It’s been over 15 years of uninterrupted democratic governance in Nigeria. Sadly, the Nigerian democracy is still described in many quarters as fledgling. One wonders if things wouldn’t have been different if our brand of democracy was not encumbered by man-made traps which has gravely hindered its ability to thrive and naturally iron her kinks. In the final analysis, those who bear the burden of the needless sentiments that define the leadership question in our country are the Nigerian populace. Unfortunately, this ugly trend is rearing its head in our political discourse especially as it concerns the two major candidates in the forthcoming presidential election in February 14, 2014. President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.
The only advantage General Muhammadu Buhari has going into the presidential elections is his perception, by some middle aged Nigerians, as a no nonsense anti corruption fighter. Apart from that, he has several questions to answer as regards his past positions on two main issues in Nigerians political development –ethnicity and religion. You can’t wish those away, at least, for now.
Buhari is perceived as a being zero-tolerant for corruption. This stems from his days as military head of state when he jailed politicians to lengthy prison terms using military tribunals. It is completely different from operating in a civil democracy where he would have to use the civil courts and accept the bitter truth that the wheels of justice grind slowly but steadily. However, his anti-corruption disposition comes as a challenge to status quo. Beneficiaries of status quo have never allowed a change. He has them to contend with and they are more than plenty.
Those who perceive him as being zero-tolerant for corruption, express the wish for a change in status quo. Unfortunately, they do not look at historical trends. Malam Nuhu Ribadu went into the 2011 presidential election on the background of his achievements at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) –Which was the only office that had tested his zeal to fight corruption. He got rave reviews and mention as one capable of altering the status quo if he becomes president. But outcome of the election proved Nigerians had other considerations in voting for a president other than anti-corruption credentials. Such other considerations include broad-based approach to nationalism and acceptance across regions.
Apart from Buhari’s perception as an anti-corruption fighter, nothing else works in his favour. His views on religion and nationalism are parochial. On this ground, his greatest enemies are those old enough to recall his arguments, and actions, when confronted with issues that demanded a broad-based approach. Chief Richard Akinjide SAN, was Attorney general and Justice Minister in the Shehu Shagari administration which Buhari sacked via a coup d’etat. Reviewing Buhari’s democratic credentials and openness to broader national development, Akinjide concludes that Buhari lacks the appeal for national integration given his belief that southern Nigeria’s development ought to halt for the north to catch-up.
In an interview published in the February 10, 2014 edition of The New Telegraph, Akinjide said of Buhari thus: “He hasn’t got the electoral advantage to win an election. He has done a lot of things in the past, which are axiomatic he hasn’t got democratic norms. For instance, the government of Lagos State was to do the railway system and we know what he did about it. Nigeria has one of the worst railway systems in Africa today. Lagos State was going to do water system; he (Buhari) cancelled it. He even cancelled the railway system (metroline) in Lagos State. The railway system was approved by Shehu Shagari and the agreement was vetted by me as the Attorney-General and Lagos State deposited $50 million to a French company, which they forfeited and then they were asked to pay damages again in arbitration. Buhari was told, and he didn’t care. His belief was the South would be better developed than the North. Anybody who thinks like that is not worthy of being the President of this country. That is one of the reasons he has no political advantage for any political party. We all know and it is still on record what he did about human rights abuses. He imprisoned many political leaders and made decrees that were retroactive to make his point and invoke fear.
Reminded that Buhari had shown capacity to fight corruption in the country, the elder statesman said further “There is nobody in this country who has not fought corruption, one way or the other. But if you remember when he became Head of State, he was from the North, the Vice President was also from the North (Kwara) and the Secretary to the Federal Government was also from the North, as if South did not exist at the time. That is a serious wrong political arithmetic. People will not forget any of those decisions and I mean it. But when he left power through a military coup against him, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida came to power and he took as Number Two people from Abia and later Edo State. So, we had a fair balance. If you are doing Nigerian politics, you must have a fair balance. Anybody that made mistakes as Buhari did, will lose election”.
Also in an interview published in December 29, 2014 edition of The Union, Dr. Joseph Wayas, who lost office as Senate President as a consequence of the Buhari coup, concludes the retired army general lacks basic understanding of what democracy entails. He said: “Of all the people we talk about, I don’t think I would like to make a comment about Buhari because the first question would be to ask if Buhari understands what democracy means. I don’t want it to be seen like there is something between Buhari and me. But again, that is the great thing about this country right now– people are allowed to talk and they talk freely. Otherwise, I don’t think that the name Buhari should come in when we are talking of democracy. He truncated democracy and brought in a military dictatorship which set aside the constitution and brought in a long run of military rule”.
He further said: “Buhari does not know what democracy means. All his life he has been a dictator, doing things his own way. He is not used to second opinion. He is used to one opinion only, and that is his own”.
Besides, Buhari had shown himself as a great advocate of the sharianisation of Nigeria, an adventure which most Nigerians detest given the country’s categorisation as a religiously plural state. He has been quoted, without denial, as advocating in 2001, the total sharianisation of Nigeria in the quest to ensure dominance of his religious belief over others in the country. This issue, specifically, and those connected to his dictatorial tendencies such as the clampdown on the media and imprisonment of journalists using Decree 4, the execution via firing squad at the Bar Beach in Lagos of youth drug peddlers, intolerance to criticisms of the junta he led, unanswered questions over the actual reasons for the imprisonment of Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Nigeria’s then vice president and keeping under house arrest of his principal, Alhaji Shehu Shagari among many other issues, accounted for his loss in three previous presidential elections.
Besides, Nigerians are weary of the post-election violence of 2011 which are attributed to comments made by him in the run-up to the election. He again made such threats when in May 2012 he addressed supporters of the defunct CPC at his Kaduna residence and threatened that “If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.’’ Buhari perpetually shows himself as a man of great violence. This is not a credential to market in an election to become president.
The Dr. Haroun Adamu-led team inaugurated by President Olusegun Obasanjo to wind down activities of the PTF headed by Buhari discovered a fraud of about N25billion. In its report to President Obasanjo, Dr. Adamu wrote: “The Committee recommended that the total recoverable amount can be used to offset some of the outstanding debts because some of the creditors are contractors from whom these amounts are to be recovered. It also recommended that the President may wish to set up a high powered judicial panel to recover the huge public fund and to take the necessary action against any officer, consultant or contractor whose negligence resulted in this colossal loss of public funds.”
– Aderibigbe, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja