the people who packaged Muhammadu Buhari for sale to the public before the presidential election of 2015 must have been public relations superstars. He wore various attires representing the various tribes of Nigeria and then topped it up with a designer dinner suit and bow-tie, something he neither wore before then nor after that. After the election he returned to wearing his long gown or agbada. That return was symbolic. It meant that eventhough his promoters were telling Nigerians he was ready for change he symbolically told them he was ready to remain his old rigid self. They told us that as a former military leader he was ready, willing and able to smoke out the Boko Haram terrorists who had given President Goodluck Jonathan and Nigerians hell. We believed them. And when Boko Haram was causing mayhem in various parts of the North and Buhari had no answer he lamely told Nigerians “Technically, we have won the war against Boko Haram.” Nigerians then had to learn the new meaning of technically to mean “failure.” And that is a man who told Nigerians at his re-election victory speech that “you shall be able to go to bed knowing that you are safe.” We went to bed without feeling or thinking or knowing that we were safe because we were not safe. The terrorists had become more ferocious, more violent and more daring. Now we are all at their mercy and they are merciless.
When Buhari was sworn in as an elected President many Nigerians thought that having campaigned in all parts of Nigeria four times he knew enough excellent, seasoned and technologically sound Nigerians to appoint immediately into his cabinet. But it took him six months to pick his team and when he did we did not find any new faces that were capable of bringing innovations into a country that needed innovations badly. Those Nigerians who thought that he would hit the ground running because of the positions he had held in the past were disappointed as he hit the ground crawling.
Many people admired Buhari for his simplicity, modesty and his belief in a united Nigeria. Others also believed that he was a man of high integrity who was also principled.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1718806029429-0’); });
As he mounted the saddle these qualities were put to severe test. His admirers were happy that he stopped in their tracks the separatists that had been causing problems in Igboland and Yorubaland in their quest for separate countries.
It was obvious that someone who had fought in the Nigerian civil war to keep Nigeria one was not likely to yield an inch of Nigerian soil to the separatists. That was something to give him credit for.
He has also earned some credit for establishing the railway system in some parts of the country, building roads and bridges and linking them with hitherto inaccessible parts of Nigeria. Of particular importance for people in the Eastern part of the country is the building of the second Niger Bridge to ease the traffic gridlock at the first Niger Bridge.
For the Niger Delta people the long awaited Petroleum Industry Bill which he signed into law in 2021 after two decades of pussy-footing by previous governments was a welcome development. Eventhough only a meagre 3% was approved as community development fund instead of the expected 10%, Buhari deserves some credit for the decision. However, his failure to resolve the Ogoni crisis or to respond positively to the 16-point agenda submitted to him by PANDEF was a source of irritation in the Niger Delta. The only item that he attended to was the University in Delta State.
Another idea for which he deserves credit was the whistle blowing policy which encouraged citizens to expose corruption for some rewards. Corruption was a major item on his agenda and at the end of his tenure the government said that it had prosecuted and got convicted about 600 corrupt people. But his prosecution of corruption was tepid, very tepid, as there were many corrupt people within his government. Infact, his party leader openly said that anyone who wanted to be free from prosecution for corruption should walk over to the ruling party and his sins would be forgiven.
During his inauguration on May 29, 2015 Buhari had said “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.” He did not kill corruption; corruption is still walking on four legs though it has not yet killed Nigeria. But it is doing considerable damage to the psyche and reputation of Nigeria. It is killing Nigeria by installments.
The most devastating policy of his government was perhaps the change of currency approved by him for the Central Bank to execute. It was a savage policy that brought untold hardship to millions of people. On one occasion I went to a bank to withdraw one hundred thousand naira. The supervisor said to me: “Mr Ekpu, we are only paying two thousand naira but as for you, we can pay you three thousand naira.” She thought she was doing me a big favour. I sighed and went away. Several people committed suicide when they could not get money out of the system. Some of them set some banks ablaze. The worst condemnation of that government’s policy on the change of currency was that several Governors of the ruling party led by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Nasir El-Rufai dragged the government and the Central Bank to court. The court ruled in their favour. That is what brought some kind of relief to Nigerians.
Buhari’s human rights record was eminently atrocious. He violently suppressed freedom in the name of law and order and did not care a hoot what the courts said. The cases of Sheik Ibrahim Elzakzaky and the former National Security Adviser, Mr Sambo Dasuki who were detained for years despite the decisions of various courts that ordered their release. The Dasuki case even went up to the ECOWAS Court which ordered that he should be released.
The Buhari government refused to comply. In these two cases Buhari exhibited once again his penchant for tyranny and inflexibility. It is when someone has power that his morality is truly tested. In these two cases among others, Buhari’s morality was tested. He failed the test woefully.
In October 2020 Nigerians assembled at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos and peacefully protested against police brutality. The government sent soldiers to the place of protest who shot, killed and wounded several people. That was another evidence of cruelty exhibited by the Buhari administration, an indication that even in a democracy peaceful protests were banned.
In February 2015, Buhari had a meeting with Nigerians in the United Kingdom. There he made a promise to Nigerians when he said: “We intend to bring back our national carrier, the Nigeria Airways. We shall do this by bringing all the aircraft in the presidential fleet into the Nigeria Airways and within a year increase the fleet to about 20.”
This is one of the most outstanding failed promises made by Buhari. He stayed for eight years without even mentioning it again and a few days to his departure there were noises about bringing the Ethiopian Airline to come and help Nigeria to establish a national carrier. It all ended like a bar room gossip by drunkards.
Today, Nigeria does not have a national carrier. That promise has refused to fly away.
Also for eight solid years the four refineries owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria stayed unoperational. Nigeria, an oil producing country was exporting crude oil but importing petroleum products, what an irony? Buhari did not get the refineries repaired and did not get them sold, and did not build new ones. Nigeria remained at the mercy of shylock marketers who corruptly inflated the prices of the petroleum products astronomically. In such matters he was clearly weak, very weak, an insensitive, a very insensitive leader who for eight years played the laid-back game.
Buhari was accused by some critics of nepotism in his appointments. Some critics also accused him of ethnic and religious irredentism particularly because he failed or refused to rein in Fulani herdsmen who were attacking farmers and destroying their farmlands with their cattle. Instead of seeking to establish ranches for the herdsmen Buhari thought the solution was to discover grazing routes that herdsmen used in the 40s and 50s. He then discovered that was not a viable solution to the problem because these grazing routes had been overtaken by development.
Many people expected that since he came into office on the slogan of change he was going to go for restructuring of the country which would involve devolving power to the states and approving a secondary police system aka State police. He did none of that because he believed in the hegemonic power of the Federal Government. So where was the change? None. His spin doctors, instead, started saying “change begins with you.’ Rubbish. It is rubbish because that was not part of the rhetoric during the campaign.
For a man who was touted as being a nationalist and a patriot you would expect that he would seek to hand-over power to a Southerner. Bola Tinubu who helped him to get elected was interested. His Deputy Professor Yemi Osinbajo was also interested. He ignored both men and went for another Northerner Dr Ahmed Lawan who was then the Senate President. Did his action show that he believes in one Nigeria? Maybe he believed in one Nigeria that would be in the pocket of the north. The good thing is that some wise northern governors opposed the idea. That way what would have been a serious problem for Nigeria was averted.
Buhari’s age and ailments were a source of irritation for him. He was away for medical treatment in the United Kingdom for a total of 225 days. If he knew he wasn’t well, why did he not throw in the towel? The reason is that power is sweet, extremely sweet. His health was a handicap, so was his age.
It is fair to say that in those eight years he must have done his best. But was, his best good enough for Nigeria? My verdict. No.
The post Buhari as elected President: My verdict appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.
