Buhari’s Parting Gift To Nigerians

 By Charles Okoh

Come May 29, 2023, it would have been eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari. It would have been eight trying years or a mixed grill of the good, the bad and the ugly. To say those years have stretched the people to the very limit of their existence which has left many despondent, disillusioned, crestfallen and in a state of near hopelessness would amount to stating the obvious.

*Buhari

What are the facts? It is a fact that Nigerians have been enduring very harsh and debilitating living conditions as of late. Did the problem begin with the present administration? Certainly not, it is the culmination of many years of poor leadership and a continuous downward slide, but it is also sad to note that rather than fashioning a plan to halt this trend it had become a free fall. The government of President Buhari has only helped in exacerbating the nation’s slide into the abyss.

Just as his actions have not helped matters in any way, his inactions at several occasions when the nation needed him to wield the big stick has further paved the way for a multitude of cataclysms on the ragged nation that is barely held together by a strand.

Recently, in an encounter with a source while discussing the escalating cases of killings across the country, the source commended the president for being ever-willing to render support to the armed forces and providing necessary logistics to combat insurgencies, banditry, killings by armed groups, but he was quick to add that the president falls short when it comes to following up to ensure that these supports are truly deployed for that purpose. He said the president is too trusting to the point that he hardly ever questions or doubts the sincerity of his security aides.

By May 29 next year, he would have served a generous two terms given to him by the Nigerian people, the least he can do in appreciation is to bequeath the nation a truly transparent, free and fair elections to determine his successor. That is the only way he can etch his name in the annals of this nation and engrave his legacies and footprints in sands of time.

Will Buhari be prepared to birth a nation where the will of the people will be all and where political office holders would come to terms with the reality that indeed power belongs to the people and that they exercise that power at the pleasure of the people.

He has not only promised so severally but also acted in that line thus far. He on February 24 signed into law the Electoral Amendment Act.  The president signed the bill at the Presidential Villa in the presence of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and other officers.

Before he signed it, the president sought an amendment to the bill by asking the National Assembly to delete Clause 84(12) of the bill. The clause reads, “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

Of course the contentious issues around Clause 84(12), electronic transmission of election results, the mode of primary for all the political parties and the underhand plot by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Federation, Abubakar Malami, cannot take the shine out of that singular act of the president assenting to that bill. The bill had become a subject of back and forth between the legislature and the executive with the ever vigilant and suspecting population of Nigerians watching with keen interests. As they say all’s well that ends well.

So much for acting his words to bequeath the nation an electoral process to be proud of, last week he also reiterated his resolve when he warned those who may be planning to rig the process come 2023 to perish the thought and think of something else.

President Buhari stated this last Thursday at an Iftar dinner with members of the Diplomatic Corps at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He said, “Those planning to rig the forthcoming elections should think twice because I intend to resolutely protect and defend the sacred will of the Nigerian people, to be expressed through the ballot box.”

Also warning against foreign interference in the forthcoming elections, President Buhari said, ‘‘As you are all aware, the tenure of this Administration ends on 29th May, 2023. Typical of election years all over the world, the tempo of political activities is often high. That is the nature of democracy. I am committed to bequeathing a stronger culture of credible elections to Nigeria than I met.”

Again, these words by the president are refreshing to hear. How far can he really go on that promise? The president as the leader of his political party, All Progressives Congress (APC), is faced with the conflicts between party interests and national aspirations. To say the APC he leads has performed abysmally poorly in the last eight years is stating the fact, but will the APC he leads be prepared to relinquish power willingly in the event that the people reject them at the polls?

In 2015, the APC succeeded in unseating a serving president and the world applauded the nation’s first smooth transition from a ruling political party to an opposition, but will the APC too be prepared to reenact that experience in order to grow our democracy or would they want to hang on to power by hook or crook? How far can the president go in ensuring that as he has promised he would ensure that not even his party the APC would escape his hammer?

Growing democracy means allowing the will of the people to prevail. It entails that the desires of the people be respected. It is particularly important now, more than ever before, because it would go a long way to douse the tension across the nation. It would help ease the increasing mutual suspicion between the southern part of the country and the north.

This nation has long gravitated and deviated from its path to nationhood, so much so that the common discussions across the land has consistently questioned the 1914 amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates. Our diversity and population which should have been our strength have now been used to divide and separate us along ethnic and religious lines.

To whom much is given much is expected. President Buhari and perhaps Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, are the biggest beneficiaries of this nation. The President must rise above these mundane considerations by ensuring that the people not only have their say but also their way come May 29 next year when he leaves. Only then can he be considered to have appreciated all that he has benefitted from this nation and has transcended being just a party leader and a politician to the lofty heights of an elder statesman and nationalist.

*Okoh is a commentator on public issues