As the first half of
the President Muhammadu Buhari administration lurches into the twilight, it is
refreshing that he has given us an opportunity to interrogate his
intervention in national politics from another perspective. Beyond the
well-worn exploration of Buhari as a profile in persistence, having taken him
over a decade to chase a return to power, we can now attend to the relationship between personal
tragedies and national glories.
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| *Buhari |
It is now clear from
Buhari’s disclosure in Benin
during his commissioning of some projects of the outgoing Edo State
Governor Adams Oshiomhole that his tragedy of incarceration after his overthrow
in 1985 as military head of state remains a stimulant for his quest for
regaining power. Buhari said that he spent 40 months in a bungalow
in Benin
after he was overthrown by some corrupt army officers. In fact, he
said that the coup was a preemptive strike against his crusade
against some corrupt officers.
From that crucible of
1985, through the next 30 years, Buhari might have realised the essence of
engendering an equitable society. But as he tells us, such a society is not
attainable in so far as it remains a bastion for the proliferation of injustice
as evident in the complicity of the judiciary in the denial of his electoral
victories on three previous occasions. Of course, Buhari’s quest for an
equitable society after suffering injustice is not an isolated case. Before
him, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, among others appropriated a sense of
injustice inflicted by warped state powers to develop their societies.
Even back at home, the
late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was prised from prison to cobble together a
dismembering nation. But in the case of Buhari, it is unfortunate that
while his regaining of power after 30 years might have served a personal
cathartic purpose, it is far from playing a significant role in his
relationship with the need for the development of the country. For the danger that
the nation faces today under the Buhari government is that at the end of his
tenure, he would have succeeded in making millions of citizens to feel a
sense of injustice and alienation from the society. This is the clear
possibility that Buhari would engender through his policies and
programmes.
If Buhari had truly
learnt the lessons of suffering injustice, he would guard against fostering a
sense of injustice. But does Buhari really have consideration for the need to
ensure justice for others? Consider his appointments since he
became president. How have these ensured justice and the
strengthening of the unity of the country? In those appointments, Buhari
brazenly favoured his northern part of the country. It is such nepotism that
has thrown up a situation where from the National Assembly, the
military, police, Department of State Services, other security
apparatuses, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to other major government agencies,
the heads are northerners.
