Since Tuesday the March 31, 2015 when it
became obvious that the presidential election in
my home country had been decided, I have been
relishing the sense of joy and relief that came
upon me soon afterwards. I was relieved not
because my preferred candidate Muhammadu
Buhari won the election. I was relieved because
Mr. Goodluck Jonathan was forced to handover a
pair of shoes that were far too big for his skinny
feet. A lot has been said. A lot has happened too.
Now is the time, however, to look ahead with
hope not the least because Major-General
Muhammadu Buhari is bringing with him a
resume that perfectly fits the job description of a
Nigerian president of today. Since the business of
ruling a nation is basically not a one-man-show in
constitutional democracies, however a lot of
trepidations have been brought to the fore.
Voices have sounded a call for caution in the
widespread optimism that has slowly
transcended into some euphoria of sort.
The latest and most prominent voice was
sounded by the victor himself in a realistic
attempt to scale down expectations with the
impending prospect of not being able to work
miracles in a short pace of time. “Prudent” I
would say! Unfortunately however, massive
expectations will be one of the least problems
that the President-elect will face in the days,
weeks and months ahead.
The challenges are already becoming manifest.
As in the search for a running mate, the role of
one man from the South-West – Bola Asiwaju
Tinubu – has been elevated in the search for
prospective lieutenants for the operative work of
governance. Unlike his performance in the
search for a running mate however, information
reaching out from clandestine sources seem to
indicate that he is doing a far better job. After all,
he is not insisting on being given a prominent
appointment in the cabinet as he did when he
almost crippled chances by insisting on being
the running mate himself against all wisdom of
keeping a Muslim-Muslim ticket at bay. The
selection of players that will definitely not
proceed without frictions is said to be on course
in a manner that is by and large, described as
acceptable.
Yet, we have been there before. We were all
witnesses to Goodluck Jonathan’s own process of
team selection. We danced and rejoiced when
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was selected for a high-
profile post with all the requisite freedom to act
and salvage our economy. We marveled at her,
seeing the credentials she dangled before us
from the World Bank and her contribution to
great feats in the government of former General
Olusegun Obasanjo. Today, all that is history and
we are left with our wounds to lick.
Again, we are rejoicing hearing names like Oby
Ezekwesili also from the World Bank, Charles
Soludo and Femi Falana, all in their early stages
of consideration. Oby Ezekwesili has won the
hearts and minds of very many ordinary people
she interacted with while out of government.
Many therefore feel like she’d be taking a part of
everyone with her into government if she is
finally selected. Herein lies a serious risk of hyped
and heightened expectations at a stage of the
nation’s emotions in which the mood for
disappointment has been tested to the utmost
limit.
Yet, the process of selection will come and go
and real business will begin for Major-General
Muhammadu Buhari, who – even though retired
– will forever remain a General having once being
a General. Sorting out the mess created by
Goodluck Jonathan in the army will be a delicate
dance for the General in a familiar terrain.
Thankfully, the terrain is less dangerous these
days since any serving General will dare stage a
coup only at the risk of completing the project in
a tiny prison cell in The Hague. Weeding out
those Generals who are widely suspected to have
collaborated with Boko Haram, those Generals
who turned into politicians and fought civilians
while leaving Sambisa a safe distance behind,
those Generals who turned millionaires overnight
and many more, will be a daunting task.
Fanatical Buharians will emerge as many brain-
dead Jonathanians did. Fanatical Asiwaju loyalists
will emerge and blind out rationality in favour of
petty, foolish praises. Then there will be tribalists.
They will cry foul when overnight millionaires are
called out to account for their sins in the military
if such millionaires are not Northerners. Buhari
will need to be mindful of all categories of
bigotry.
Buhari will be required to reverse a lot of
tragedies in the military such as the purchase of
uniforms by soldiers themselves. Buhari will have
to step on toes because he will need the
decisiveness and stubbornness of a serving
General to prevail on vested interests.
He will feel the strength and viciousness of these
vested interests when he starts to clean the oil
and power sectors with the powers of the
Presidency. He may see the need to remove fuel
subsidy amid dwindling resources and probably
end up angering consumers and voters, who are
not prepared to pay for age-long sins aggravated
and exacerbated even further by a clueless and
spineless Goodluck Jonathan. The depleted state
of the treasury will hardly serve to entice
Muhammadu Buhari to release funds for the
building of new refineries. Yet, he will be the
nation’s hero if he is able to perform just this
impossible magic.
One dangerous precipice that will be staring
Buhari straight in the face will be the need to
keep Bola Asiwaju Tinubu under control. The new
President will hardly be able to afford distractions
from Tinubu, like the media reported in Lagos
State. Struggling to protect or enhance business
interests (which Tinubu has in abundance) with
the resources of state as has largely been
associated with the former Governor will mark
the beginning of Buhari’s troubles with his only
constituency – the Nation. In spite of all that
though, we must not fail to do Bola Asiwaju
Tinubu the justice that he deserves as well. As
Governor of Lagos State, his flagship identity was
not corruption. If he was corrupt, it was not
highlighted to the world by any major lapse. I
remember then that he was one of the best
Governors in town.
Unfortunately however, Bola Tinubu
metamorphosed into a representative of vested
interests in business who is reported to have
sought all possible contracts for his business
empire alone to keep Lagos State in a
stranglehold of a lone supplier and deliverer.
Even though the picture painted may not all be
true, it is yet fully sufficient if half of it alone is
true. His well-known struggle to fix his kith and
kin in influential political offices with all attendant
desperation in the political party that was
controlled by him seems to have cemented every
perception of Tinubu as a corrupt and tricky
individual. Given a responsible Ministry to handle
however, I have no doubt, that Tinubu will live
up to expectations and probably replicate an
action hero like Bola Ige. Muhammadu Buhari
must keep a very close eye on the double-edged
sword by the name ‘Bola Tinubu’ to avoid
unnecessary excesses while making good use of
his imaginative and creative qualities.
A similar event may play out in handling his
predecessor Goodluck Jonathan. The combined
effort of domestic and foreign forces engineered
by Olusegun Obasanjo to rid Nigeria of Goodluck
Jonathan has become even clearer than it was in
the pre-election period. All assurances to keep
Jonathan and, perhaps, his most voluble spouse
out of the range of anti-corruption scrutiny as
was brokered by the forces involved in the
ouster, will definitely prove to be a problem to
the new President in the course of the
Presidency. Many thieves will emerge that will
point fingers unmistakably. Some cases of
corruption by individuals further down the ladder
may yet appear intertwined with interests of the
outgoing President or people that fronted for
him. Buhari will need the finesse of a sage in
some instances.
The deliberate attempt to whitewash President
Jonathan, following the coerced admission of
defeat for clear purposes, is a welcome project
that is bound to give President Jonathan some
respite in the short to medium term. As time
passes by, however, ex-President Jonathan may
become a difficult burden to bear. The dubious
title of a democrat for merely conceding defeat
at a time he was left with little or no option will
hardly be enough to sustain when voices get
louder, urging the investigation of fake fuel
subsidies and non-remittance of funds from the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Should
the scale of the sharing of dollars within the six
weeks of election postponement prove to have
gone far beyond all imagined scopes, the
dubious title of democrat for not challenging
APC’s victory in court will hardly hold back
sentiments and calls for justice. The need for the
outgoing President to exercise some leverage
over the Niger Delta militants that he
unnecessarily armed with deadly weapons and
awarded major contracts will definitely give him
some relevance in the quest to defuse tension
without all-out hostilities. Yet there will also be
serious problems in the process of reining in the
militants and their illegally strengthened army as
long as some of them still feel betrayed by
Jonathan’s concession. Assessing the leverage
that Jonathan may still be able to wield on the
militants without the power of the Presidency
may prove to very tricky. There will be tough
times ahead of President Jonathan outside of Aso
Rock and time will sure tell how the game plays
out.
For now, however, every well-meaning Nigerian is
graciously thankful that bloodshed on a large-
scale was avoided while we wish the souls of
victims in Rivers State and elsewhere, to rest in
peace.
I foresee a former President Muhammadu Buhari
in the year 2019 who will have fought a gallant
battle and stepped fearlessly on many toes.
Whether he will end up more hated than
Olusegun Obasanjo or not will strongly depend
on how he uses the media to make the electorate
understand his actions and motivations.
Unexpected fallout with Asiwaju Tinubu
somewhere down the line in the course of
governance will be a remote possibility that we
should keep our eye on in the scheme of things.
But psssst! Do not say I told you.

Frisky Larr is a German-based Radio/
Television Journalist and author of Africa’s
Diabolical Entrapment.


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