By Farouk Martins Aresa
President
Buhari’s one-year anniversary has been anything but glorious. It has been
pitiful compared to his last time around. It is a different era, yet Buhari has
done what most Northern rulers do best. When he loaded his personal staff with
Northerners, some of us defended him based on the fact that he was overthrown
in a palace coup. He has gone further by reserving most of the strategic
positions for Northerners as if Southerners and Federal character do not exist.
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| *Buhari |
Late Idiagbon might have taken more heat than he deserved during
the first coming of Buhari as military dictator. They ruled by fiat, regardless
of what others thought. Idiagbon and the Supreme Military Council then had more
input in order to gratify Buhari’s power base. Eventually, they confirmed his
fears and overthrew him and Idiagbon. In this case, we realize that Osinbajo is
in a civilian democracy. A Vice-President is used as the President deems fit.
Idiagbon was in a way more powerful than Osibanjo as the
military dispensation gave them the clout to carry out War Against Indiscipline
(WAI). Most of the people that voted for Buhari this time around wanted some
grip on the national purse that was looted beyond reason with so much impunity.
This gave Buhari an edge over the former President Jonathan. As far as those
that voted for him are concerned, he has somehow lived up to it but below
expectation.
Some of us would want him to go further. While we do realize
constrains of democracy, the rule of law and due process, there are ways of
confronting a killer disease if the life of the country is at stake. The same
way western countries confront terrorism before it devours their cultural or
normal way of life. They created task forces, detentions and outside
jurisdictions.
Buhari could have gone as far as Obasanjo did with the
atmosphere of accountability and the fear of consequences for the type of
impunity we saw in the last Administration of President Jonathan. Ribadu was
forceful, visible and acted as a deterrent for corruption under Obasanjo. He even
claimed he used OBJ to investigate his friends and challenged anyone to point
to any head of state that gave an investigating officer so much leverage and
power.
