We have not heard the last of comments on the exothermic fumes and political fulminations of General Muhammadu Buhari. Nigerians ought to be thoroughly informed on the attitude and character of this icon and political juggernaut as the 2015 fortuitous date draws near. The editor of the Nigerian Footnote Magazine has taken the analysis of the implications of General Buhari’s unguarded utterances for the election year 2015 to higher redactional levels. Its compulsory reading!!
Temperament influences everything we do. The power and energy underlying leadership is impelled and propelled by the power of temperament.
The choleric thrives on activities. He does not need external stimulation. His high creative instinct stimulates the environment with ideas, vision, plans and programs.
He always knows what he wants from life and his environment. He is hot, quick, self-willed, self- sufficient and exudes overt masculine independence. The choleric finds it easy to make decisions both for himself and for others without delay or vacillation. The choleric temperament type is not petrified by adversity. Infact the choleric tends to flourish more under difficulties and dangers.
General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB), a former military head of state, is in this temperament mould. However it is not easy to categorize his leadership style whether it is exploitative-authoritative or benevolent-authoritative.
It is against these temperament characteristics one attempts to analyze and appraise General Muhammadu Buhari’s (GMB) preemptive campaign strategies towards election 2015. Coming to biometrics this Fulani general was born in December 17, 1942 and enlisted in the Nigerian Army in 1962 at the age of 20. GMB rose to the rank of a major general and after a successful military coup against the nation became the head of state and commander in chief of Nigeria Armed Forces from 31st December, 1983 to August 27th 1985 when his government was overthrown by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida after a successful military coup.
Many Nigerians admired GMB’S vision and mission for Nigeria against the backdrop of Buhari’s high survival instincts that ranked him very high on the score board. The west was however piqued and irked that the democratic government of the scion of the Sokoto Caliphate Alhaji Shehu Shagari was ingloriously terminated and sacked by some coupists viz: Major General, Muhammadu Buhari, Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, Garba Taiwo, Abdulahi Mohammed et al. The west did everything in its power to axphixiate GMB’S military government by placing wholesale embargos on all forms of trade with Nigeria.
GMB’s high survival instinct enabled him to save his head where others were losing theirs. On this account, the trade and economic embargo of the west looked like water poured on a duck’s back as GMB’s power and influence waxed and spread to the Asian Tigers and the middle-East. New counter trade frontiers were opened in the Middle East and Central American States.
It appeared Nigerians had arrived the moment when real development could take place. Nigeria seemed to have arrived the threshold of converting her natural resources to national powers. The inward looking and expenditure switching policies of GMB’s government endeared him to Nigerians and to Africans at home and in the diaspora.
Every Nigerian then agreed that the right calibre of leadership had arrived particularly when compared with leaders in the delinquent and moribund National Party of Nigeria (NPN). The duo of General Buhari and the deceased no-nonsense Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon seemed to be both clear and far-sighted. They were clear-headed about the type of Nigeria they wanted. They put their nose to the grindstone and went hammar and tongues to inaugurate the level of discipline they wanted in the nation. General Buhari and late Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon former Chief of staff supreme headquarters, had zero-tolerance for corruption. They practically embarked on wholesale house-cleaning exercise. To get rid of the extant pervasive corruption in the nation and the bureaucracy, the duo inaugurated the War Against Indiscipline and Corruption machine.
But psephologists and political pundits have been unable to advance explanation(s) for General Muhammadu Buhari’s consistent rejection at the polls in 2003, 2007 and 2011. General Muhammadu Buhari is widely acknowledged as a man of honour and integrity. His tenure as minister, state governor and chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund under General Abacha’s government affirmed this public perception and view. His public perception and rating was so high that GMB ought to have swept the polls in 2007 and 2011, the period when it became obvious that corruption has become the bane of the nation and that GMB was the only leader with the political will to stop it. So why could the general not win? Rigging does not provide all the explanation. There are other causative factors that can be blamed on the general himself such as loss or lack of self control. Self control is a trait of personality the disciplined leader must possess in no small measure.
The USA cleverly hypnotized Nigeria by predicting Nigeria’s disintegration in election year 2015. General Buhari seems poised to actualize this fortuitous American date 2015, a year every patriotic Nigerian ought to deprecate. General Buhari’s image and rating was standing high up there, before it tumbled and crashed to pieces shortly after the unguarded utterances that led to the pervasive killing of Christians and the National Youth Service Corps members in the north after the announcement of presidential election results in April 2011. But his May 14th 2012, violent threat to the life of the entire nation makes every Nigerian feel uncomfortable and insecure. Perhaps the general does not realize that he scares those who would gladly and gratuitously vote for him through his threats and violent utterances.
After his 14th May 2012 violent threats that “the dog and the monkey will be soaked in blood if the 2015 general elections are rigged” the general’s popularity and electoral fortunes dipped further.
One does not need a psephologist or soothsayer to say that the general cannot win any election in Nigeria however validly conducted for the simple reason that he has put the lives of the people at grave risk. Nigerians love peace not war. That’s why they embraced two peaceful religions- the religious are Christianity and Islam. But why would thousands or millions of Nigerians die to enable just one honest and benevolent leader to rule?
Indeed the general is honest. He is a man of integrity. Let it also be conceded that he will have the political will to do the right things. But this is no guarantee that the general will do things right, follow due process and allow for separation of powers. General Buhari is not a democrat. He doesn’t strike me as one who believes in democracy tenets e.g rule of law. He does not pretend to be one.
The General strikes me as a spiritual leader of the faithful. Democratic traits cannot be acquired or cultivated overnight in a great general and leader of the faithful like Muhammadu Buhari.
And since old habits diehard, Nigerians cannot expect the general to unlearn his military traits within the next three years (2012-2015). However, the general can make headway in his ambition to rule Nigeria if, and only if:-
a) He decides to change his military attitude, discard pride, put up a humble disposition and show esprit-de-corps in the management of power relations.
b) He must forth with reorganize his party to enable it to go into fruitful alliance with the medium and the mushroom opposition parties to contend with and give the PDP a good fight come 2015.
c) His party the CPC and allied parties must have visible and proactive presence in the South-East, South-West and South-South. He must avoid needless conflicts and controversies by working hard in all the 36 states and Abuja to sell feasible programs that the people can buy into. General Buhari must avoid the syndrome of “bad winners and bad losers”. He should be a good winner and a good loser.
d) Nigerians need leaders that can develop them, not leaders that dominate them however high, however religious. If the Congress for Progressive Change, the Action Congress of Nigeria, the ALL Peoples Grand Alliance and the Social Democratic Mega Party can come up with a carefully articulated and crafted manifesto on how to develop the people and the nation and device strategies to drive them home to the people, Nigerians are ready to vote out the already delinquent Peoples Democratic Party. This is only possible when a dominant opposition party comes upstream.
Based on the principle of dualism every coin has at least two sides. So far GMB has fared well from our analysis and diagnosis of one side of his behavior characteristics. Let’s examine the other side. Outwardly GMB evinces the taciturn, reticent disposition when not under pressure or provocation.
Yet his critics say this reticent disposition is used to veil his very low boiling point. A leader who can set his house on fire under provocation cannot be an option today.
There has been an allegation of bigotry and tribal irredentism against the general. These were the main, if not the only charges against Buhari before he started showing manifestations of arrogance and intolerance, traits that culminated in his government’s clamp down on the press in 1984. Two Guardian journalists were jailed for simply publishing that “Eight military chiefs had been tipped for ambassadorial jobs and that Haruna was to replace Hannaniya” under a retroactive decree 4, 1984. Whenever election results are released the General is known to seethe with anger. Each time he loses election, he feels like going to war to destroy the very nation he wants to rule!!! GMB could not veil his choleric temperament even in this era of servant-leadership inaugurated by the humble and good natured late president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. GMB has refused to discard his carriage of himself as a maximum ruler. There is a certain air of solipsism about him that makes Nigerians fear that his absolutist predilections may truncate our democracy and divide the nation should he be voted into power. Nigerians don’t want war. They want peace. Nigerians are single-minded in this, a war monger would not be allowed to lead the nation. Yet from Chief Tony Nlemadim’s reaction to a write up by Prof. Femi Ajayi of Babcock University, one gets the impression that one may be pleading before willing bondmen. Chief Tony Nlemadim said that Buhari irrespective of his shortcomings remains the only one with the courage and honesty to put things right. His putting things right includes bringing to justice all those who have stolen our wealth, retrieve such wealth and clamp them into jail to serve as a deterrent to future thieves.
Chief Nlemadim noted that Buhari never said “come rain, come shine, there will be blood shed in 2015. Buhari only sounded a warning to those who have taken it upon themselves to rig and steal the peoples’ votes”. Why should the guilty be afraid of this seeming harmless statement from a man who obviously means well for the country, Chief Nlemadim wondered! Said he, “unless brave men like Buhari come out strongly against this mindless cabal stealing all we have who thereby mortgage the future of our children and country, the evil and bloody day can only be imagined. Somalia will be a child’s play when compared to what will happen in Nigeria”. But it is clear that Chief Nlemadim sees politics as the moral equivalent of war. When we speak like Octavius Caesar who said “if arguing make us sweat, the proof of which shall turn to redder drops” we speak the language of force in what should be a peaceful game like football. Chief Nlemadim contended that nothing was wrong with Buhari’s message. Also, Prof. Femi Ajayi said he had no problem with the message but rather with the messenger. When anyone who reads between the lines appraises General Muhammadu Buhari’s vitriolic effusions and volcanic eruptions one will agree with McLuhan that the medium is the message. So there is need to appraise both the medium and the message.
It had been said before now that it is suicidal for a vulnerable nation like Nigeria to play into the hands of blood thirsty war mongers. Has the nation’s blood not spilled and flowed enough like a river since 1966 when the first Boko Haram saga was unleashed on the nation. That saga culminated in the killing, maiming and destroying the properties of the Ibos resident in the North. The north called for secession (araba) and gave Ibos ultimatum and deadline within which they must leave and return to their native homes. Those who failed to heed the deadline set by these marauders and murderers were smoked out of their homes like bush rats, rounded up, maimed, cut down and killed en masse in cold blood. There is a replay of this ordeal today. Must Nigerians go through this ordeal again after 46years to appease the political ambitions of those born to rule?
The tongue is a very diminutive member of the body. It’s at the same time a listless evil. It can make or mar the nation. What we say to the nation can make or mar the nation. When the tongues of men predict bloodshed their prognostications create instances and circumstances that plod and goad the nation to the blood-bath forecast by the USA. It was the USA that first sowed a dangerous wind in the life and destiny of the Nigerian nation. This American incantation and satanic projection of blood for the dog and the monkey are today only a little less than reality. Our politicians have already cut the bug with a mindset that is ready for war.
Peace cannot be achieved by force. It can only be achieved through mutual understanding. What matters in elections is not the number of innocent Christians the contestant kills directly or by proxy. What matters is the votes the contestant can muster. Killing of innocent Christians cannot make Buhari or any northern leader president.
If General Buhari destroys Nigeria today with his outbursts because Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is the President, there will be no nation for him to rule with iron fist. When he imposed himself on Nigerians between 31st Dec 1983 and 27th August 1985 as commander-In-Chief nobody dared his illegal government. Now he is daring a commander-in-chief validly elected by majority of Nigerians. All Nigerians cannot keep quiet about this. Buhari needs a rethink as a statesman at this time. Every aggrieved Nigerian should know that we are all brothers, all dogs, no baboons. There should be no bloodshed because “dog no dey chop dog”. We want peace.
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