Littleman Muhammadu Buhari By E. C. Ejiogu

Posted: October 9, 2011 - 02:41

Muhammadu Buhari

By EC Ejiogu

Time and time again, my good friend Sonala Olumhense (SO) has gone on and on, and on to proclaim and advocate handing back the reins of  political power in the Nigeria project back to confirmed autocrat, Littleman Muhammadu Buhari.  SO’s persistence has been such that anyone who lacks knowledge of his pedigree and antecedent as a decent man, could with reason derived from his self-appointed advocacy role for Buhari interpret his devotion to the cause of bringing the autocrat back to power as the outgrowth of monetary or material inducement.  But one like me who has known SO personally and from close quarters since 1984 when I was a fresh-mint university graduate, can attest that he’s not only simply incorruptible, he’s indeed beyond reproach when it comes to monetary/material inducement for his views and the way he peddles them.
The only problem that I see with SO is that he is roundly dedicated to the Nigeria project.  Elsewhere, he will be called the quintessential patriot.  But when it comes to the Nigeria project, nothing can be more demeaning than calling someone like SO a patriot.  This is in the sense that for reasons that derive from the foundational maladies that afflict it, Nigeria is only fit for what it has represented ever since it was cobbled together by the British, i.e. a den and roost for evil men and women, autocrats, dictators, and the clueless who misrepresent themselves as leaders.
But if I must excuse SO’s on-and-on advocacy for the Littleman as a potential savior of the Nigeria project, the latter’s inclined fixation on returning to power cannot be excused.  His track record is clear indication that he is an evil, sinister, and treacherous character whose sole desire is to perpetuate an obnoxious contraption and use it to hold the Igbo and any other nationality especially from the lower Niger from charting the path of self determination. 
By the way, with all respect due a friend, I must add that SO’s devotion to the Nigeria project as it is presently structured and his conviction that therein lies the redemption of every distinct nationality, which was forced to constitute it could qualify as pathological altruism—“the idea that when ostensibly generous “how can I help you?” behavior is taken to extremes, misapplied or stridently rhapsodized, it can become unhelpful, unproductive and even destructive”.
Which brings me to two core queries that advocates of the Nigeria project have refused to attend to: Where is that voluntary covenant, which binds the distinct nationalities that inhabit the Niger basin in the Nigeria project?  Why then must anyone insist that the nationalities must continue to allow themselves to be entrapped in the Nigeria project even as it is evident that it hinders their progress?  I hope SO doesn’t retort with: For unity’s sake!
SO’s more recent outing was his call on the Littleman to come out of hiding and mount what he believes would amount to much needed opposition to Goodluck Jonathan’s make-believe government.  Well, well-said.  But only if the Nigeria project were a functional state and political economy to boot, and also, if the Littleman himself were a democrat.  Does anyone still remember the ancient philosopher’s mantra that says, ‘a good man lives in a good state’?.  The Littleman man is neither a good man, nor is the Nigeria project a good state.  How then would he be capable of providing an opposition therein?  Who made a gift of a coat to Mr. Toad?  In and by itself, it will be an aberration for an autocrat to provide an opposition.  Even more so, in a contraption like Nigeria that was conceived and brought into existence as a den for the practice of autocratic authority.  Just one more: Since the modern era, has anyone seen where a backward group or clique has mid-wived development or progress in society?  If you’re in doubt, take a look back, and you will see the roadway of history littered with the pathetic sight of decades of  dominance in the project by a backward group, and even some cliques.
Littleman Buhari’s antecedents have shown that he hasn’t deviated from his ancestral pedigree.  His ancestors were autocrats who lived and thrived on the hegemony they erected in the greater upper Niger and relied on to dominate and exploit others.  He was born and socialized in the same autocratic social milieu, which nourished him and he still thrives in it.  It reflects on his public life.  Samplers: Did you know that Buhari was one of the senior army officers who sustained a running complaint to Olusegun Obasanjo in 1980, only a few months after he shooed the former’s kinsman, Shehu Shagari into power in 1979 to the effect that he was funding the Police Force better than the Army?  That same lack of respect and aversion for the tenets and norms of democracy manifested in 1981 when as a division commander he disobeyed legitimate order from his commander in chief and violated an age-old tenet of healthy civil-military relations in society, which stipulates the subordination of the military at all times to civilian control, by launching “a hot pursuit operation into Chad on his own responsibility” in 1983.  He recounted that with pride in a 1993 interview to a newsmagazine.  He later capped his subordination with the overthrow of that hapless cabal headed by Shagari on New Year’s Eve 1983.  Many wouldn’t forget his often-mouthed arrogant slogan throughout his dictatorship that epitomized his disdain for popular will and concern: “I’m not running for re-election”.

He runs for election this time simply because it is roundly impossible for him to author another coup d’état to catapult himself back to the reins of state power in the project.  His legendary desperation and disregard for tolerance became evident again this last time when he resorted to incite his supporters who unleashed mayhem on innocent Youth Corps members mostly from the lower Niger after he was out-rigged by the despicable PDP.
Someone like the Littleman who claims that he is averse to the patronage-clientage system—that, is exactly the other name for what is being called corruption, which afflicts the Nigeria project—that nourished him all his life is yet to account for where he derives the funding that goes into his serial quest to assume state power again.  If he is the democrat that he is being made to resemble, why not join up the on-going popular clamor for a sovereign conference to realize a legitimate state through the restructure of the Nigeria project? 
Buhari’s messianic-tinged support for the perpetual existence of the flawed Nigeria project is his own indictment as evil in perpetuity.  His new-found democratic and anti-corruption claims don’t add up.  They are at best, dubious and fictional.
Let no one misinterpret my serious misgivings about the Littleman as an endorsement of Goodluck Jonathan.  If at all, the two of them are on different sides of the same coin—a counterfeit.
The only thing I see in and about Buhari whenever I look is his unbridled desperation to reclaim state power in the project and use it for what his ancestors did in the upper Niger more than two centuries ago, which he tried his hands at in the period 1983-1985, i.e. to cow and repress with a characteristic recklessness all in the bid to buy additional lease on time and life for the Nigeria project. 
Who would argue reasonably that a Republic of Biafra, which showed exceptional promise in the overall during its short existence, could not have been producing Nobel Prize winners in the requisite realms today, if it had been allowed to survive?  It is heart-breaking therefore that on the Eve of the Nobel awards, someone still thought that a Muhammadu Buhari has any positive role to play in the Nigeria project.  Tukiakwa!
●E. C. Ejiogu, PhD; is a political sociologist.  He is the author of The Roots of Political Instability in Nigeria, published in March by Ashgate Publishing Ltd.