Buhari and 2015 - by Femi Adesina

A most pulsating controversy raged all week on a Nigerian chat site on the Internet, which I followed with keen interest. On Monday, one SOC Okenwa had posted a piece with the title Buhari: When 2015 comes, and it immediately sparked off a stimulating debate.

What did Okenwa say in his article that drew so much response? He began from how the Daura-born general emerged on the national scene in December 1983, after the military overthrew the Shehu Shagari regime, to how Buhari and his deputy, Babatunde Idiagbon embarked on “something of a moral revolution as the war against indiscipline imposed by the jackboot became a national phenomenon embraced by all and sundry,” to how Nigeria suddenly began to work wonderfully well again, “bonding a nation together in unity, discipline and patriotism.”

Okenwa went further to lament how “a Judas within, the fifth columnist, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, then Chief of Army Staff, struck like viper,” and overthrew the government. He chronicled all the ills of the Babaginda regime, down to the inefficiencies of the current Goodluck Jonathan government, and then submitted: “In a nation where scoundrels and charlatans are doing their very best to criminalise the state and corrupt good morals, Gen Buhari stands out tall as an embodiment of probity and personal character. He appears to be the only surviving ‘saviour,’ a ‘messiah’ being acclaimed to step forward and reclaim the stolen soul of the nation.”

Okenwa concluded thus: “When 2015 comes, and a presidential poll holds and the PDP tries to rig themselves into power again, then Gen Buhari’s stark controversial prediction of the dogs and baboons getting soaked in blood should be the last option for Nigerians. May God save us all from reaching that critical point in time when a peaceful revolution would be ignited by the manipulative tendencies of those who see power as their ‘birthrights’ for 60 years and/or beyond. The stinking Augean stable must be cleaned from within – if only for us to reclaim our ailing humanity.”

Okenwa wrote, using the email soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr. Come and see the reactions his piece elicited, both negative and positive. They came in torrents, like water cascading from a burst dam. Buhari loyalists (of which I’m one: Buhari forever) applauded the article to high heavens. They excoriated the Jonathan regime, bewailing and bemoaning its ineptitude, and urged Gen Buhari to run again for president in 2015, when the “dogs and baboons will be soaked in blood,” if PDP rigged the election. And the anti-Buharis? Plenty of them also responded with expletives, curses and maledictions, saying the former head of state was this and that, a religious bigot, a sectional person, and that he would never rule this country again (as if they were God). Okenwa truly stirred the hornet’s nest with his article.

What the exchanges on the Internet showed me was that Buhari is still an issue in Nigerian politics, and may well continue to be as long as God gives him life. Let the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 elections sneeze, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would catch cold.

They fear him like mad. Let Buhari’s shadow just appear, and thieves and treasury looters begin to shake like jelly, and run for cover. Let him utter just a word, and corrupt people develop apoplexy. Buhari, even at 70, is still an issue in Nigerian politics, and there’s no denying that fact.

Is this an endorsement of Gen Buhari for the 2015 presidential race? Not so. We shall cross that bridge when we get to it. Before the 2011 polls, he had said he would not present himself for election again, and he has not formally changed the position. There are pressures and overtures on him, he has indicated that he may change his mind if need be, but he has not officially done so. So, I keep my gunpowder dry.

But one thing is crystal clear now. The wobbling and fumbling of the Jonathan administration makes a lot of Nigerians yearn for true, robust leadership again. And they wonder how it would have been, if for instance, Buhari had been the one that emerged after the 2011 polls. The landscape is suffused with all sorts of financial scandal, with money being stolen in billions and trillions. Remember what Buhari promised during the campaigns last year? Every naira that comes into the treasury will be spent for the good of Nigerians. And you steal a dime, you serve time.

Zero tolerance for corruption in a practical, demonstrable way, not just platitude and shadow chasing. But we missed that glory land. Indiscipline is a typical Nigerian problem. In public life, in private life, everywhere, you see manifestations of indiscipline. And I remember, how Buhari was fast knocking sense into our heads, whipping us into line, before Babangida upturned the applecart in August 1985.

If that regime had lasted for longer, Nigeria would not have been where she is today, perpetually stuck in reverse gear, dangling precariously at the edge of the precipice, stinking to high heavens. Yes, it would have demanded sacrifices, but we would have gladly paid it, and today, we would have a country for ourselves, and for our children, not this decrepit thing we now parade.

Each time a bomb explodes, I ask myself what Buhari would have done. Antagonists even say he sponsors terrorism, and is behind Boko Haram, but they are so unimaginative and can’t go beyond the realm of rumour. Not a shred of evidence. Explode a bomb under a Buhari regime? You’ll pay for it real good. Nigeria sure needs a strong, firm hand. This uncircumcised land needs a circumciser, and as the Yorubas say, you only get circumcised with a lot of peppery sensations and pains. (Tita, riro la n’kola)

And of course, you need a moral leader, a worthy role model who does not love filthy lucre, to take this country out of the woods. Say whatever you may of Buhari, he simply has absolute disdain and contempt for ill-gotten wealth. Imagine a former military governor, a former oil minister, a former head of state, and a former chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, yet he can’t fund his campaign, because there’s no money.

He lives a simple and sedate life, because that’s what his pension can afford. He has no single oil block, no, not even a petrol station, despite having been in charge of the oil industry, and of the country at large. And you say I should not believe such a man? I’ll follow him into battle, even blindfolded (apologies, Col Abubakar Umar). Like I said earlier, this is not an endorsement for Buhari to join the 2015 fray.

I have comments on that, which will come at the right time, if need be. But are you looking for integrity in public office? Buhari would have given you. Do you want a man who would have led by example? Buhari would have been the man. Do you want a patriotic, nationalistic leader as opposed to a sectional one? Remember: “We have no other country we can call our own.

We will stay here and salvage it together.” Do you want strength of character, discipline, and surefootedness in governance? I’ll bet my last kobo on Buhari any day. What a president we never had! And may never have. Poor, poor Nigeria.

But a lot of people fear Buhari. They are the ten percenters, people who love free money, power mongers who can’t survive without the spoils of office. They dub him an ethnic and religious bigot, even without proof, and remain deaf to any explanation. Some others say he refused to campaign in their zones during the 2011 polls, forgetting that they were the ones who shut the door against him, and had even directed their people not to serve as vice presidential candidate to anybody.

And today, the country suffers the consequences. Whether anybody likes it or not, Gen Buhari is that single politician who has the ability to pull the greatest crowd in Nigeria. With God giving him life, he will be crucial in 2015, whether he’s a candidate or not. Those who dread him mortally will then have cause to fear for a long time.