military tribunals as
opposed to regular courts of law in violation of
internationally acceptable legal norms. Create
a secret police, the National Security
Organization (NSO) for the first time in
Nigeria’s history under infamous Lawal
Rafindadi to harass and imprison without trial
Nigerian citizens in clear violation of their
human rights.
Publicly murder three Nigerians; Lawal
Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and
Bartholomew Owoh (26): two from the South-
West and one from the South East, under the
dubious Decree 20 for drug-related offences.
Ignore the fact that, at the time they
committed their crimes, their offences were
not punishable by the death sentences.
Nevertheless, maliciously backdate the death-
sentence with illegal retroactive decrees that
violate every international norm of due process
and human rights just in order to kill these
three hapless young men. In spite of
widespread international condemnation for
this, refuse to show any remorse or contrition
or to apologise for this judicial murder till
date.
When asked to appear before the Justice Oputa
“Truth and Reconciliation Panel” in order to
answer for a litany of abuses of power and
violation of human rights while in power as
Nigeria’s military Head of State, refuse to
appear showing your contempt for Nigerians.
Discriminate against the South
Balance a Northern Fulani Head of State with
another Northern Fulani deputy. Conduct a
coup d’état, ostensibly to overthrow a corrupt
Nigerian government. However, be so
ethnically chauvinistic that you put Dr. Alex
Ekwueme, the vice-president who took none of
the decisions under lock-and-key in jail in
Kirikiri because he is Igbo and Christian. At the
same time, put Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the
president who was the person in charge under
house arrest in a palatial mansion in Ikoyi,
Lagos because he happens to be the same as
you: Fulani and Muslim.
Make Northern politicians sacred cows and
untouchable. Fail to arrest and prosecute none
of the prominent Hausa/Fulani politicians who
were the principal actors in the government
you overthrew; including Adamu Ciroma,
Suleiman Takuma, Aliu Gusau, Lawal Kaita,
Barkin Zuwo, Shehu Kangiwa and Awwal
Ibrahim.
At the same time, jail Southern politicians,
including Bisi Onabanjo, Ambrose Alli, Lateef
Jakande, Jim Nwobodo, and others on trumped
up charges that could not be substantiated in
any court of law. Try octogenarian Michael
Ajasin of the South-West before a tribunal.
When he is discharged and acquitted; try him
again. When he is discharged and acquitted
again, try him a third time. When he is
discharged and acquitted yet again, keep him
in indefinite detention without just cause.

Maltreat Southern leaders
Send a team of soldiers to ransack the Park
Lane, Apapa residence of elder Southern
statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Give no
reason whatsoever for this blatant violation of
the old man’s privacy. Seize his international
passport for no just cause. Later, try to pull
the wool over the eyes of the Yorubas by
choosing a man married to Awolowo’s grand-
daughter as your vice-presidential running-
mate.
Lock Emeka Ojukwu, an Igbo man from the
South, in prison in Kirikiri with the politicians
of the Second Republic, in spite of the fact
that he committed no crime and held no public
office in the Second Republic. Moreover, after
Ojukwu returned to Nigeria after 13 years of
exile, he received a full pardon from the
president of Nigeria for his activities as leader
of the secessionist government of Biafra.
Provide Nigerians with no explanation
whatsoever for the exact offence that led to
Ojukwu’s arrest and incarceration.
Get booted out of office by your own clique in
the army. Have your colleague, Ibrahim
Babangida, give this testimony about you:
“regrettably it turned out that (he) was too
rigid and uncompromising in his attitudes to
issues of national significance. Efforts to make
him understand that a diverse polity like
Nigeria required recognition and appreciation
of differences in both cultural and individual
perceptions only served to aggravate the
attitudes.”

Corrupt practices
Prohibit the importation of naira into the
country during a much ballyhooed currency
exchange program. Then contravene your own
policy by having your ADC, Colonel Mustapha
Jokolo, allow his father, the Emir of Gwandu
from the North, to smuggle into the country
through Muritala Muhammed International
Airport 53 suitcases which the then Area
Administrator of the Lagos Airport Customs
Command, Atiku Abubakar, was not allowed to
search.
At the same time, sentence Afrobeat musician,
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a Yoruba man from the
South-West, to 20 months in jail for being in
possession of foreign-exchange he had
legitimately procured for the upkeep of his
band on a foreign trip. Because Fela mocked
you in his songs for being unable to address
the problems of Nigeria, declare to Nigerians
that: “I decided to deal with this Fela problem
once and for all.” Face public embarrassment
because the judge who pronounced the
sentence on Fela later confessed that he was
ordered to jail him.
Disregard for Nigeria’s secularity
As military Head of State, contravene the
country’s secularity by having Nigeria apply to
join the Organisation of Islamic States (OIC).
The application finally came through in 1986
and divided the country acrimoniously along
Muslim/Christian lines.
Tell Muslims not to vote for Christians. Reveal
to Nigerians that you are a religious bigot by
declaring in Kaduna in 2001 that: “I will
continue to show openly and inside me the
total commitment to the Sharia movement that
is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we
will not stop the agitation for the total
implementation of the Sharia in the country.”
Say this, in spite of the fact that declaring
some states as sharia states is in clear violation
of the secularity of Nigeria’s federalism, as
contained in section 10 of the Constitution of
Nigeria
Anti-corruption contradictions
Claim to be an anti-corruption crusader;
nevertheless, agree to serve under Sani Abacha,
one of the most corrupt Heads-of-State ever in
the history of Nigeria. On the 10th anniversary
of General Abacha’s demise, tell incredulous
Nigerians that Abacha did not steal anything
while he was Nigeria’s Head of State. Describe
all the allegations of looting the treasury
leveled against Abacha as “baseless.” Maintain
that: “ten years after Abacha, those allegations
remain unproven because of lack of facts.”
Hold this position in spite of the millions of
dollars of Abacha’s loot recovered from banks
around the world, and in spite of the fact that
the Abacha’s family signed a formal agreement
to return over $1 billion to the Nigerian
government.
As chairman of the juiciest portfolio of all
under Sanni Abacha’s government; the
Petroleum Trust Fund with a budget of 181
billion naira between 1994 and 1999, fail
woefully to curb the rampant corruption in the
organisation. When in 2000, President
Obasanjo set up an Interim Management
Committee to look into the affairs of the PTF
under the chairmanship of Haroun Adamu, it
was discovered that over 25 billion naira was
stolen under your watch.
Claim to be an anti-corruption crusader, but
Group Captain Usman Jibrin, a board member
of PTF, resigned from the organization in
protest over the blatant irregularities in your
appointment of consultants.