Category: Daily Columns Published on Friday, 25 March 2011 05:00 Written by Aliyu Bala Aliyu myworld_ab@yahoo.com
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For a record third time Muhammadu Buhari will be running for president of the most populous black nation – Nigeria, twice under ANPP, and now on the platform of CPC, a party he formed rather late after the serial betrayals of ANPP. It is unfortunate that apart from the absence of strong institutions of democracy, eleven years after the exit of the military, the Nigerian voter remains as unsophisticated and gullible as he was eleven years back.
Aided by a lopsided pro-south-west press, Buhari has, more than any other politician, been unjustly excoriated. Labelled as a religious bigot, fundamentalist and extremist, Buhari has been portrayed as perhaps the harbinger of the Armageddon upon Nigeria. His critics have left no stone unturned in portraying him in bad light and in a rather moronic fashion. The pioneers of this bad-belle bandwagon of Buhari bashers anchor their vilification of the man on hearsays that are more often than not very far from the truth. An objective and intellectual conversation with such people presents you with no facts to support their positions other than parroting the words of their forebears and benefactors. Such encounters betray a lack of depth and objective analyses and cut across the cadre of the schooled and unschooled, the highly exposed and sophisticated as well as the unrefined apostles of this hate school. But then objectivity and deep-seated sentiment seldom converge except in the minds of a few.
The arguments against a Buhari presidency by these people are varied, but chiefly among them are the twin prongs of rigidity and extremism.
(1) Buhari is too rigid/too strict/too much of a disciplinarian. The argument here being that Buhari as military head of state initiated the War Against Indiscipline and Corruption (WAI-C) was his crime. That Nigerians did not see the necessity of queues in public places as opposed to the jungle mentality of survival of the fittest was his crime; or that Nigerians did not see the harm in openly urinating in public was in their opinion not to be challenged by Buhari! What then do these people think of Fashola's KAI (Kick Against Indiscipline) in Lagos and the queues at BRT bus stations as opposed to the madness and chaos that characterized the molue generation? Or the new Oshodi Vs the old Oshodi? Lagos under Fashola is only reminiscent of what amount of discipline a leader can bring to bear in public psyche and governance. Who would have thought of the possibility of such a radical transformation of Lagos and Lagosians!
Like Buhari himself said during the Presidential debate, Nigeria needs both strong individuals and strong institutions.
I was still a child when Buhari was head of state; but we heard and read about the disciplined orientation that trickled down from the presidency to the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. It is often said that breaking the law then gave the feel that Buhari/Idiagbon was right behind you and would apprehend you.
I got a feel of such societal orientation with Fashola's renewed Lagos. Two women in a danfo bus I boarded were chatting when one of them made to throw away the bottle of a beverage she had just finished consuming through the window. The woman sitting next to her stopped her and said "this is Fashola's regime".
Without protest, the woman dropped the bottle in the bus (obviously one without a dustbin) and, from where I was at the back seat my lips parted in a smile of renewed satisfaction that no new Lagosians were born but a new ideology and orientation was. And it was working.
Under this school of thought, the argument further goes that Buhari jailed corrupt people indiscriminately. While Jerry Rawlings killed their equivalents in Ghana and China still does so till today, the Buhari regime only jailed them. But the question still remains were these persons innocent of the charges of corruption levelled against them? No they weren't. His traducers attempt to extrapolate those incidents within the context of modern day Nigeria and argue that Buhari will jail "everybody" upon becoming President! How ridiculous this argument. Even then as Head of State was Buhari going about jailing innocent people?
(2) Buhari is an extremist: The promoters of this line of argument argue that Buhari as a religious extremist or fundamentalist may not, nay, will not, guarantee the freedom of worship of people of other faiths simply because he is a Muslim and an extreme one at that. But it baffles me to observe that such people are shallow in their ways of thinking and their analysis is jaundiced. How ridiculous to even fathom the thought of Islamizing/Christianizing a multi-religious modern nation state as Nigeria today? What Buhari didn't do, or couldn't do, as military Head of State without challenges would obviously not be possible in a modern day democracy as ours, with a mixed national assembly, civil society groups, armed forces, police, etc and in a globalized membership of the world. Would that in such people's opinion mean the demolition of all churches in the country and extermination of Christians and people of other faiths simply because Buhari is a Muslim? This is pathetic mudslinging.
In the countdown to the April general elections, Nigerians unfortunately think of a Utopia. Although there is a convergence of opinions on the need for a kind of leader who can tackle the problems of Nigeria spot-on; imbued with vision and passion for the country and his fellow countrymen to be able to drive her towards true independence, stability and rapid development, getting a mortal to fit into this description eludes us. We seek a man so devoid of blemish as if we too are devoid of shortcomings; we seek a man whose standing is an inspiration to us and his words a soothing balm for over wounded lives, yet when we set eyes on such men, we look the other way.
Verily angels fit our prototypes best, but then, Angels do not lead men; only humans do.
The options available to us are limited, I agree – Goodluck Jonathan lacks charisma and statesmanlike carriage; holds a PhD but talks in uninspiring and convincing terms. Worse, he appears clueless on how to steer the country in the right direction. This is made worse by a vitiated vice-president whose looks depict the mien of docility and a paucity of the grasp of modern ideas and issues.
Buhari, of all the contestants, presents us with a comportment of seriousness to stamp out corruption and clear the weed impeding our growth and success as a nation. Buhari is a man of his own without many skeletons in his cupboard if at all any that can look any Nigerian in the face today and tell him the plain truth that white remains white and not black. All we need is to set this rudderless ship (Nigeria) aright and in our heart of hearts we know that Buhari is the man with the least blemish among the contenders to do so. He has hands-on experience and will simply hit the ground running. Nigeria is way behind schedule to allow us gamble another four or eight years of careless rigmarole.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said "… the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be? Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice on for the extension of justice?"
Nigeria is truly in dire need of creative extremists like Buhari to right some, if not all, of the anomalies that have bedevilled us for nearly twelve years now, and set us forth on the path of rapid development and restore the lost soul of our dear country. An ex Head – of – State without a house or landed property in Abuja, Dubai London or America, Buhari was former governor of defunct North-Eastern states comprising (six states), petroleum minister and chairman Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) yet neither he nor his wife obtained oil blocks.
No one can deny that under his chairmanship of PTF, Nigerian roads were regularly maintained, schools were equipped with PTF books, tertiary institutions were given PTF buses, which some still have still to date, and hospitals were flush with PTF- supplied drugs and equipment. PTF seemed to have taken the shine away from the ministries then. As minister of petroleum, Buhari presided over the building of most of the nation's refineries, which successive governments after him ran aground; yet his house after all these privileged positions he has held in life, remains a study in humility.
Buhari it was who as head of state said "we have no other country than Nigeria; we must stay here and salvage it together." This is the spirit of a patriot and, like Martin Luther king Jr., came to accept the application of extreme patriotism he was labelled with; I hope Buhari will accept his with dignity and forgiving spirit, for we know as his admirers as do his haters, that nothing of the things of which they accuse him, is for self but for the extreme love for, and pride for Nigeria. Pastor Tunde Bakare, his running mate, complements him perfectly as a no-nonsense man. He earned his stripes dating back to his days in University of Lagos; and in answering the call of theological ministering, he has approached it with a consciousness of modern-day reality – the reality that men of God cannot just talk about salvation, heaven and hell without equally addressing the worldly needs of their followers – employment, housing, good governance, security among other things. It is for this reason that I believe that the combination is best option for the birth of a new Nigeria.
Aliyu from University of Lagos .
http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/columns/thursday-columns/63-daily-columns/daily-columns/43716-the-president-buhari-we-dont-want
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
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