By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have bothered commenting on former President Muhammadu Buhari, the man who, rather than build, spent eight years in power dismantling Nigeria, brick by brick because for me, his voyage into oblivion is good riddance. After Buhari’s eight ruinous years, Nigeria really needed a breath of fresh air.
Whether the new order enthroned last Monday constitutes a refreshing change which Nigerians clamoured for remains to be seen. But no one can possibly be worse than Buhari. But I am intrigued by Buhari’s adversarial disposition to the country that gave it all for him. In his last days in office, he spoke condescendingly about Nigeria, in a manner quite unbecoming of a president.
Speaking last month during the
final Sallah homage to him by residents of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT,
at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Buhari said he “can’t
wait to go home to Daura”. That wouldn’t have been a problem had he not added:
“if they make any noise to disturb me in Daura, I will leave for the Niger
Republic.”
Of course, the noisemakers are Nigerians. Then on May 23, he doubled down
when he, once again, flaunted his filial relationship with his kith and kin in
Niger Republic as a safeguard against any act of retribution from Nigerians
after leaving office. Boasting that he had built a personal cordial
relationship with neighbouring countries, Buhari said: “I try to plan to be as
far away from Abuja as possible. I come from an area which is far away from
Abuja. I said if anybody with force moves, I have good relationship with my
neighbours. Niger people will defend me.”
Then on the eve of the
inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, his successor, Buhari compared fellow
citizens to cows and sheep and indicated his preference for dealing with the
latter. “I am looking forward to tomorrow, May 29, to fly to my base and go
back to my cows and sheep which are much easier to control than fellow
Nigerians.”
As I reflect on the tragedy that
befell Nigeria in the name of a Muhammdu Buhari presidency, the question that
concentrates my mind is this: why does the man despise Nigeria so much? Why is
he so contemptuous of Nigerians? In my estimation, Buhari is the luckiest
Nigerian that ever lived. Here is a man, who, with only smattering education
and no outstanding skills was propelled to position of national leadership
twice in a lifetime.
He became military Head of State
in 1984 and even when he was booted out 20 months later by his colleagues who
believed, and rightly so, that his tenure was a parody of leadership, like a
sphinx, Nigerians pulled him out of Daura 30 years after and transported him to
the presidential villa in Abuja as a democratically elected president. He is
the second Nigerian to be so honoured, the first being Olusegun Obasanjo, who had
the same leadership trajectory.
Both men will go down in history
as the only Nigerians to be so privileged as none of the three living former
military heads of state – Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and
Abdulsalami Abubakar – can achieve that feat. Before he led the coup that
sacked the democratically elected government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari on
December 31, 1983, Buhari was appointed military governor of the defunct
North-Eastern State on August 1, 1975 and on February 3, 1976 when the State was
split into three – Bauchi, Borno and Gongola – he became the first governor of
Borno State.
In 1976, he was appointed the
Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources and when the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was set up in 1977, he was appointed the
chairman, a position he held until 1978. All these were unmerited privileges.
His stint as military head of state was so disastrous that his mortified
colleagues, in an attempt to save the junta from further embarrassment, conspired
and sacked him. Marshalling the reason why they moved against Buhari on August
27, 1985, Brigadier Joshua Nimyel Dogonyaro, in his coup speech accused Buhari
of betraying the trust of Nigerians.
“Fellow countrymen, the
intervention of the military at the end of 1983 was welcomed by the nation with
unprecedented enthusiasm. Nigerians were unified in accepting the intervention
and looked forward hopefully to progressive changes for the better. Almost two
years later, it has become clear that the fulfilment of expectations is not
forthcoming.” It was not forthcoming because the man at the helm had other
plans than developing Nigeria. Dogonyaro accused him of misusing power “to the
detriment of our national aspirations and interest”.
Explaining further, the former commander of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, said: “It is evident that the nation would be endangered with the risk of continuous misdirection. We are presently confronted with that danger. In such a situation, if action can be taken to arrest further damage, it should and must be taken. This is precisely what we have done.” In 20 months, Buhari reduced Nigeria to a hell, literally, and made Nigerians to plumb the depths of misery.
Yet, 30 years after, Nigerians forgave him his iniquities and elected
him president even when he did nothing in the three decades to improve himself
unlike most of his colleagues who went back to School. For instance, after his
overthrow in 1975, Gowon, while in the United Kingdom on exile decided to study
political science at Warwick University.
Buhari never bothered to develop
himself. He boycotted the National Council of State meetings and became
insular. He was busy making incendiary comments, driving ethno-religious wedge
between the peoples of Nigeria. He would either be defending the rights of
Fulani, who are non-Nigerians, to forcefully take over the ancestral homes of
Nigerians or defend the violent dispositions of terrorist groups like Boko
Haram to cause maximum carnage in Nigeria in the name of religion. As Prof
Chidi Odinkalu noted in his column last Sunday: “Thirty years after being
forced out of the military, he had not run a business, nor returned to school,
nor authored a book, nor run a foundation, nor embraced statesmanship.”
Yet, Nigerians handed him the
highest political office in the land on a platter of nothing. But rather than
attenuate whatever grudges he nursed, his animosity increased towards the
indigenous peoples of Nigeria. As Odinkalu aptly noted, on winning the
presidency in 2015, Buhari arrived Aso Rock “accompanied by a long memory
bearing grudges from a lifetime of slight”. The result is that he did not come
to govern and improve the lot of long-suffering Nigerians. He came to take his
pound of flesh from Nigeria and Nigerians. It was a revenge mission.
The result is that eight years
down the road, Buhari left Nigerians in harsh, intolerable conditions.
Outlining the reason for upstaging Shagari on December 31, 1983, Buhari
claimed: “We have become a debtor and beggar nation. There is inadequacy of
food at reasonable prices for our people …, health services are in shambles as
our hospitals are reduced to mere consulting clinics without drugs, water and
equipment.” With malice to all, he left Nigeria in a worse state four decades
later. He must be beside himself with joy in Daura that he got his pound of
flesh and Nigeria is worse for his presidency. May Buhari’s type never come our
way again!
*Amaechi is a commentator on public issues
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