By Paul Onomuakpokpo
Neither
time nor sickness can change President Muhammadu Buhari. He would ever remain parochial
and divisive. This is not just an awful attempt to denigrate Buhari and his
hallowed presidential office. No, this is how he wants Nigerians to see him in
his audio message in Hausa on the occasion of the Eid El-fitr, a feast of
Muslims marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.
If the message had only just enjoyed a surreptitious
circulation on the social media with its accompanying non-complicit anonymity
and without official imprimatur, it would not have provoked outrage. We would
have easily dismissed it as one of the regular affronts to the president by the
corrupt who do not wish him well and who in fact prefer an abrupt termination
of his government so that they can be free to enjoy their loot. After all,
there have been many reports on the social media of the president’s death
following which even the British queen had to condole with Nigerians. But the
message was released by the presidency and rapturously recommended to the
growing horde of the naysayers as an indication that the president is not
incapacitated. Clearly, the presidency has not disowned it. And we do not need
to split hairs over whether the voice was genuinely that of the president. We
accept it is his because the presidency has said so.
But what is clear is that it is either that the handlers
of the president who confronted the public with this message as the
unimpeachable evidence of the president’s good health deliberately set out to
humiliate him before Nigerians or they never reckoned with the baleful
consequences of their action. Either way, the audio message has once again
confirmed the apprehension that we are a people saddled with a president who is
not the right person to manage the complex and combustible affairs of the
present-day Nigeria
and pull it from the brink of splintering.
Buhari has been away from the
country for almost two months for medical treatment in London . This is after just returning from a
medical vacation in London .
He is being treated with the citizens’ money and paid his salaries and
allowances even though he is not doing the job for which he is in office. The
citizens have even overlooked the insult of the presidency’s refusal to tell
them how much this medical sojourn is costing them. Again, the citizens have
been praying for him to get well, return home and resume his duties. They would
have been elated no end when they heard the voice of Buhari as an indication
that their prayers were being answered and that he was not dead. But Buhari
ruptured all the expectations. He did not see the need to acknowledge the
understanding, patience and good wishes of all Nigerians. He chose to rather
address only a segment of the entire population. He failed to appreciate the
fact that the Ramadan was important to both Muslims and non-Muslims as the
two-day holiday that was declared did not disrupt only the economy of the
Muslims; but that of all citizens – and the government.
If the president really wanted to send his good wishes to
Muslims during the Ramadan, he failed to reckon with the fact that not all
Muslims are based in his northern part of the country. There are Muslims in the
south-west, south-east and south-south. These people who are not based in the
north may not understand Hausa. The president should have probably spoken
Arabic which presumably all Muslims who read the Koran in Arabic would
understand.
The president’s faux pas has occurred at a time there are
many national crises threatening the unity of the country. It is a time the
nation has been riven by ethnic mistrust. He should have addressed these
issues. But he demurred and rather limited himself to cautioning against
reckless statements. He did not speak words of assurance that would douse the
tension in the country. In this regard, we must be alert to a greater danger
the nation would have been confronted with if Buhari were in Aso Rock now – he
would just have mismanaged the crises until they snowballed into a graver
conflagration and consumed the nation. He would not have demonstrated the tact
involved in holding consultations with various leaders of the country.
We need to remind ourselves once
again of Buhari’s eternal claim to being a catalyst in the development and
unity of the nation. He tells whoever cares to listen that he would risk his
life again as he did during the civil war to defend the unity of the country.
But the Buhari’s Ramadan message has only exposed the president to be different
from who he claims he is. It has portrayed him as the number one public servant
who is bereft of the broad-mindedness his office requires and is rather
abysmally beholden to the interest of his own narrow section of the country.
Of course, not that there have been any illusions about
Buhari’s parochialism. We only thought that with time, he would realise the
futility of his provincial agenda. With the message he has released, it is
clear that Buhari is by no means remorseful about the lopsided appointments he
has made in favour of his kinsmen. And by this, Buhari has drawn our attention
to the fact that when he returns, he would continue the prosecution of his
agenda of favouritism that hurts people from other parts of the country.
While the audio message in Hausa
has rightly provoked censure from the majority of Nigerians, the Arewa
Consultative Forum and Northern Elders Council have praised it. This is the
more reason the issue of restructuring should be taken more seriously. It would
give Buhari the opportunity to be close to his Hausa-Fulani community that he
can easily communicate with in Hausa during Muslim ceremonies. But as long as
the country remains populated with people of over 350 linguistic backgrounds,
Buhari and his ilk are those who are bent on causing confusion by using Hausa
to communicate to the exclusion of other Nigerians.
What this shows is that those who
want peace in the face of the quit notices and counter-quit notices have not
really considered the issues that would engender enduring peace. Despite the
efforts of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and others to stop hate speeches,
there is no likelihood that they would succeed. For if Buhari can be obsessed
with divisive speeches as he has just demonstrated, then the purging should
start with him. But since it is clear that Buhari and his co-travellers would
not allow themselves to be purged of their parochialism and obsession with
divisive speeches, the best thing is for the country to go for restructuring.
Thankfully, the call for restructuring is gaining traction in the north. It is
no longer only former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who is making the call.
Former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida on Monday joined the call.
Since it is now clear that
Buhari’s intervention in national affairs can only compound the mistrust and
apprehension in the polity, he should consign his interest now to the recovery
of his health. That he created the problems by his divisive governance style is
enough burden to Nigerians he has left at home. He should not aggravate the
crises of the country while he is on medical vacation abroad. If he thinks he
is strong enough to lead, he should return home. Nigerians are by no means
impressed by his straining to prove that he is alive and well.
Dr. Onomuakpokpo is on the Editorial Board of The Guardian
Every nigerian should see and read this plain and eye opening truth. Its like we have been blinded against the truth for long. We just simply need a change. Do you know that most nigerian university workers recieve only 60% of their salary for more than a year now? While someone who has not been to work for 2 months is recieving estacodes for lying. We need a change please
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