By Temitope Oriola
The Vanguard newspaper reported the
visit of a delegation of Northern leaders to the then president-elect Muhammadu
Buhari on May 11th 2015. The delegation was led by Alhaji Maitama Sule. Sule told Buhari: “You are the president of Nigeria ;
you are not the president of Northern Nigeria
by the grace of God”. Maitama Sule was someone you had to take seriously.
*Muhammadu Buhari |
I ruminated over the story for several minutes
and wondered why the acclaimed orator felt the need to publicly ask Buhari to
be a president for the whole of Nigeria .
We
now know why and the underpinnings are quite ugly. The president needs to
demonstrate that he is willing to trust Nigerians who neither speak Fulfulde
nor Hausa. My assessment is that his skewed appointments speak to a lack of
trust, rather than outright clannishness. The president needs to realise that
he is president of the whole of Nigeria
and millions of Nigerians from the streets of Kano
to the parks of Lagos
genuinely wish him well in office. His success is our success. No one should
make light of the efforts that go into each political appointment. I do not
think the president sets out to spite anybody but the idea that he is
appointing people on merit despite the lopsidedness is no longer funny. If
President Buhari sincerely believes that his appointments so far have been
based on merit, then with all due respect, his future is in standup comedy.
The
president’s inner circle seems to lack not just adequate representation but
also depth and rigour. Buhari did not think he would win the elections as he
did not expect President Jonathan to concede defeat. Therefore, President
Buhari assumed office grossly unprepared and lacking the scintilla of a plan
for governance. He had become habituated to losing elections and did not do his
rudimentary homework on Nigeria ’s
many problems. This is quite problematic given that he contested for over 12
years. Why exactly was he running for office? Did he think he was simply going
to manage oil wealth?
There
are no new problems in Nigeria .
Many of the problems have increased in intensity and metastasised but none of
the problems is entirely new. Consequently, a diligent presidential candidate
would have prepared. The president simply assumed he could show up and his “body
language” — whatever that means — would keep people in check and all
would be well. His command and obey personality type has not helped matters. I
have a lot of respect for the military but Nigeria is not an overgrown
military barracks. By personality type, temperament and proclivity, Buhari is
unsuited to the rather frustrating guiles of democracy and demands of civil
society.
Gains
have clearly been made in the fight against Boko Haram, although we still await
the rescue of all the Chibok girls. The plight of the internally displaced
persons (IDPs) is a test of the basic competence of this administration. The
signs are not good given the deplorable conditions of IDPs. What is going on at
the camps is nothing short of state crime — in this case, elaborate
criminogenic structures established by government workers in the course of
their duties.
Let
me assure President Buhari with the benefit of over seven years of research on
the Niger Delta that there is no military solution to the problem posed by the
Niger Delta Avengers. Deployment of troops may provide a temporary reprieve but
in the end, the administration’s current approach is similar to taking Panadol
for a heart problem. The Niger Delta Avengers are the newly minted products in
the carousel of social injustice. Exterminating the Avengers to the last
combatant — assuming that were probable — would provide a two-to-three year
tranquility before other groups emerge. Why? The underlying factors fabricating
insurgents in the Niger Delta have not been tackled.
President
Jonathan failed the Niger Delta. He and several Niger Delta governors did a
fine job of adopting a cosmetic solution — coopting insurgent “Generals” and
distributing allowances through the amnesty programme. However, the Mary Kay
approach should have been followed up with serious infrastructural development
in the Niger Delta. The president acknowledged via a letter dated July 21st
2015 the receipt of a copy of my book on the Niger Delta. Based on interviews
with diverse participants such as Ken Saro-Wiwa (Jr.), Annkio Briggs, Asari
Dokubo, and dozens of ex-agitators, and community members, among others, I hate
to state that I predicted what is going on now. Government policy ought to be
crafted and implemented with findings from empirical research and not transient
emotions.
The
president’s reluctance to publicly focus on the Fulani herdsmen’s violence that
has ravaged Benue and several other states may
haunt his administration and legacy. His approach to the issue has been a
national embarrassment in a country where shame took off a long time ago. The
president needs to show leadership and assert that human lives are more
important than cattle. In addition, the handling of the issue of Biafra is the stuff that separates real statesmen from
half-baked politicians. The president has not approached the South-East with
the needed acumen and sophistication. He has come off as irritable and
petulant. A deeper engagement with the South-East and South-South is long
overdue.
The
main part of the narrative is the president’s capacity. This is a combination
of innate talents and acquired knowledge. There is no expectation anywhere in
the world that a Head of State would have answers to all things. However, a
leader must be a mop for knowledge. Buhari’s hermitic lifestyle after leaving
the military and following each electoral loss was not adequate preparation for
governance. He is the only former Head of State with no known involvement in
think-tanks or any foundation executing humanitarian projects.
Buhari’s
repertoire of knowledge has unraveled in the face of “modern” challenges. I
doubt that the president is teachable and I feel sorry for his advisers. I have
come to the conclusion based on the evidence of the last one year that the
president either lacks the humility to learn or is simply bereft of the
capacity to adapt to 21st century leadership. Each of these two problems is in
and of itself debilitating; to have both reposed in a president is the road to
systemic paralysis. We are in terrible company. It is the singular reason why Africa is not rising despite the optimism of the last few
years.
All
hope is not lost. I continue to believe that Buhari’s administration may yet
leave Nigeria
better than it was in 2015 if the president focuses on his current term and
banishes the temptation to seek a second term. The math is simple: President
Buhari cannot win a second term under a free and fair atmosphere. Besides,
everything he stands for would be negated in the quest for a second term. His
second term as I stated in an open letter to the president would be similar to
Obasanjo’s third term project.
Finally,
is Buhari a president of Northern Nigeria ? The
talakawa of the North have also been
negatively affected by Buhari’s babalawo economics.
There are Northerners who are unhappy with his geographically favouritism,
sexist and ageism-in-reverse appointments. I don’t think Buhari would be
remembered as the president of Northern Nigeria .
Unless the president turns things around, he will be remembered — perhaps
unfairly — as a policy lightweight and the president who could not provide
tomatoes.
Temitope Oriola is a Professor of criminology at the University of
Alberta, Canada .
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