By Paul
Onomuakpokpo
No profound insight
has been offered in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s declaration of
President Muhammadu Buhari as having not passed muster. He only articulated
what has not only been in the public domain but has equally been kept in focus
in the domestic sphere of the president. Of course, we cannot forget so soon
that Aisha, the First Lady, has been warning her husband of the political
misfortune that could trail his re-election bid if he fails to make necessary
amends and rescue his governance style from being a blight on the citizens’
lives. Even in the early days of this government when it was still unvarnished
amid the seeming towering popularity of Buhari and when the whimpers of protest
against his lack of leadership acumen were easily dismissed as emanating from ‘wailers’
who were nostalgic for a dark past of the nation, Mrs. Buhari was already
giving forebodings of the sad end of this administration.
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| *President Buhari and Obasanjo |
Yet, we must appreciate the significance of
Obasanjo’s letter which lies in its ineluctably ominous character. Obasanjo
could be seen as an angel of death or an undertaker whose letters only serve as
the hearse to convey a government that has irredeemably crashed to its grave.
This was the case of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
But of course, not all
Obasanjo’s auguries are expressed through an epistolary medium. They also come
in the form of verbal lacerations that trigger baleful consequences when
ignored. Here we are reminded of Obasanjo’s warnings to Ibrahim Babangida to
give his imported and oppressive Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) a human
face and Sani Abacha who inherited his travestised government. Both ignored him
and they suffered either political or material perdition. And even though
Obasanjo’s bad verses resulted in his incarceration at the hands of Abacha, he
has not relented. This was why Obasanjo also warned Musa Yar’Adua to quit when
he became incapacitated by sickness. But in this case, Yar’Adua’s sickness did
not allow us to know if he would have heeded Obasanjo’s advice. But what
matters now is that his government did not survive the warning.
But we must resist the temptation to endow Obasanjo with clairvoyant powers
that he may not possess. The appropriate riposte if Obasanjo ascribes such
powers to himself is that he should have used them to solve the nation’s
problems when he was at the helm of affairs. Indeed, the eight years he spent
in office would have been enough for him to sow the seeds of enduring democracy
in the country instead of surreptitiously trying to perpetuate himself in
office through an alleged third term agenda that he has consistently denied
being its originator. What we must make allowance for, however, is Obasanjo’s
uncanny ability to appropriately mirror the mood of a critical national epoch.
In essence, Obasanjo has only reminded Buhari that his failures have reached
such an intolerable level that he should not contemplate seeking re-election in
2019.
These failures were not accidental. From the
first day he assumed power as the president, Buhari prepared the ground for his
own dismal performance .We saw this in his failure to name a cabinet about half
a year after being sworn into office. But when the ministers were unveiled
after this long time, they were not the new breed of leaders whom the citizens
expected to serve them in such a manner that their lot would be dramatically
improved. Rather, they are old politicians whom Buhari just recycled because
they supported his election. Ever since then, we have been constantly reminded
that the inability of Buhari to name his ministers timeously is an indication
of failure.
Buhari’s failure has also been seen in his
appointments of officials to various offices. He demonstrated his nepotistic
bent by filling most of the offices with people with whom he shares the same
ethnic or religious affiliations. This is why the nation’s key security
departments are manned by Fulani-Hausa Muslims. It is this composition that
accounts for the deployment of state terror against parts of the country that
do not enjoy the favour of the president. State terror was deployed against
members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) even though it was clear that
they did not pose a real danger to the nation’s existence. After all, the
issues bordering on marginalisation that fuelled their agitations could have
been discussed and peace brokered without resort to state terror. The members
of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria Benue State
The failure is further seen in the
incompetence of Buhari to manage the economy. Since Buhari came to power, the
poverty level has risen. Many people have lost their jobs and lives through
suicide as companies continue to shut down because of the inclement business
environment. Buhari who rode to power on the back of a campaign to rid the
country of corruption has become the breeding ground for corruption. While
fighting political enemies he claims to be corrupt, he has refused to prosecute
his political allies who have been accused of corruption. Even when it is
clearly a national disgrace that some persons who cannot clear themselves of
the corruption charges against them are in the Buhari government, he has been
unwilling to sack and prosecute them.
But the sad irony which projects Buhari as
irredeemable is that he presents his failures as the hallmarks of his stellar
performance. Or why does he consider his inability to quickly make decisions as
a virtue? For Buhari, being branded Baba
Go Slow is an honour he is not willing to give up. But are nations built by
leaders who do not have the presence of mind to take decisions quickly? Are
nations built by the complicit silence of their leaders in the face of
emergencies that threaten to erode their foundations? What is lost to Buhari as
he glories in his slow decision-making capability is that a leader can make
fast decisions with precision. In this regard, the further tragedy is that it
is only Buhari and his supporters who do not know that his slowness in making
decisions has cost the nation so much. Because Buhari is slow, he has failed to
arrive at the best response to the herdsmen’s menace. Because he is slow, he
has not been able to effectively appreciate the relevance of the restructuring
of the country to its cohesion and development.
More importantly, we must look beyond the
hysteria of asking Buhari not to seek re-election. Buhari’s not seeking
re-election is not the ultimate answer to the nation’s questions. Nor does the
solution lie in a third force as Obasanjo has proposed. In this regard, he
should go further to proffer enduring solutions to the problems of the nation.
If Obasanjo were really interested in enduring solutions to the problems of the
country, he would have lent his voice to the call for the replacement of the
nation’s misbegotten constitution with a new one and the restructuring of the
polity. For without this, Obasanjo would not be able to overcome his Sisyphean
affliction of writing letters to bad governments that a corrupt constitution
and an un-restructured polity would nurture. In the long run, his proposed
third force would suffer the same fate that befell his government of eight
years – the inability to deploy good governance to improve the citizens’ lot.
*Dr. Onomuakpokpo is
on the Editorial Board of The Guardian
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