After participating in the 25th Assembly of
Heads of State and Government of the
African Union in Johannesburg on Monday,
President Muhammadu Buhari found time to
speak with Nigerians resident in South
Africa. It was hardly surprising that given his
reputation for talking straight and from the
heart, the president delivered what the
media recognised as a bombshell. Said he: “I
wish I became Head of State when I was a
governor, just a few years as a young man.
Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do.”
Furthermore, he reminded his audience that
at 33, he was military governor, and at the
age of 40, Head of State. He turns 73 in
December.
By every interpretation, his statement was
semantically unambiguous. He did not have
the strength of youth, he judged, and he
had no illusion that the energy and drive he
would have loved to demonstrate now were
no longer with him. As expected, the
statement touched off a firestorm of
controversy. The Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) suggested Nigeria had been duped.
Perhaps they recalled the former First Lady
Patience Jonathan’s giddy campaign which
stridently warned the country against being
seduced into voting someone she
inelegantly described as ‘dead in the brain.’
Perhaps the PDP faithful also recalled
Governor Ayo Fayose’s coarse attacks on the
president whom, he warned obliquely,
would expire from old age before he ran his
term.
In any case, whether it was the PDP or any
other party, the country was aghast that
President Buhari could make any allusion at
all to his age, especially in the circumscribing
manner of serving as a limiter to his
strength and extenuator to his age-related
incapacity. It was clear the president
reflected nostalgically on his youthful years
and the vigour and drive he put into
executing his tasks. He did not mean his
statement to be understood in terms of the
acuity of his mind, for notwithstanding the
PDP’s cruel mockery of his age during
electioneering he still seems nearly as alert
and reflective as he was three decades ago.
So, the president knew precisely where he
appeared to be deficient, and it had to do
with age, not wisdom.
President Buhari’s media aides tried to rally
to his side to mitigate this needless and self-
inflicted damage. According to a didactic
and expiatory statement from Femi Adsina,
the president’s Special adviser on Media and
Publicity, the president is today like an old
wine that tastes much better. Said he: “As
the saying goes, ‘old wines are tasty’ and the
President Buhari we have today is a man,
like old wine, that has got tastier. At 72, yes,
he can’t be called a youth, but he has in
quantum the wisdom, the patience,
temperance and forbearance that age
brings. And all these virtues he has brought
to the Presidency, to make a difference in
our national life. The President assured the
Nigerian community in South Africa that his
administration would make a positive
impact on the country. And that he would
do.”
“Fine words, “ the English say, “butter no
parsnips.” Mr Adesina speaks grandly about
the president’s wisdom and other attributes,
and he may be indisputably right. He hopes
to convince us he can insinuate these
virtues into a president who yearns for
something else. The president was clear
what ailed him. He pines after the strength
of youth, in a momentary loss of
concentration, when he should place
emphasis on the pearls of old age. It was
not just a lapse, it was a regrettable
misjudgement. Those who voted President
Buhari into office knew exactly what they
wanted: they wanted a wise and honest
man, not a wild, boisterous and avaricious
youth. The greedy youth, as Nigeria’s 55
years history and intense and depressing
present amply show, we have aplenty. The
voters wanted change, even if that change
would be midwifed by an old man.
From the president’s rueful statement, it is
obvious he is a little fixated on age. He
recognises the dissonance between the
chimerical vigour of his youthful years and
the wisdom he is believed to possess in
abundance as he ages, though he is unable
to summon that virtue in the quantity he
hopes. He does not need this internal
conflict. Let President Buhari focus on what
he has comparative advantage in, those
things which, as his media aide argues,
come to him naturally and effortlessly with
age. As his about three weeks in office
already show, and as the problems he
begins to contend with also indicate, the
ubiquitous advantages of youth do not
recommend themselves as a useful anodyne
as much as the rarer therapy of wisdom
unveils the answer to more than 55 years of
national pain and discomfort.











Source:www.thenationonlineng.net/new/buhari-waxes-septuagenarian/

Buhari to 2029